July 30, 2025, 8:25 am | Read time: 4 minutes
In many hotels abroad, guests are asked to show their ID at check-in. While some receptionists simply copy it, others want to keep the document for the duration of the stay. Read why you should never agree to hand over your passport at a hotel below.
After a long journey, most hotel guests are relieved to finally get to their room. In that situation, few question whether they should really hand over their passport and other documents at the hotel reception. If they did, the answer would be clear: no!
For one, it is always recommended—especially abroad—to carry an identification document with you. If your ID is in the hotel, you can’t present it if you’re involved in an accident, for example. There are other reasons against leaving your passport at the hotel.
The Data Could Be Misused
With your personal or travel ID, you reveal sensitive data that random receptionists don’t need to know. You can’t rule out the possibility of data misuse. The same risk exists if you leave your ID at bike rentals, car rentals, and similar places.
In fact, it’s not just careless to hand over your passport—it’s actually not even permissible to demand it. “Hotels have no right to retain an ID or passport,” explains Dustin Fischer, legal advisor at the Hotel Association Germany (IHA). Even making a copy is only allowed if the guest has given permission, meaning they were asked beforehand. The copy must be clearly and permanently recognizable as such.
Why Are Guests Often Asked for Their ID at Hotels?
TRAVELBOOK spoke with Adi Schwarz, revenue manager at the hotel group Goldenberg Hotels, who has worked for various establishments in Frankfurt and Karlsruhe. “In Germany, there is a registration requirement,” he explains. “This means that every guest must fill out a registration form.” It must include the arrival and departure dates and additional personal information—first and last name, date of birth, nationality, and private address—which the guest must confirm with a signature on the document. The registration form must be kept for one year according to current law and then destroyed.
Many guests are reluctant to fill out a lengthy form at check-in. This is confirmed by a survey of 280 business travelers conducted by the travel management company “American Express Global Business Travel,” which found what visitors to German hotels find particularly annoying. Sixty percent of participants found the registration process “tedious.” Schwarz considers it possible that some employees want to avoid conflict with impatient guests by obtaining the data from the ID. This measure is not legal. A fact that should be known to anyone involved in the hotel industry.
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Identity Must Be Confirmed
The responsibility for ensuring that a guest is indeed the person they claim to be lies with the reception staff. It’s important to be able to reach the guest after their departure and hold them accountable if hotel property is damaged or stolen. Schwarz himself has rarely had reason to doubt the identity of guests who have checked in with him. Shady individuals who occasionally ended up at one of his former workplaces near the Frankfurt train station were asked to show their ID.
What About Foreign Hotel Guests?
The situation is somewhat different here. As Dustin Fischer from the IHA explains, hotels are even required to record the serial number of the identity document on the registration form for foreign guests. This is mandated by the Federal Registration Act. “A copy of the document is also not standardized,” he admits. “It is sufficient to match the number entered on the registration form with the one on the original document.”