A hotel can ask to see your passport and write down what the law requires. Keeping the booklet, or a stored copy, is a different question. UK hotel-records rules call for a written register, not custody of the passport. Passport Office guidance treats a hold over an unpaid bill as illegal confiscation. You should still leave with the passport.
- Let the desk read the details it needs while you wait, then take the passport back.
- In the UK, a full photocopy is not what the hotel-records order asks for. Ask why a smaller record will not do.
- A British passport is not security for the bill. Passport Office guidance says it has to be returned.
- Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and Greece do not share one rule. Registration is common. Keeping the booklet is not.
- If you are told the room depends on handing the passport over for the whole stay, that is not the same as refusing to give your name and nationality.
Can a UK hotel keep your passport?
No UK rule found in the hotel-records legislation gives a hotel the power to keep your passport for the stay. The Immigration (Hotel Records) Order 1972 makes the hotel record information. It does not say the hotel may hold the booklet.
For a British passport, the position on an unpaid bill is clearer. HM Passport Office guidance, updated on 13 March 2026, tells staff that confiscation by hotel staff because of non-payment is an example of illegal confiscation. Third parties cannot hold a passport in bond, meaning keep it until money owed is paid, unless that is for law enforcement or the prevention of crime. The passport remains the property of HM Government, and the guidance says it must be returned.
If you have asked for it back and the hotel deliberately refuses, the civil claim is not the same in every part of the UK. In England and Wales, and under the matching 1977 Act in Northern Ireland, that refusal can be conversion: the hotel is holding the passport against the person entitled to have it there and then. Demand and refusal are the usual evidence. Do not call conversion a UK-wide rule. It is not the name of the claim in Scotland. Scottish courts can hear a claim for the return of moveable property. A search on 28 September 2026 did not find a reported case about a hotel refusing to hand a passport back, so this guide does not name a Scottish claim.
Keeping the passport is not automatically theft. Theft needs dishonesty and an intention to deprive you of it permanently. A row at reception is not, by itself, that offence.
| What the desk wants | What you can say |
|---|---|
| A look at the passport, so the register can be filled in | Yes, while you are standing there. The UK order is about the details, not about taking the booklet away. |
| Your name and nationality, and for some guests the passport number and where it was issued | That is the written register. The hotel has to keep those details for at least 12 months and show them to the police or an authorised officer. |
| A photocopy or a scan of the whole page | The order does not require an image. Ask what the copy is for, and why the register fields are not enough. |
| The booklet held until checkout, or until the bill is paid | Ask for it back. Passport Office guidance treats a hold over non-payment as illegal confiscation of a British passport. |
What does a UK hotel have to write down?
For every guest aged 16 or over, the hotel has to require your full name and nationality when you arrive, and it has to keep a written record of the arrival date and that information for at least 12 months. The record has to be open to a police constable or a person authorised by the Secretary of State. The order itself creates no offence and no power to retain the booklet. Failing, without a reasonable excuse, to comply with the record-keeping order is a summary offence under section 26(1)(f) of the Immigration Act 1971. That offence sits on the hotel that does not keep the register. It is not a guest offence for refusing a photocopy.
Some guests also have to give the number and place of issue of a passport, a certificate of registration, or another document that shows both identity and nationality, plus the next destination and, if known, the full address there, on or before they leave. The order uses the legal word alien for that group. After the British Nationality Act 1981, that means a person who is not a Commonwealth citizen, not a British protected person, and not an Irish citizen. VisitBritain's shorter line, guests who are not British, Irish or Commonwealth nationals, leaves British protected persons out, so it is slightly narrower than the Act.
Which document a UK hotel may ask to see is a separate question, covered in Do You Need ID to Check Into a UK Hotel? A national identity card that itself shows identity and nationality can meet the extra field. An ordinary UK photocard driving licence was not found to count as proof of nationality for this order, so do not treat it as a guaranteed substitute when nationality has to be shown. A photo on your phone, a loose photocopy, or a digital immigration status is not something you can rely on as a substitute for that field.
Can the desk take a photocopy or a scan?
The 1972 order requires the written fields, not a stored image of the passport. A full copy is extra personal information. Information Commissioner's Office guidance says that if the same purpose can reasonably be achieved with less information, the lawful basis does not cover the fuller processing. A scanner the hotel has chosen, which always takes the whole page, does not make that copy necessary.
Fraud prevention can be a real purpose. The hotel still has to show why the whole image is needed, rather than looking at the passport or writing down the statutory fields. Ask for the purpose, the lawful basis, and why a smaller record will not do. There is no list, in the sources checked for this guide, of purposes that automatically allow a stored scan. The 12-month minimum is for the register. It is not a 12-month permission to keep a photograph of the passport.
You can take the details you need while I am here. Please return the passport when you have finished. If you want a copy, tell me what it is for and how long you will keep it.
Can refusing a copy cost you the room?
The hotel-records order does not give the hotel a power to cancel a room because you have supplied the required information and then refused a full passport image, or a long hold of the booklet. For a booking you already have, cancellation needs its own basis in the contract. CMA guidance on fair contract terms says a term is unlikely to be fair if it lets the business cancel without a valid reason or reasonable notice, or for a minor slip by the customer.
That is not a promise that every hotel must still give you the room. A check-in condition that was clearly set out, and is otherwise lawful, can be a different case, especially if you have not yet been given the room. Refusing an unnecessary copy is not the same as refusing to give the details the register requires. Do not tell the desk that the law guarantees the room, and do not assume that saying no to a scan is a reason for the hotel to treat you as if you refused to register.
This is not a UK-wide lawsuit in one sentence. Conversion is the civil claim to use in England, Wales and Northern Ireland when the hotel will not return the passport after you have asked. It is not the Scottish label, and a refusal is not automatically a crime. If you are abroad, what the local police and the British consular service can do depends on that country's law. The 24-hour FCDO number is +44 (0)20 7008 5000. If you are in immediate danger, or you believe the passport has been stolen, contact the local emergency services.
What changes in Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and Greece?
There is no Europe-wide permission for a hotel to keep the booklet. Registration with the authorities is common. Custody of the passport is a separate question, and the five countries UK travellers use most do not answer it the same way.
Spain's Interior Ministry still presents its traveller-registration system as in use. Foreign Office advice for Spain says accommodation may register your passport details or take a copy, and it tells you to wait and not leave the passport at reception. It does not say you must carry the original on you at every moment. The European Commission opened infringement case INFR(2026)4005 on 4 June 2026, a letter of formal notice about how much traveller data Spain collects and how long it is kept. That letter does not suspend the system, and sources checked on 28 September 2026 showed no later reasoned opinion, court referral or final decision. It also does not decide whether the hotel may keep the physical passport. The Spanish copy question is set out in Do Hotels in Spain Keep Your Passport?
France's official business service describes a police form for foreign guests. No national power to keep the original turned up in the official material retained for this guide. You do not have to carry the original at all times: accepted identity documents include a passport, a photocard driving licence or other government documentation, either there and then or within four hours at a police station.
In Italy, Foreign Office advice says hotels must register passport details with the police. Do not leave the passport to be collected later, and a photocopy should be returned or destroyed. You are told to carry photo ID at all times. If you are stopped while driving, police will normally ask for the full passport.
Portugal's official accommodation FAQ says a private hotel may hold the identity document for a short time only if you agree. You should provide photo ID if the police ask, and carrying ID is mandatory when you are driving. The advice does not say a British tourist on foot must always carry the original passport.
Greece can require you to present lawful proof of identity. A 2025 tourism regulation, read from the published text of Ministerial Decision 4109/2025, lets the provider refuse the rental if you refuse to present that proof, and it says you sign the registration forms the existing law already prescribes when you arrive. It does not require a passport photocopy. On 24 June 2026 the Hellenic Data Protection Authority, protocol 2885, told tourist accommodation not to take or keep photocopies or photographs of passports and other identity documents, because no specific and clear law requires it. That is a regulator's recommendation, not a new criminal statute.
Greek police pages describe an arrival card kept for three months and a guest book, or electronic dossier, kept for ten years, and they say police may ask for a copy of that registration card. Those periods are written for guests who are nationals of an EU country. Do not treat them as the rule for a British tourist. No Greek source reviewed for this guide gives reception a general right to keep the physical passport. Foreign Office advice for Greece says you should always carry the passport, because police may not accept a copy. A check-in machine that reads selected fields and then deletes the picture is not defined in that June 2026 recommendation, so this guide does not call every electronic read banned, and it does not call that kind of scan approved.
What should you do if they will not give it back?
Ask them to finish the register while you wait, and to hand the passport back as soon as those details are written down. If the answer is still no, ask for the duty manager and for the written policy or the law they are relying on. Write down the time, the name of the person, and exactly what they say they are keeping it for.
In the UK, a hold until the bill is paid is the situation Passport Office guidance already calls illegal confiscation of a British passport. Say that you are asking for the document back, and keep a note of the refusal. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland that refusal is the usual evidence for a conversion claim. In Scotland, ask a court about return of the property rather than using the English name for the claim.
Abroad, finish the lawful registration and take the booklet with you. Greece is the clearest of these five on carrying it afterwards: police may want the original, not a copy. If the hotel will not return a British passport, the FCDO can be reached on +44 (0)20 7008 5000, and what it can do depends on the local law. A crime, or an immediate danger, is a matter for the local police. A border fingerprint system, such as the EU Entry/Exit System, is a frontier check. It is not a reason for the hotel to keep your passport overnight.
