Cyprus-Forum.com

[GorillaGal]

As many of you know, i am planning a trip to CY next month. I read on Yahoo Travel a review about the place i am staying at, and the guest said the hotel made them surrender their passport for the duration of thier stay. this makes me a little uneasy. is that legal?
Here in the USA, that would never happen. all you need is a valid credit card, no need for any sort of ID when you check into, or out of, a hotel.

[Nikitas]

The hotel keeping your passport is fairly ordinary European wide practice. Happens on cruise ships too. If you make enough fuss it can be returned to you.

[Tim Drayton]

I wouldn't find this acceptable.
Why not enquire with the Cyprus Tourism Organisation whether hotels are legally entitled to retain your passport?
Their web site:
http://www.visitcyprus.org.cy/

[twinkle]

Make a photocopy before you go and let them hold that. You could always argue the Data Protection Law..

[juliesewell]

Most Cypriot hotels keep your passport for the 1st 24 hours (usually just for a few hours or till next morning, depending on your arrival time) as I believe your details are recorded for Tourism purposes. Or, the hotel will ask you to complete a registration form with your passport number, issue details etc...

It's not necessary to hold onto your passport for any other reason.

You could always check directly with the hotel you will be staying at, to see what their policy is.

[Bill]

I have to agree with Nikitas it is a common European practice .

Many years ago ( before the EU) you would also have to fill in a police questionnaire too ~~ in fact it was quite strange to sit down to dinner and see the police with our passports obviously in their hand reading the slip of paper with my details on and looking you up and down ~ what exactly they achieved doing that I don't know.

France and all of the Eastern block countries seemed the worst

I've never heard of it being done in Cyprus though.

I've just recently spent a few weeks in Italy ~ mainly to visit old friends and the rest of the time was spent touring around the country.

We stayed in a lot of hotels mostly 4 star and they all except one asked for my passport ~ the only exception was a 5 star hotel right in the deep south of the country and they only required a scan of my credit card .

Although I didn't give up my passport I did leave with them my Cyprus ID card and they seemed reasonably happy with that.

As I mentioned I've never heard of it being done in Cyprus so I would check with the CTO as to whether the information you found is indeed true.

Bill

[Acorn]

On our many trips to self catering hotel apartments in Cyprus and the Greek Islands the hotels have always kept our passports for the first day.
I find no problem with this as all The greeks I have ever met are very trustworthy and honest.
May be different with the bigger hotels and immigrant workers.

[humanist]

GG when I was there two weeks ago. One of the hotels kept the passport for the duration of our stay there, the other hotels photocopied or wrote down the documents number.

[GorillaGal]

thanks everyone for your input. i have never heard of this practice before, and i guess being a New Yorker, i am a little suspicious. i have traveled outside of the USA before, but never had to surrender my passport before, i find it an odd practice, but since you all agree it "ain't no big thing," i'm not going to make a fuss over it.....or worry about it any more!

[Kikapu]

thanks everyone for your input. i have never heard of this practice before, and i guess being a New Yorker, i am a little suspicious. i have traveled outside of the USA before, but never had to surrender my passport before, i find it an odd practice, but since you all agree it "ain't no big thing," i'm not going to make a fuss over it.....or worry about it any more!

GG,

When I was in Cyprus (RoC) this year with my girlfriend for 2 weeks, we had in total stayed in 5 different hotels, and aside from asking for our passport at the initial check-in, our passports were returned to us immediately. All our hotels were pre-booked with a credit card in advance so there was no need for them to keep our passports as "hostage" to make sure we paid our bills before departing. Personally, I would not agree to leave my most valuable document with anyone, including any trusted hotels and I have never been asked to leave my passport in any of the countries I have ever traveled in. What the hell for.?? This is your ID. What if you needed emergency help from your embassy in a foreign land and you needed your passport for proof, but some person at the hotel misplaced it. What if they can't find your passport as you are on your way to the airport to catch a flight home. What if you needed to get some money from the bank and needed your passport and so on. NO NO NO, keep it on your person or at a safe at the hotel, but I would not hand it over to anyone for any length of time. It is non of their business to keep your passport after they have checked you into the hotel. As someone suggested, make several good copies of your passport before leaving the USA and give the hotel a copy if they need one, but keep your passport with you. The last thing you need at the times we live in with terrorism, is for you to try and explain to the American Embassy that the hotel has lost your passport. They will make you repeat the same questions over and over again, just to make sure you are telling the truth and that you did not pass it on to someone else in some kind of funny business, if you know what I mean.