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TOURISM

Is it legal for hotels and Airbnb owners in Italy to take a photo or scan your ID?

Hotels and B&Bs in Italy usually ask guests to provide a passport or ID card when checking in. But can they actually take a photo or scan them?

A closeup shot of a hotel room key
A closeup shot of a hotel room key. Photo by Fernando Santander on Unsplash

If you’ve ever stayed at hotels or Airbnbs in Italy, you will be aware that receptionists and hosts usually ask either for your passport or another type of ID card when you check in to your accommodation. 

If you’re wondering why this is done, there is a legal requirement for accommodation owners in Italy – from hotels to B&Bs to holiday homes – to collect their guests’ details (usually full name, date of birth, nationality and passport or ID card number).

It is practically impossible to stay in any sort of Italian accommodation without presenting a valid form of ID. 

Article 109 of Italy’s Single Text of Public Safety Laws (TULPS) states that the “managers of hotel businesses and other reception structures […] can provide accommodation exclusively to people with an ID card or other document proving their identity”.

The article also specifies that the collected data must be sent to the relevant local police authorities within 24 hours of the guests’ arrival.

Any host or hotel manager who breaches the requirement faces up to three months in jail and a fine of 206 Euros per violation.

READ ALSO: What is Italy’s ‘tourist tax’ and where do you need to pay it?

But while accommodation establishments in Italy are actually obliged by law to collect their guests’ details, is it legal for receptionists or hosts to do so by scanning or photocopying your ID?

Though this is as legitimate a question as a guest could ever ask – after all, passport or national ID cards contain information that, if in the wrong hands, could be used for phishing scams or identity fraud – Italian law doesn’t address it directly.

However, Article 109 states that displaying your passport or other ID document is “enough” for the accommodation establishment to gather your data.

This means that hotel managers or hosts are not actually legally authorised to make copies or take photos of your identity documents. 

In other words, a guest is not required to have their ID document photocopied, scanned or captured in any other way as their only requirement is to show the document and allow the accommodation manager to note its details.

What can I do to protect my data?

Scanning or photocopying ID documents is something that many accommodation structures around Italy do just to avoid keeping guests waiting as they note down their personal data.

But there are several steps you can take in order to avoid that.

If you’re checking in in person and your hotel asks to photocopy or scan your ID card, you can remind them that this isn’t actually a legal requirement and ask them to just note down the relevant data instead.

If you’re doing a self-check-in and your accommodation provider is asking for a photo of your ID, you can give them the necessary details instead of an actual photo. Remember to only submit your data via secure platforms and check that the web page has a padlock symbol or green bar to indicate it’s secure.

If you are asked to send a photo of your ID by an apartment host via WhatsApp or text message you can either send them the information that’s necessary or arrange a quick in-person meeting for the host to collect the details.

As a final note, if you’ve discovered that your accommodation website or messaging service has been hacked, it’s important to report the incident to the local police so that they’re aware that someone else could be using your identity.

Member comments

  1. Tried to book tickets online for Scrovegni Chapel and they make you jump through hoops to purchase the ticket. They require heaps of personal information, date of birth, where you are born, etc. as well as passport number. I refused to purchase the tickets, as I am concerned about their site being hacked. Why is so much information required to purchase two tickets to a chapel?

  2. I rent out a holiday apartment and generally take a photo of guests’ IDs, so I can hand them back immediately and don’t waste their time on arrival, as noting down all the information (e.g. for 8 people) required not only for the police, but also for the regional tourist statistics data bank would take quite a bit of time. Noone has minded up to now.

  3. I find this article a trifle paranoid. Hotels (and Airbnb hosts) take photos or scans as a time-saving courtesy to their guests; otherwise, the guests must wait for the hotel clerk or host to write down all the passport data, which can take a lot of time when it’s a large family or group checking in. There are many Internet-related privacy and phishing threats to be alert about, but I truly don’t think this is one of them.

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SARDINIA

Italy fines Brazilian influencer over trip to restricted pink beach

A Brazilian social media influencer was fined €1,800 on Thursday after posting a video of her visit to a protected pink sand beach on an uninhabited island off Sardinia.

Italy fines Brazilian influencer over trip to restricted pink beach

The pink sand beach on Budelli, in a protected marine park within the archipelego of La Maddalena, has been off-limits to visitors for more than 30 years under rules designed to protect its fragile ecosystem.

Despite the rules, an influencer known as Rogéria, who is reportedly famous for posting videos of her trips to hard-to-reach, exotic places, visited the restricted beach to film it for her 35,000 followers on social media.

But photos and videos published following her trip sparked fury among environmental campaigners, as well as Sardinian residents, many of whom said they had never visited the beach themselves due to the ban.

Officers from Sardinia’s coastguard were able to identify the location and the influencer’s boat based on the video footage, reported Italian media on Thursday.

READ ALSO: Did you know…? You can be fined €3,000 for taking sand from Sardinia’s beaches

Police tracked down the influencer in Dubai, where she is based, and handed her a €300 fine for disembarking on the protected beach, plus a €1,500 fine for sailing on a catamaran without authorisation to enter the waters of the La Maddalena national park.

The island has been uninhabited since 2021, when its sole occupant, elderly Mauro Morandi, was evicted following a decades-long dispute over his right to live there.

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