Is it customary for hotels in Vietnam to keep one's passport until one checks out of the hotel?

Question

I've been to Hanoi recently and the hotel staff demanded to keep our passports until we check out. Of course, we insisted on getting our passports back right away.

Answer 1

I don't think so. As I know Hotel can't keep our passport.

Its better you change to another hotel.

Answer 2

sounds bunk. you need that passport at all times. we did need to let the hotel get copies of our passports while i was in china.

Answer 3

when you are in another country never ever give your passport to any one to keep. there is several reasons for this. one, they could copy your identity, second they might not give them back, third, they could have taken you and you wouldn't have identity to show who you were. your passport is your ticket to come home.

Answer 4

It's not a Vietnamese custom. It's the law in Vietnam.

Hotels in Vietnam are supposed to report who their visitors are upon request from the local police. Hotel managers and staff are accustomed to holding I.D. cards of their Vietnamese guests and Vietnamese guests are accustomed to surrender their I.D. cards to the hotel's front desk for the duration of their stay. However, that does not mean you have to surrender your passport. As others have already said, NEVER surrender your passport to the hotel that you're staying at no matter what they say. So, what do you do when they ask for your I.D.?

I always carry several color copies of my passport with me, and I give a copy to the hotel during my stay. I have done this at dozens of hotels that I've stayed at in Vietnam with no problem except for just one time. My response was showing the front desk manager my middle finger, told him that this is all the I.D. he's going to see and started walking out of the hotel. Subsequently, the hotel manager apologized numerous times and discounted my room by 100,000 VND.

Another crazy Vietnamese law is sharing the same hotel room with someone of the opposite s*x. It is against the law to share a hotel room with someone of the opposite s*x unless you provide the hotel your marriage license. My wife and I ran into this issue in Da Nang, which became my wife's turn to show her middle finger to the front desk manager.

Answer 5

No way.  I would never stay somewhere like that.