Comment by mk_stjames

Travel to Spain and they will not give you a room key until they can take your passport and make a scan of it, often times on an old flatbed print/scanner combo, that they print out a copy on paper to staple to their copy of the invoice and put god knows where. It's been like that for about 6-8 years. No more showing up and paying cash for a hotel room.

You can try to say no, but I don't think you can anymore. I go through this a dozen times a year on my travels there.

This is Spain.