I’m new to booking hotels. I know I’ll need my ID for a hotel to verify my name matches my credit card, but is it also normal for them to scan the ID?
I’d like to know if I can request that they not do that.
Yes and they will probably not let you check in if you refuse. You do not have any right to, legally speaking, and still be entitled to service, and they will want it for liability reasons.
I travel very frequently and have never had a hotel in the U.S. ask to scan my ID. They do ask to see my ID to verify I’m the person who made the reservation and this is of course completely reasonable.
The only time I have had my ID scanned is when traveling internationally. A couple hotels scanned my passport as part of the check in process. Even then, this has happened to me maybe a hand full of times out of many, many trips and again never in the U.S.
One tip I came across from Michael Bazzell is that using the hotel app to e-check in can allow you to skip an ID check.
Is this a better option?
Then the app would have your data
That’s the tradeoff.
There is no way to get a hotel anonymously. Well, at least no hotel you would actually want to stay in.
They will probably still want to loosely verify your identity (student ID, debit card, etc), even at a sketchy one. I’m speaking from experience after losing my ID while traveling. Showing up with a wad of cash and an alias isn’t likely to go well at any hotel.
If you have a car, I think sleeping in it or a campground is better than a low tier hotel anyway. There’s less exposure to bedbugs, mold, and the like. This can be done with no ID easily. I also often would pick sleeping in airport over the free hotel offered by an airline.
I’m pretty sure I’ve never had my ID scan either.
Maybe it depends on the hotels?