Under half of European travellers want a hotel storing their ID, even to speed up check-in

New research from Phocuswright puts a number on something every property running digital check-in eventually runs into. Most European travellers are not comfortable with a travel company keeping their identity documents, even when the payoff is a faster arrival.

The study, Europe's Trust Economy: Confidence as Travel's Newest Competitive Advantage, surveyed 1,554 leisure travellers in the UK, France and Germany.

What the numbers say

Among UK travellers, 45% are comfortable with companies storing ID and travel documents to speed up check-in. For profile and contact details stored to make checkout faster, it is 47%.

Comfort drops when the data is behavioural. Using search, browsing and purchase history for personalisation was acceptable to 37% in the UK, 31% in France and 28% in Germany.

The three markets are not interchangeable. UK travellers are the most willing to let companies store their information, German travellers the most cautious. French travellers reported the lowest trust of the three in each of the top four planning sources, which the research lists as friends and family, travel agents, traveller reviews and YouTube. Only 25% of French travellers said they trust traveller reviews, against 35% in the UK.

On AI, fewer than one in four travellers in any of the three markets completely or mostly trust AI-generated results. The research describes travellers wanting AI to organise options and explain trade-offs while still expecting to verify, compare and override what it suggests.

"Fewer than half of European travellers are comfortable with a travel company storing their ID, even though it's one of the uses they're most comfortable with," said Pete Comeau, managing director at Phocuswright.

His advice to operators: "Ask for data only when the traveller can see what they get back, and show your work when AI makes a recommendation."

What this means at the front desk

Digital check-in, pre-arrival registration and automated ID capture all rest on the guest completing a step before they arrive. These numbers suggest a meaningful share will not, and that the reason is the storage rather than the effort.

That is a different problem from a clunky form. If a guest abandons because they do not want their passport sitting in a vendor's database, redesigning the upload screen does not help. What helps is being specific at the point of asking: what you need, why, how long you keep it, and what the guest gets in return. The research's own framing, asking for data only when the traveller can see the benefit, is the actionable line in it.

Two caveats on the research itself. The sample is leisure travellers in three markets, so it says nothing about corporate guests or about Southern and Eastern Europe, where attitudes may differ. And it is stated comfort, not observed behaviour. Plenty of guests who say they are uncomfortable will still hand over a passport scan when the alternative is queuing.

Where it is genuinely useful is as a counterweight to the assumption that guests want every convenience you can automate for them. For a chunk of them, under half in the most willing of the three markets, the trade is not obviously worth it. The research previews the Phocuswright Conference 2026, running 17 to 19 November in Fort Lauderdale.