to be annoyed Premier Inn wants my passport details

[DorothyL]

and my "next destination" because I'm not a UK citizen.
My next destination is home ffs - another town in the UK. I'm a UK resident and taxpayer. Why do they insist on this, other hotels don't?

The hotel has no need to know her nationality (except for market research purposes).

If you RTFT you will see that they do have a need to know the OP's nationality and passport number in order to comply with their legal obligations.

"The OP's not staying "abroad" though. She's paying for a UK hotel using a UK card registered to a UK address. The hotel has no need to know her nationality (except for market research purposes)."

Wrong. OP is telling the hotel she is not a UK National when booking the room by filling in the nationality nix with her true nationality. Therefore she is announcing that she is staying 'abroad'. The hotel has no way of knowing the address is the OPs usual place if residence and not a correspondence address whilst staying in the UK.

And the hotel has every reason to know her nationality. It's called the law, as has been stated and evidenced upthread.

Happened to me at the Inverness Premier Inn Dorothy a few years ago. Didn't have a passport with me because I had only driven up that morning from the small West coast town where I have lived for more than a decade. I have never been asked for ID when I stay at a PI in Glasgow which is where I usually have a passport with me because I will be on my way to or from the airport.
I thought I had to sneak into a room with one of my colleagues but the check in woman relented when I said "I even voted in the fecking referendum".

Dorothy you are right, it depends where your home country is.

When I lived abroad I was living in a non EU country, so to prove residence I had to show my visa, which was in my passport. This may not be relevant to you of course.

Bring on the ID cards, I say. No, don't. I had to produce mine to buy a box of paracetemol from the local pharmacy this week. You can't change your address with the bank here without them having proof that you have changed it with the Gemeente (local Council) first. I have to make sure I have the ID card with me even when out for a walk.

We were asked by the Belgian police doing the home visit how the UK controlled the populace without ID cards...we just smiled, whilst thinking that the UK isn't a police state.

Dorothy you are right, it depends where your home country is.

When I lived abroad I was living in a non EU country, so to prove residence I had to show my visa, which was in my passport. This may not be relevant to you of course.

Not really my area, but I would think that the Immigration Hotel Records Order 1972 is very likely to be incompatible with EU law. If that is the case, those hotels that don't ask EU nationals for their passports aren't acting unlawfully at all.

However, while UK public authorities generally can't discriminate against other EU nationals, this doesn't apply to private businesses in quite the same way. I'm fairly sure that Premier Inn is perfectly entitled to ask for whatever type of ID from whoever they like (even if it doesn't make much sense in this case).

I do get why the OP is a bit miffed, though. The current climate around Brexit, all this 'hostile environment' shit and the many xenophobes who feel validated by the referendum result are making many EU- (and non-EU) citizens feel unwelcome and possibly a bit thin-skinned, too.

I’m a resident of The Netherlands but I’m not a citizen (Brexit will probably change that) and I am required by law, like all other Dutch people to carry ID. I carry my residents permit to prove I am a resident otherwise how would they know I was one because as a non national my passport doesn’t include my ID number. The U.K. doesn’t have a residents permit or an identity card systems, which makes identifying your residents status a lot harder.

I think the difference between the U.K. and lots of other European countries, is that the residency requirements are a lot more transparent. Many people living in the UK are now finding out that officially as non citizens they are subject to residency rules that were never enforced back in the day but now are (Windrush generation, long term EU residents etc).

The truth is OP, you have benefitted from the lax residency rules of the past and European Union rules. However through Brexit, you are no longer being afforded that luxury.

All I say is, get used to it but you have the advantage that most Brits don’t have, the right to live elsewhere if the U.K. no longer floats your boat. As angry as I was (still am) about Brexit, as a long term resident of The Netherlands I am in a better position post Brexit than I would have been without being officially being recognised as a resident.

YABU, it's nothing to do with your nationality, but the hotels security. I've had this same thing happen in many bigger hotels. I'm English born & bred & have only ever owned a UK passport.

I can understand you getting a bit paranoid though, given the current political climate of Brexit etc & I feel for you in that, I'm often ashamed of where we as a country have gone lately, but this is nothing to do with that

It's not standard. I don't live in the UK, and I have a couple of nationalities, but I "look" British, for want of a better way of putting it, I sound British and I have never been asked for my passport.

I went to Paris for work last week, and was asked for my passport there. It's nothing to do with Brexit! We haven't even Brexited yet!

It's the official policy of "Hostile Environment" introduced by May when she was Home Secretary, and it's destined to get much worse. The rules have been laxer in the past but now things are being ratcheted up almost weekly.

I don't think the anti-immigration mob realise that those most likely to get pissed off with it all and leave first are the better educated and better qualified - the doctors, teachers, vets, etc. that they rely upon. It's also going to get interesting when they realise that there are things called Schengen Visas, International Driving Permits, Boarding Cards, etc. and these things will cost money/time, require applications to be made, and will impact UK citizens travelling post-Brexit

Anyone got an Irish grandmother I could borrow?

As if you genuinely care about this. How overdramatic. You’re not British. They’re asking for proof of ID. Get over it

It's the official policy of "Hostile Environment" introduced by May when she was Home Secretary, and it's destined to get much worse. The rules have been laxer in the past but now things are being ratcheted up almost weekly.

But this law was introduced in 1972. It is not a product of the current climate.

If you RTFT you will see that they do have a need to know the OP's nationality and passport number in order to comply with their legal obligations.

She's not trying to rent a flat or open a bank account. If the OP just tells the hotel that she is British she won't even be questioned. If she's asked for a passport - she left it at home.

At Premier Inn you pay for everything upfront including the room and they will have her card details anyway. They literally won't care whether she is really British or not (especially as it is highly likely that the check in staff will not be Uk nationals either).

She's not trying to rent a flat or open a bank account. If the OP just tells the hotel that she is British she won't even be questioned.

It's still a legal requirement and I don't think it's responsible to suggest people break the law just because you don't know why the law was created and when you don't what would happen in the (presumably unlikely) event that someone finds out that the law has been broken.

I've stayed in many hotels. At pretty much all of them I have been asked to fill in a registration card asking nationality. If you are not British, Irish or a Commonwealth citizen you have to produce your passport or ID card.

It's not standard. I don't live in the UK, and I have a couple of nationalities, but I "look" British, for want of a better way of putting it, I sound British and I have never been asked for my passport.

Are you a Commonwealth citizen Scattered?

It's still a legal requirement and I don't think it's responsible to suggest people break the law

The hotel may be obliged to ask for the information, but I doubt it is a criminal offence not to provide it. The onus here is on the hotel. If they truly cared about verifying guests' nationalities they would inspect everyone's passport including those who claimed to be UK citizens. Which they don't, because I spend a fair bit of my life in premier inns and have never been asked for ID.

It would not be a criminal offence not to supply it. However it would be a criminal offence for the hotel to then allow someone they knew to be a non Brithish/Irish/Commonwealth citizen to stay. It would also presumably be an offence to declare the incorrect nationality.

The hotel may be obliged to ask for the information, but I doubt it is a criminal offence not to provide it.

I don't practice immigration law but I am pretty certain that there will be something saying that you cannot lie about your immigration status! And as I say, it's massively irresponsible to suggest that people lie about their immigration status just to avoid filling out a form when you do not understand the potential consequences.

Immigrant with Indefinite Leave to Remain, here:

I stay in hotels about 3 weeks out of the month, all over the UK. I have only been asked for passport 2x. Once at an Ibis in London and when I said that I lived in Leeds, she just said OK. Once at a Motel One in Edinburgh. I said that I lived in Leeds and she asked if I were a citizen. I said that I lived here, don't travel with my passport domestically and offered to show my driving license. She then pushed the issue and I gave her grief for making assumptions about someone because they have an accent.

She backed down.

In future, just say that you're a citizen. If you have a UK address, they'll leave it alone.

Either way - it's the hotels' problem.

They can't check that guests are British because in the UK there is no obligation to carry photo ID and many people don't even have a passport. So if you pitch up at a hotel speaking English but without a passport to prove it, and especially if you are paying with a UK bank card, it's never going to be a problem.

It's different in continental Europe because usually photo ID must be carried at all times, so hotels do sometimes ask for ID and it is reasonable for them to expect guests to provide it (though in my experience providing a passport is far from routine, as long as you are paying by card).

don't live in the UK, and I have a couple of nationalities, but I "look" British, for want of a better way of putting it, I sound British and I have never been asked for my passport.

Well it's got nothing to do with 'looking' or sounding British, OP ticked a box during ONLINE check in.

White British, often staying in hotels in the UK, often had to show my passport the first time of staying. They photocopy it! I don't mind. I know who I am, I don't mind if they know, too.