Are hotels and motels allowed to keep guests' ID cards?

According to the 2014 Law on Citizen Identification, Citizen Identification Card (CCCD) is basic information about the background and identity of a citizen. Identity is a unique and stable external characteristic of a person to distinguish one person from another.

According to current regulations (Article 44 of Decree 96/2016), when guests come to rest, motels and hotels (referred to as accommodation establishments) are responsible for the following: Checking the identity documents of guests, including one of the following types of documents: Identity card; Citizen identification; Passport; Permanent residence card or Temporary residence card (for foreigners); types of documents with photos issued by Vietnamese state management agencies.

When a guest does not have identification documents, after being assigned to a room, he/she must immediately notify the police of the commune, ward, town or the police station managing the area.

Record all guest information in the management book (or enter all information into the computer) before allowing guests to enter the room.

Checking the guest's identification means asking the guest to present his/her identification (e.g. CCCD). From there, the accommodation facility records the guest's full information in the guest book so that it can be compared and checked when needed. The accommodation facility is not allowed to keep the guest's CCCD.

The 2017 Law on Tourism and documents guiding the implementation of the Law on Tourism do not have regulations related to CCCD.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism does not issue or approve specific management regulations or rules for each hotel, and does not interfere with civil agreements between guests and tourist accommodation establishments. All activities of tourist accommodation establishments, tourists, and guests staying at tourist accommodation establishments must comply with current laws.

Regarding temporary detention of CCCD, according to the provisions of Article 28 of the 2014 CCCD Law, CCCD cards are temporarily detained in the following cases:

- People who are serving a decision to be sent to a reformatory school, compulsory education facility, or compulsory drug rehabilitation facility;

- People being detained, imprisoned, serving prison sentences.

During the period of temporary detention of the CCCD card, the citizen is allowed by the agency temporarily holding the CCCD card to use his/her CCCD card to conduct transactions in accordance with the provisions of law.

Citizens will have their CCCD cards returned after the temporary detention period, after serving their prison sentence, after serving the decision to send them to a reformatory school, compulsory education facility, or compulsory drug rehabilitation facility.

The authority to revoke and temporarily detain CCCD cards is stipulated as follows:

- The competent CCCD management agency has the authority to revoke the CCCD card in case a citizen is deprived of his/her nationality, loses Vietnamese nationality or has the decision to grant Vietnamese nationality revoked.

- The agency executing the order of temporary detention, temporary imprisonment, the agency executing the prison sentence, the decision to send to a reformatory school, compulsory education facility, or compulsory drug rehabilitation facility has the authority to temporarily detain the CCCD card in the above cases of temporary detention.

Minh Hoa (t/h)

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