In Reply to: Warning about hotels copying ur passport posted by Mandurahgal on Tuesday, 24. September 2013 at 08:52 Bali Time:
This is fairly normal across the world.
I have travelled extensively across europe, asia, the americas, africa and australia and it is totaLly normal for passport details to be requested.
Sometimes you just fill out a form yourself - sometimes they fill out the form for you - sometimes they copy your passport and sometimes they keep your passport.
When I was backpackering in aus - I filled out the form so often I now know my details off the top of my head.
If someone wants to fly around the world pretending to be me - good luck to them.