[rit]

YMMV, depending on country... and how much the hotel cares about Wifi access.

Italy has strong controls related to terrorism, IIRC. The which has meant the last few times I stayed in hotels there you had to hand over your passport for photocopying to be issued Wifi passwords.

France & Germany have been a mixed bag – smaller hotels handed out per-device, per-use passes but a few nicer / chain hotels I stayed at have the standard "Open hotspot, enter your room # and name to bill to room" setup as I'd find here in the States. The UK For the most part has been fairly normalised ala US Style for me.

On the other hand, there are apparently controls over mobile internet access in France, including a (? 48 hour ?) delay in activating prepaid Data, and IIRC your passport also gets entered in the DB. Generally, I'm a prepaid-data-in-country type traveller (I have a bag of about 25 sims from various countries)... France has been a no go for that.

[drzaiusapelord]

I remember having a little fun in Florence with guessing passwords. Think I got on a restaurant or hotel wifi near a tourist spot using "12345678"

If they can't stop me, they ain't stopping dedicated terrorists.

[rit]

I suspect (this is entirely speculation) based on conversations with Hoteliers in Italy before that they find it an onerous, silly requirement.

They simply have to show that anyone they authorized to access their network was logged.

Following the letter of the law, not the spirit, as it were.