I recently booked a hotel room and they asked for the first name only of the person staying in the room. I was not sure if it was to avoid that other people staying with you.

I booked a hotel room in a country in Central America and they asked for the first name only of the person staying in the room. So, he asked me for the name of the person staying in the room, I said it was "Robert", he was happy with that even if I could have said any name really. I was not sure if I was supposed to give a real name, so I gave my own first name (I made the reservation) and in the end I still had to give him my passport and an ID to make the reservation.<br><br>A couple of weeks ago, I made another reservation in a hotel in Africa and the receptionist was not so happy when I said that I did not know the name of the person staying in the room. I booked the room but I was not the one staying in it. This was not a problem as I was able to have the room anyway.<br><br>So, it got me wondering, when you book a hotel room in a foreign country, are they really able to check if the person staying in the room is not the one staying in the room?