State Department Warns Travelers Not to Make This Common Passport Mistake
State Department Warns Travelers Not to Make This Common Passport Mistake
KieferPix/Shutterstock
https://www.fodors.com/world/north-america/usa/experiences/news/state-department-warns-travelers-not-to-make-this-common-passport-mistake
Souvenir passport stamps from places like Machu Picchu and Monaco may seem harmless, but the U.S. State Department warns they can create problems at border crossings.
Passport stamps are quickly becoming a thing of the past in many parts of the world, but the U.S. State Department is warning Americans against adding unofficial stamps or markings to their passports. While consular officials in many countries may overlook novelty stamps, many others consider passports with unofficial stamps to be unacceptable, which will inevitably cause delays at border crossings for passport holders.
The first pages of a U.S. passport include several notices on using the passport. On page five, one of the notices instructs users to only allow authorized immigration or consular officers to place stamps or notes on the blank pages for that purpose. Any writing or markings that are not from a consular official can be viewed as fraudulent. They don’t automatically invalidate a passport (only the U.S. State Department has the authority to do that), but they can raise enough questions to cause difficulties for the holder.
In spite of this, novelty stamps for passports are relatively common. Machu Picchu is one such location famous for a novelty stamp (and for scams involving novelty stamps, such as an expensive drink purchase to qualify).
Monaco was, for years, another destination offering novelty passport stamps at the tourism office (there are no border controls between Monaco and France, the country with which it shares its only border), but nowadays the tourism office will also give souvenir booklets for the stamp if you don’t have a travel journal or other non-official consular document for them to stamp. For the official Monaco stamp, travelers can visit the principality’s town hall in Monte Carlo.
The Cook Islands are another locale with a novelty stamp—this one commemorating a visit to One Foot Island in the lagoon of Aitutaki. This is similarly not an official stamp (the country’s main port of entry and only international airport is on the island of Rarotonga). In neighboring French Polynesia, I’ve seen stamps that look like souvenir passport stamps left sitting out on Air Tahiti ticket counters in small airports, and watched while unwitting passengers have added the stamps to their own passports, but these stamps are for internal documents like receipts, so adding them to a passport will almost certainly draw suspicion (particularly considering they contain the airline’s corporate logo).
Anybody who’s watched a border control official flip quickly through their passport to find an empty page might easily wonder if anybody notices the stamps at all, but it’s worth noting that traveler experiences can vary by country, and policies for border crossings in any country can be fluid and subject to change. While many countries (particularly in the European Union, where border crossings have largely gone digital and automated) have completely done away with passport stamps, there are others that are still reliant on more manual processes. That novelty Antarctica stamp might not get noticed on a visit to Amsterdam, but it might draw more attention at the border checkpoint in Zimbabwe.
There are also countries out there, like Monaco, that will give official passport stamps on request outside of official border crossings. At the cruise port in Belize City, passengers arriving on cruise ships don’t go through any formal border control, but there’s still a border control officer present at the port to provide a passport stamp—an official one—on request.
On some smaller ship cruises—particularly river cruises—staff will collect passports from travelers at the beginning of the voyage and keep them on file to present to border officials during processing checks that don’t require the passenger to be present. There have been times I’ve gotten my passport back from a river cruise front desk with a couple of new country stamps inside—and those are also official.
If you’re really keen on novelty stamps, you can carry your old, expired passport for those, or even a separate travel journal.
This Airline Just Made It a Lot Easier to Get to Spain for the Completion of Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia
Getty Images for Unsplash+
https://www.fodors.com/world/europe/spain/experiences/news/jetblue-launches-boston-barcelona-route-just-in-time-for-sagrada-familias-long-awaited-completion
After 144 years of construction, Barcelona's iconic La Sagrada Familia is finally being completed.
This year, in Barcelona, marks the centenary of Antoni Gaudí’s passing—the architect whose work defines the city. Even more remarkable is that Gaudí’s iconic La Sagrada Família is finally nearing completion after 144 years of construction, a once-in-a-generation moment for visitors. And, as someone who’s been to Barcelona more than once already, I was ready to visit once again.
Like magic, JetBlue’s Boston-Barcelona route is unveiled right on time. If you’ve never attended an inaugural flight celebration, it’s quite the event. The kick-off party offered a taste of Spain with festive décor, light bites, and remarks from the airline’s president right at my departure gate.
This was my first time flying JetBlue Mint, and it did not disappoint. The experience offers the largest lie-flat seats among major U.S. airlines, Tuft & Needle bedding, and restaurant-style dining from acclaimed New York eateries. Seatback menu ordering, wireless charging, curated wellness kits, and free Fly-Fi ensure you arrive in Barcelona genuinely refreshed.
My travels continued with a dual stay at two standout properties from NH Collection Hotels. NH Collection Barcelona Constanza, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rafael Moneo, offered sleek white marble interiors in the city’s modern financial district. And NH Collection Barcelona Gran Hotel Calderón, built on the former site of the Teatro Calderón by architect Josep Rodriguez Lloveras, was conveniently located in the Quadrant d’Or.
There’s always space to simply enjoy in Barcelona—whether in a paella cooking class, a leisurely street art wander through the Gothic Quarter, or cocktails at Paradiso, one of the World’s 50 Best Bars. And, with JetBlue’s new route and NH Collection Hotel’s locations, there’s never been a more compelling time to go.
Hoteliers share where they're getting the best use out of AI
Guest-facing tools already making an impact
From left: Choice Hotels International's Anna Scozzafava and EY's Umar Riaz speak during the "From Systems to Strategy: AI's Expanding Role in Hospitality Investment and Operations" session at the 2026 NYU International Hospitality Investment Forum in New York City. (Bryan Wroten)
https://www.costar.com/article/166907090/hoteliers-share-where-theyre-getting-the-best-use-out-of-ai?
NEW YORK — Artificial intelligence has been hailed as a tool that will fundamentally change the hospitality industry. Experts believe it can serve this purpose through cutting costs, driving revenues, and transforming guest search tendencies.
Umar Riaz, managing director of real estate, hospitality, and construction consulting at EY, said he is working with hotel companies to define a three- to five-year plan that can reduce their costs by 30% to 50% with the aid of AI.
"Really, the big benefit of AI is imagining end-to-end processes using agentic AI," he said during a session at the 2026 NYU International Hospitality Investment Forum.
Richard Valtr, founder of Mews, said this idea of using end-to-end processes will "have a huge impact on the industry." For example, instead of a hotel's property management team, restaurant team and housekeeping team all using different systems, AI can serve as a coordination connector between the teams on the operations side.
Valtr believes the biggest opportunity for AI to make an impact on hotels is with generating revenue. It starts with having better knowledge of the guest upon arrival so front-office workers can offer a more personalized service, such as trip recommendations.
"The hotel itself can actually step out of its own property to actually start to redefine more of a 24-hour, 72-hour journey of that customer, rather than staying in the eight-hour, bed-and-a-bath box," he said.
That shift has already started to occur.
Anna Scozzafava, chief strategy officer and senior vice president of technology at Choice Hotels International, said consumers are starting their searches with AI platforms. This has forced brands such as Choice to home in on their search visibility on AI-generated chatbots.
"You've got to drive the right content, you've got to make sure you're working with the right booking platforms," she said. "If you don't have the infrastructure and the investments already in place, you're going to get left behind."
Hilton built and launched an in-house AI planner on its website in March that is trained on all of its property data, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Michael Leidinger said. Customers can describe to the chatbot what they are looking for in a trip in a particular market and the system can help suggest which Hilton property fits their desires best.
"We have to be deeply engaged with all the big companies — Google, ChatGPT, OpenAI, Anthropic — because there will be no one dominant model amongst those players," he said. "I think the entire distribution landscape is going to be turned on its head in a few years."
AI is having the most impact on day-to-day hotel operations right now, Scozzafava said. Choice has rolled out a suite of AI tools to its franchisees and owners over the past couple of months, and it's already delivered tangible value, she added.
One example of this is a tool that is aimed to reimagine the request-for-proposal process. Scozzafava said it's led to a 30% reduction in response time and a 250-basis-point increase in conversions.
"As we continue down this track and as we learn more, the forecasting, the investment decisions, the data is going to get better and stronger, and you'll see a much more outsized impact in the future on that," she said. "But today, where we're focused, anyway, is really embedding into our franchisee systems, and we have an immediate impact right now."
Hilton has deployed a global messaging solution that can handle the most basic requests from consumers such as inquiries about the time of breakfast at a hotel. That chatbot is handling about 55% of its call center chats and 36% of property-level chats, Leidinger said.
The use of AI to enhance the customer experience is the one area where everyone in the industry is seeing results, Riaz said. The next step is to conceptualize how it will have an effect on the corporate level.
Another AI tool Hilton has been rolling out is one that focuses on managing the life cycle of a hotel from the opening stage through renovations, property-improvement plans and relicensing. Leidinger said 80% of the tool's recommendations for licensing purposes were approved by people reviewing them, while the other 20% were more complex situations that would have required deeper analysis anyway.
"Now imagine we take that capability and extend it across that entire life cycle of a hotel; that is an incredibly powerful tool for both Hilton and others to really simplify how you are operating those hotels and the asset," he said.
In order to justify AI investments, Riaz said hotel companies need to sync the investment to metrics that can show whether the return is a net positive or not.
"There are a lot of pools of value, whether it's cost reduction, whether it's revenue enhancement, customer experience," he said. "You've got to tie it to metrics to justify the investment."
Scozzafava said the investment has to show up in the profit-and-loss statement so there's a clear ROI. The tools also need to be seamless when it comes to pricing and demand generation so the metrics show up.
"From an owner perspective, AI should really be a practical use case, not something [else] that they're actually having to learn ... on top of what they're already doing," she said.
How the demolition of a historic hotel paved the way to a new era of luxury in Munich
The ultra-modern Koenigshof replaces a property that defined the city for 160 years
The Koenigshof, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Munich, reopened in 2024, replacing an existing property on the same site that first opened in the 1860s. (The Koenigshof, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Munich)
https://www.costar.com/article/954725877/how-the-demolition-of-a-historic-hotel-paved-the-way-to-a-new-era-of-luxury-in-munich
A slight name change and a more drastic reimagining of a single property in Munich have ushered in a new era of luxury hospitality in the German city.
When a newly built hotel opened in the heart of Munich in 2024, it was named the Königshof rather than Königshof, which was what the previous hotel on the site was called.
Rabea Moeller, general manager, said the spelling was intentionally changed “to emphasize the hotel’s new international positioning and contemporary identity.” While preserving the original pronunciation and heritage of the name, the use of “oe” instead of “ö,” said Moeller, “makes the brand more globally accessible and digitally friendly, while also reflecting the modern character of the new building and hotel concept.”
The property’s marketing agency wanted to rename the hotel entirely, “but we had brand awareness so we kept the name with the slight spelling change," she said.
The previous building was demolished, Moeller said, “because it no longer met the operational, architectural and spatial requirements of a modern international luxury hotel.”
The original hotel on the site dated back to 1866, when a former private residence became the “Hotel Bellevue.” After World War I, it was renamed “Hotel Königshof.”
The hotel was owned by the Geisel family from 1938 until it was sold for an undisclosed price in 2021 to INKA Karlsplatz GmbH & Co. KG, which is owned by the Inselkammer family, partial owners of Munich’s Augustiner-Bräu brewery.
The hotel reopened in June 2024 as Koenigshof, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Munich. It is affiliated with the Marriott brand while positioning itself as “an individual high-end establishment with a strong local identity and contemporary interpretation of Munich luxury," Moeller said.
The original reaction to the demolition was emotional and, in some cases, critical, because the former hotel had been one of Munich’s best-known venues for decades and was deeply connected to the city’s identity, she said. The property had been a landmark at Stachus — the city’s main square — for generations and was considered part of Munich’s hospitality history.
Many locals associated the hotel with classic, traditional luxury and with the golden era of Munich hospitality. She said the former restaurant in the hotel was also highly regarded internationally and held a Michelin star for many years, making the hotel an important part of Munich’s fine-dining scene.
The criticism mainly came from the fact that such an iconic and familiar building — one that many Munich residents considered a landmark of the city center — was being demolished and replaced with a radically modern architectural concept, Moeller said. The new design by the architectural firm of Nieto Sobejano, with its striking glass facade and central opening, “initially felt very bold and unconventional for Munich,” she said.
However, public perception changed significantly once the new Koenigshof was completed. Many residents of the city, she said, “appreciated that the new building did not try to recreate the past, but instead reflected a contemporary vision of Munich and modern luxury.”
The hotel now represents a more international, lifestyle-driven, and experience-oriented understanding of luxury, whereas the former Königshof stood more for traditional grand hotel elegance. The architecture, gastronomy, and overall concept helped “turn around” many opinions, she said, “because the project brought a fresh, cosmopolitan energy to Stachus while still honoring the heritage of the location.”
Moeller, who was previously general manager of the Munich Mandarin Oriental, said she wrote a “vision book” as the new building was being constructed, and it included a plan of the Koenigshof’s restaurant.
“The city has a lot of Michelin-starred restaurants,” she said, “but I was not looking for that. I wanted a niche outlet that was much livelier, so we have a Latin American restaurant called the Glass Butterfly, whose chef is Peruvian, and that serves the best pisco sour ever.”
According to Moeller, 90% of the restaurant's demand comes from locals “who come to have a good time.”
The Koenigshof has 106 rooms, including 41 suites and little function space because the focus is on leisure, she said. While group business is not a target, there is a showroom called “The View” on the ninth floor with sights over Munich and the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in the Wetterstein Mountains, on clear days. A second room called "Studio" is adjacent to the lobby, offering a setting for up to 12 guests.
On the building’s ground floor, the MitoSphere is a longevity and wellness concept that is independently operated and is not a direct hotel outlet. The Koenigshof cooperates closely with MitoSphere, Moeller said, and offers wellness and longevity experiences for hotel guests, including a dedicated longevity-focused package.
The typical guest from North America will stay in the hotel for two nights before moving on to popular destinations such as Salzburg or Vienna in Austria. There is skiing in the Dolomites in Italy three-and-a-half hour away.
Moeller said business from the U.S. “is strong and important.”
As part of her “vision,” she said the hotel has a rich art collection and will be offering walking tours of the pieces on request.
She said that while the building's dramatic architecture is striking, hospitality is still about what happens within the building.
“Personalized service is what counts," she said. "We are selling emotions.”
She said some staff had been carried over from the old building, but “I developed my own style because you have to build individual stories.”
For instance, every Friday morning, guests can attend a Bavarian breakfast in the kitchen featuring white sausage, sweet mustard, and brezel (German pretzel) as well as Augustiner beer. The breakfast is available upon prior registration and is complimentary for guests.
The hotel has created its own signature Koenigshof tea, served in the setting of the property’s lounges, which are called “The Green” and “The Gold.” The house blend reflects the property’s connection to Bavarian culture and local ingredients, Moeller said.
Guests can enjoy the tea alongside a curated selection of pastries and cakes, including the Koenigshof Cake. That cake is inspired by the historic Prinzregententorte, which holds an important place in Bavarian culinary history.
Moeller sees the Koenigshof’s transformation as part of Munich’s increasingly prominent place as a tourist destination. Oktoberfest — a weeks-long festival of beer and folk traditions — has always been a big draw, and the Königshof has a package that provides a guaranteed restaurant reservation. Christmas markets are also hugely popular.
But now, Munich is growing in popularity among U.S. luxury travelers as a year-round destination because it combines culture, safety, gastronomy, luxury shopping, proximity to the Alps, and easy onward travel within Europe.
Moeller described the difference between the Koenigshof and the Mandarin as "fundamentally different environments.”
What the Mandarin taught her above all, she said, “was the concept of anticipating guests’ needs and the mindset of ultra-luxury hospitality.”
“I can now further refine these principles at the Koenigshof through my own vision and approach,” Moeller said. "Here, I have the opportunity to create truly personal and memorable moments for our guests, moments you cannot buy.”
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