Spanish hotels to collect more personal data from tourists from today

Starting today, tourists arriving in Spain will have to provide more personal data to authorities.

Information requested will include home address and their relationship to children travelling in the same party.

Data will be collected by hotels, holiday rentals, campsites, travel agencies and car rental companies.

Spanish officials say the increased checks, part of a royal decree, are part of a wider crackdown on organised crime.

However, hotels have been protesting the introduction of the rules saying it will negatively impact the visitor experience.

What extra data will tourists in Spain have to provide?

From 2 December, hotels and other tourism operators will have to collect and report over 40 pieces of information for accommodation bookings and over 60 for car rental bookings.

They are already required to send the full name, email address and passport or ID number of guests to authorities within 24 hours.

New information includes payment details, home address, phone numbers, the number of guests in a party and family relationship details.

The data will then be uploaded onto a platform which will be monitored by Spanish security forces.

The new measures apply to mainland Spain and its islands, including the Balearics and the Canary Islands.

Businesses which do not comply face fines of up to €30,000.

Spanish hotels protest new data collection rules

Hoteliers have been calling for the new decree to be dismissed or watered down.

CEHAT, Spain’s leading hotel association, succeeded in postponing its introduction, which was originally slated for January 2023.

But other than that, the group says they have received no communication from the authorities or offers of solutions.

“We have been requesting dialogue and concrete proposals for months to guarantee legal security and the viability of the sector, but we have not received any response,” Jorge Marichal, president of CEHAT, said in a press release.

ADVERTISEMENT

CEHAT has now said it is considering legal action due to the “negative impact that this regulation will have on the hotel sector and travellers themselves”.

“Given this lack of political will, we are forced to propose legal avenues to protect both business owners and travellers,” added Marichal.

How will the new rules impact travellers?

CEHAT says the new regulations will mean more complex and tedious administrative procedures, compromising visitors’ accommodation experience.

Travel agencies have said the procedures will impinge on people’s privacy and add a bureaucratic burden they cannot afford.

ADVERTISEMENT

This may increase working hours and, as a consequence, push up prices for travellers.

The European Travel Agents’ and Tour Operators’ Associations (ECTAA) and Spanish travel agency group ACAVE have warned about “severe repercussions for the European tourism market and the protection of travellers’ personal data”.

How does this differ from other EU countries?

In other EU countries, hotels and other forms of accommodation are also required to check guests’ passports or IDs.

In several countries, including Croatia, Italy and Germany, information including names, contact details and ID numbers must be reported to authorities.

ADVERTISEMENT