Spanish Travellers Reports - Spanish hoteliers are warning tourists, including the British of the “chaos” that could be caused here in Spain with a new obligatory registration of travellers, a regulation that could be in place from October 1st, whereby anyone in Spain who rents out accommodation or hires cars to tourists will have to fill in a traveller's report. (Spanish Included)
These reports will require details not available on normal forms of identification ie a passport, and the new information will include things such as payment methods, bank details, email addresses, telephone numbers etc, and the transmission of this data through a platform designed by the Ministry of the Interior.
Spanish tour operators, state it will be “impossible” to comply with due to the requirements demanded, it could also cause loss of sensitive information for travellers.
The Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT) state that this new requirement is going to cause chaos as hoteliers just will not be able to cope with this additional workload at reception, CEHAT also points out that more than 70% of accommodation companies are small businesses and don't have adequate cybersecurity protection to protect their guests data and many of the smaller establishments do not even have a reception, yet there is also the threat of large fines and sanctions to all those who do not act under new parameters.
Spanish Travellers Reports
This was first announced on October 27th, 2021, when a Royal Decree was published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) which established documentary registration and information obligations for natural or legal persons carrying out accommodation and motor vehicle rental rentals, this has been postponed twice, they were initially delayed until November 2nd, 2023 and then to October 1st, 2024, due to protests from companies, allowing the submission to be made through the traditional electronic system."
The website set up to input data was inefficient and it was impossible to comply with the requirements. "Tour operators pointed out that this platform had proven to be very inefficient"
CEHAT state "For hoteliers, it is impossible to collect and certify the authenticity of some of these data, which would cause organisational chaos at receptions to the detriment of users and flagrantly contravening the data minimisation rules of European directives and their protection."
CEHAT have requested a new meeting with the Secretary of State or the Minister of the Interior and assures that it is currently working at a legal level to prevent its application of this Royal Decree on October 1st, so far they have received no response. For this reason, they assure that they have set their legal services in motion to prevent its application.
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