Government´s “Big Brother” Hotel Guest Rules Take Effect

December 3, 2024December 3, 2024 Madrid Metropolitan spain news

The Spanish government has introduced new stringent rules for guests staying in hotels and other accommodation platforms such as Airbnb.

The rules which have been dubbed ‘Big Brother rules’ will affect all holidaymakers from abroad as well as Spaniards and came into force yesterday 2nd December.

The Royal Decree requires hotels to gather personal data on tourists – including family information, bank cards and addresses – and hand it over to the authorities. Spanish hotels already ask guests for their ID card or passport details, but the new rules are expected to be the strictest in the EU with up to 31 pieces of personal data collected.

In addition to hotels the new rules apply to tour operators, holiday rental platforms and car hire companies who must share customer data with the tax authorities.

Spain’s interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said the rules were necessary to help tackle organised crime. The Secretaría de Estado de Seguridad (State Secretariat for Security) is concerned about the safety of Spanish citizens. It says: “The greatest attacks on public safety are carried out by both terrorist activity and organised crime, in both cases with a marked transnational character.”

The government says foreigners are involved in “terrorist threats and other very serious crimes committed by criminal organisations”. The authorities wants to keep tabs on who is staying where, and cross-check personal details against databases of “persons of interest”.

Businesses will need to be registered with the Ministry of the Interior, report the data collected daily and keep a digital record of the information for three years and face fines of between €100 and €30,000 for breaches

However the Confederation of Spanish Hoteliers and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT) said it was concerned at the impact on its members’ businesses and was considering legal action to challenge the rules.

In a press statement the hotel industry body said the the change “puts the viability of the sector in serious danger”.

It said both tourists and Spanish citizens will have to deal with “complex and tedious administrative procedures, compromising their accommodation experience”.

It added hoteliers were being are forced to comply with “confusing and disproportionate regulations” that go against other European directives related to data protection and payment systems.

Full name
Gender
Nationality
Passport number
Date of birth
Home address
Landline phone number (if you have one)
Mobile phone number
Email address

Spain is the second most-popular destination for tourists in Europe, with more than 82 million visitors in 2023, including 17m from the UK and the tourist industry generates around 13% of the country´s GDP.