Visitors to Spain will face more paperwork as a new law comes into force on Monday requiring hotel owners and car rental companies to send customers’ personal information to the government.
The rules, which also apply to rental properties and campsites, were introduced for national security reasons, but travel experts have raised privacy concerns and warned it could cause check-in delays.
Information required includes passport details, home address and payment method for those aged 14 and over.
The Spanish Federation of Hoteliers and Tourist Accommodations (CEHAT) said it was concerned about the impact on its member businesses and was considering legal action to challenge the rules.
Spain is Europe’s second most popular tourist destination, with more than 82 million tourists in 2023, including 17 million from the UK.
The start date of the new rules, officially known as Royal Decree 933/2021, has been pushed back from October 1 to December 2 to give the industry more time to prepare.
Both tourists and Spanish residents are asked to provide information, which also includes phone numbers, email addresses and the number of travelers.
Businesses need to register with the Home Office, report the data collected every day and keep digital records of the information for three years, and face fines of between 100 and 30,000 euros (£80-25,000) for non-compliance.
Meanwhile, Airbnb told hosts who rent accommodation through its website that they need to register with the Spanish government and collect customer data.
The regulations “are in the general interest of the security of citizens against the threat of terrorism and other serious crimes committed by criminal organizations,” the interior ministry said in a statement.
But hospitality industry body CEHAT said the change “puts the viability of the industry at serious risk”.
Tourists and Spanish citizens alike will have to deal with “complex and cumbersome administrative procedures that will affect their stay,” the statement said.
It added that hoteliers were forced to comply with “confusing and disproportionate regulations” that breached other European directives related to data protection and payment systems.
Travel journalist Simon Calder told the BBC that the Spanish government was worried about organized crime and terrorism and “just wanted to know… who was coming and going, where they were staying and what cars they were renting”.
It is expected that many accommodation and car rental providers will automatically collect data through online registration.
Mr Calder expected there would be “quite a lot of people standing around at reception” when the rules come into effect, but said it was “a very slow season” which would give businesses the opportunity to adapt to the system.
Penelope Bielckus, a travel content creator at Gibraltar-based The Flyaway Girl blog, said the new rules “add another layer of paperwork that can be overwhelming when you just want to relax on vacation.” It will feel like a chore.”
She agreed they “may be slowing down a little bit, especially when it comes to check-in because there’s more paperwork now”.
But she said that while the level of data collection in Spain was “definitely more rigorous than elsewhere”, hotels and car rental companies already collected most of the information travelers needed.
“We’re still waiting to see how this will affect things like last-minute hotel bookings or car rentals,” she added. “Hopefully it won’t cause any major problems, but it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on in case anything changes.”
