New Tourist Data Collection Rules for Spain?

[anonymous-user]

Rather hoping to skip the political discussions on this that have been done to death on social media, the rules are what they are and I'm already booked to go next year.

What I can't figure out is whether there is any requirement/option to submit this data before you fly or they just collect it 'in person' when you arrive? Done some google-fu this morning but still none the wiser. Can't even see anything about it on our own dear government's foreign office travel page!

[C70GT]

We have an apartment in Portugal and let it via Airbnb. We have to submit similar info - although not as intrusive as Spain's requirement - to the Portuguese Immigration Service. We collect the info before guests arrive - as this guarantees we have the info and avoid the potential 10,000 euro fine for non-compliance. Also, guests have less to worry about on arrival as all the admin has been completed and they can relax on holiday. We find the system works well and doesn't cause any issues. Different accommodation operators may have different systems, but we find ours works for us and the guests.

[pitlane]

I spend an awful lot of time in Spain for work, and have done for many years. Hotels there have taken this information for ages, they may now have to process it further but I don't see it affecting the customer, time taken to copy every passport and fill out a contact form is nothing new. They take it on check in, most you can upload before if you want to but it's not a requirement and they will still need to see your physical passport, so I never bother.

[anonymous-user]

pitlane said:

I spend an awful lot of time in Spain for work, and have done for many years. Hotels there have taken this information for ages, they may now have to process it further but I don't see it affecting the customer, time taken to copy every passport and fill out a contact form is nothing new. They take it on check in, most you can upload before if you want to but it's not a requirement and they will still need to see your physical passport, so I never bother.

I don't have a major issue with them recording the data, like you say every hotel I've stayed outside of the UK for years has my passport details and address already. I was just wondering if there is any option to fill it in beforehand to save time. Lets just hope the implementation is fully bottomed out before high season in 2025.

[Guyr]

I don't get the fuss, I've been asked to do this in almost every country I've visited in the last year and it didn't cause a problem. Filling a short form with address and handing over a passport at Hotel check-in is pretty much a standard routine everywhere.

[anonymous-user]

Guyr said:

I don't get the fuss, I've been asked to do this in almost every country I've visited in the last year and it didn't cause a problem. Filling a short form with address and handing over a passport at Hotel check-in is pretty much a standard routine everywhere.

Having had to do an ESTA and a visa for China in the last 18 months, I don't have any issue with doing it. I just wondered if they were trying to capture the data at point of entry in Spain and whether I could do it in advance (as per ESTA) to save time.

[captain_cynic]

Spain as part of the Shenzhen zone so is supposed to be covered by EITAS whenever that gets finished, at the border.

This is just a way of forcing the data collection into the responsibility of the accomodation provider (meaning the govt doesn't have to pay to run it).

Hardly unusual, lots of countries do it that way.

I went to Spain in Nov, the totality of it was just answering six questions over WhatsApp. Name, nationality, country of residence, passport/ID no. So on and so forth. As it was an online check in, I didn't see anyone from the hotel for my entire stay.