This Monday, December 2, the application of Royal Decree 933/2021, which establishes the documentary registration and information obligations of individuals or legal entities that carry out lodging and motor vehicle rental activities and which provides for fines of up to 30,000 euros for non-compliers, comes into force. This new measure has been the subject of constant criticism from the lodging sector and travel agencies, denouncing the high bureaucratic burdenThe new measure has been constantly criticized by the accommodation sector and travel agencies, which have denounced the high bureaucratic burden, the loss of competitiveness and the possible violation of travelers’ privacy. However, the Ministry of the Interior assures that the whole process of elaboration and approval of the decree has respected the principle of transparency and efficiency, having counted on the participation of the addressees and the objectives of the regulation being clearly defined both in the preamble of the norm and in the memory, without “unnecessary or accessory administrative burdens being included”. Finally, the affected companies will be obliged to provide the corresponding data on the Ses.Hospedajes platform, which has been available since 2022 and in which 61,540 hotel establishments, 1,994 travel agencies, 222 digital platforms, 1,720 motor vehicle rental companies have already been registered. Adding all these companies together, a total of 4.77 million user data linked to these companies have been registered.
Increasing safety
The department headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska has emphasized the current security situation, stating that the greatest attacks on citizens are being carried out both by terrorist activity and organized crime, both of which have a marked transnational character. “In both cases, the modus operandi of the criminals is especially relevant in the logistics of accommodation and the acquisition or use of motor vehicles, the contracting of which is nowadays carried out by an infinite number of means, including telematics, which provides greater privacy in these transactions”, he explained in this regard. Therefore, for Interior, the current regulation is “obsolete” and “useless” because, for example, the rule of registration in lodging is 65 years old (Decree 1513/1959). This fact means leaving out of its scope of application the new types of lodging activities, such as short-stay tourist homes operated by companies or individuals through registration in portals or reservation centers through digital media or Internet. In this sense, this total of almost 4.8 million data has made it possible to locate 18,584 people who were in national or international databases, in line with the main purpose of the decree, which is to improve public safety, according to the Interior.
