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📢 Spain, excessive data collection!

Data Subject Rights, Retention & Minimisation, Legal basis | 08/07/2025

📢 Do you work in the hotel industry 🇪🇸? Is your privacy policy really up to date?

👁️ If you go to a hotel in Spain 🇪🇸 Expect to fill in a form with 40 fields to collect your personal data!

🇪🇸🇪🇸 Why do Spanish hotels collect so much personal data? 🇪🇸🇪🇸

We've gone from 12 → +40 fields with Real Decreto 933/2021(end 2024)

👮🔑 Legal obligation
Any hotel, tourist accommodation or vehicle rental company must:

1.Check the identity of the traveller.
2.Collect personal data.
3.Send them to the police via the Hospedajes / SIRHUS platform.

🕰️ Before (Order INT/1922/2003)
~12 fields: surname, first name, gender, date & place of birth, nationality, passport/ID number, dates of arrival & departure, signature.

🚀 Since – RD 933/2021(end 2024)
40 fields grouped in two blocks:

🗂️ Identity & Contact

💳 Transaction & Stay

• Full postal address
• E-mail & phone
• Second nationality
• Tax residence
• Marital status
• Child/guardian relationship

• Payment method
• Account / card number
• Nightly rate
• Guest vehicle plate
• Booking channel
• Details of companions
• Invoice ref.

 🚨 The protest of professionals

The ACAVe, UNAV, FETAVE federations denounce a collection of ‘40 minimum data’ deemed disproportionate.

⚖️ The European Commission has opened an investigation: is RD 933/2021 GDPR-compliant?

🔍 GDPR check – Key non-compliance issues

📌 GDPR Principle

Issue

Data minimisation (Art. 5-1-c)

Highly personal items (card data, kinship, licence plate) have no clear link with police identification.

Information duty (Art. 13)

Privacy notices rarely updated: guests aren’t told about 40 data points, retention periods or their rights.

Transparency & purpose (Art. 5-1-a/b)

Fields like booking cost or sales channel mix fiscal/marketing aims with public-security aims—no explanation given.

 

💡 What’s next? Brussels’ verdict, possible decree revision, and a race for hotel chains to rewrite their traveller information sheets.

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