If you’re heading off on your hols to Spain anytime soon, you might want to take note of these changes. From today (December 2), travellers to the European country will need to share more personal information than they did previously.
It’s because of a new law coming into effect which aims to improve Spain’s national security. The law requires accommodation providers and car rental firms to collect more personal information about their customers and share that info with the Spanish government.
So, if you’re travelling to Spain, what info will you need to have to hand?
When checking into any kind of accommodation, whether you’re staying in a holiday rental, a hotel or visiting as part of a package holiday, you’ll need to share your: full name, sex, nationality, passport number, date of birth, home address, landline phone number (if you have one), mobile phone number, email address, the number of people you are travelling with and your relationship, if any of the travellers are under the age of 14.
If you rent a car in Spain, the government will also require access to your driving license, payment information and things like the car’s GPS data, if it’s available.
Spanish residents will also have to provide this info if they stay away or rent a vehicle.
There’s been a lot of chatter about how this change will impact people visiting Spain. Some travellers are concerned about their privacy or potential fines (dw, it’s the responsibility of the accommodation or car rental providers to collect and share this info with the Spanish government, so they’d be subject to any fines if it wasn’t done correctly), but the bottom line is that it won’t impact your stay hugely.
All you have to do is have the information ready to share and maybe be prepared for a little bit more paperwork or a slightly longer check in process.
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