Regional differences
Why Catalonia and the Basque Country are different
Two of Spain's seventeen autonomous communities do not report guest data to SES.Hospedajes. The obligation is the same everywhere — the destination is not.
The duty is national. The destination is not.
Royal Decree 933/2021 applies across the whole of Spain. Every operator of tourist accommodation must collect a defined set of traveller data and transmit it to the authorities. Nothing about that changes depending on where your property sits.
What changes is who receives it. In fifteen autonomous communities, plus Ceuta and Melilla, that means SES.Hospedajes, the national platform run by the Ministerio del Interior since 2 December 2024. In Catalonia and the Basque Country it does not.
Both of those communities have their own autonomous police force with ordinary competence for citizen security in their territory — the Mossos d'Esquadra in Catalonia, the Ertzaintza in the Basque Country. Each runs its own traveller-registration platform, and each pre-dates the national system. Catalonia's dates from 2010, the Basque Country's current order from 2022.
This catches people out constantly, usually in the same direction: an owner reads that SES.Hospedajes is mandatory nationwide, registers on it, and assumes they are compliant. If the property is in Barcelona, Girona or Bilbao, they are not.
Catalonia
Mossos d'Esquadra- System
- Registre de viatgers d'establiments d'hostalatge
- Legal basis
- ORDRE IRP/418/2010, de 5 d'agost (DOGC 5693)
- Deadline
- Within 24 hours of the start of each guest's stay
- Retention
- Three years, produced on request
Applies to all lodging establishments in Catalonia — hotels, rural houses, campsites and tourist-use dwellings alike. Submission is online only.
Official Mossos d'Esquadra portalBasque Country
Ertzaintza- System
- Registro hostelero
- Legal basis
- Orden de 25 de noviembre de 2022 (BOPV 235), replacing the 2012 order
- Deadline
- As set out in the regional order
- Retention
- Three years
The order's own preamble cites Royal Decree 933/2021 and Article 17 of the Basque Statute of Autonomy — the state duty exists, and the Ertzaintza is the force that receives it.
Official Ertzaintza portalOne thing worth getting straight
It is not correct to say that Royal Decree 933/2021 does not apply in Catalonia or the Basque Country. It does. The decree states that it applies across the national territory and contains no carve-out for either community. What differs is the channel — the obligation is discharged to the regional police force through their platform rather than to SES.Hospedajes. If anyone tells you a property in Catalonia has no guest-registration duty at all, they are wrong, and the fines are real.
What Villa Check In can and cannot do
What we can do
- Issue your digital certificate. We are an approved certificate authority and the process is entirely remote — video identity check from your phone, sign, download. This works anywhere in Spain, including both of these regions.
- Register guests for any property you own in the other fifteen communities, plus Ceuta and Melilla, on the same account.
- Point you at the correct portal and tell you what each one expects, so you are not guessing.
What we do not do
- Submit guest data to the Mossos d'Esquadra or the Ertzaintza. We do not file to either platform, so for a property in Catalonia or the Basque Country you file the guest data yourself.
- Act as your representative before either regional force.
Renting on the Costa Brava? Our Costa Brava area guide covers the region, and digital certificates are available there as everywhere else.
Common questions
Do I still need to register guests if my property is in Barcelona?
Yes. The duty is identical — you submit to the Mossos d'Esquadra through the Registre de viatgers rather than to SES.Hospedajes. Registering on SES.Hospedajes instead does not discharge it.
I have properties in Catalonia and in Andalusia. Can Villa Check In help?
Partly. We handle the Andalusian properties end to end. For the Catalan ones you file to the Mossos yourself, and we can still issue your digital certificate.
Does Villa Check In plan to support the regional platforms?
Not at present. If that changes we will say so here first — this page is the one we keep current.
What about Navarre? It has its own police force too.
Navarre uses SES.Hospedajes. The Policía Foral does not run a substitute traveller-registration platform, so properties in Navarre are covered by our standard service.
Can I still get a digital certificate if my property is in Bilbao?
Yes. Digital certificates are a national service and have nothing to do with which police force receives your traveller data. We issue them remotely in all seventeen communities.
Property elsewhere in Spain?
If your property sits in any of the other fifteen communities, we file every guest registration for you — you add the booking and we do the rest.
See what we do