Royal Decree 933/2021 Penalties for Rentals in Spain

Royal Decree 933/2021 made electronic submission of guest reports through SES.HOSPEDAJES mandatory, yet it never says what non-compliance costs: its Article 8 simply points to Organic Law 4/2015. You have to jump from one text to the other to find out what you are exposed to, and that jump is where most of the misinformation begins.

So figures with nothing to do with one another end up circulating side by side: the €600,000 of the regional tourism laws, the €30,000 state ceiling, and the widely held belief that filing late is worse than never filing at all.

What follows is the full route with the text of the rules in hand: which conduct is classified how, who sanctions, what is actually paid inside each bracket, when it prescribes, and how to keep operational risk close to zero.

Where the RD 933/2021 penalties come from: Organic Law 4/2015

RD 933/2021 itself does not set the fines. Its Article 8.1 refers to the enforcement regime in Chapter V of Organic Law 4/2015, of March 30, on Public Safety, popularly known as the “Gag Law” (Ley Mordaza). The decree’s consolidated text contains not a single amount: every figure comes from the Organic Law.

What the decree does do is decide which conduct is serious and which is minor. It does so in two paragraphs worth reading literally.

Article 8.2 typifies as serious infractions, in relation to Article 36.20 of Organic Law 4/2015:

“a) The absence of the documentary registers provided for in this royal decree. b) The omission of the mandatory communications.”

Article 8.3 typifies as minor infractions, in relation to Article 37.9 of Organic Law 4/2015:

“a) Irregularities or deficiencies in the completion of the registers provided for in this royal decree. b) Making the mandatory communications outside the established deadline.”

The line between the two is whether the report went out at all. A report that never leaves is an omission: Article 8.2.b), serious. A report that leaves late is an untimely communication: Article 8.3.b), minor. A report that leaves on time but badly filled in is Article 8.3.a), also minor.

Worth labouring the point, because the opposite circulates widely: late filing is not the mild version of not filing. They are two distinct offence types with two distinct brackets, and not filing is the worse of the two.

SES.HOSPEDAJES non-compliance fine amount: brackets

Article 39.1 of Organic Law 4/2015 sets the amounts²:

The two brackets are contiguous by design: the serious one starts at €601, not €600.

Here is the nuance almost nobody mentions, and it changes the figure you end up paying. For serious infractions, Article 33.2 divides the bracket into three degrees (minimum, medium, maximum) and requires that committing an infraction results in the fine at the minimum degree³. For serious infractions that minimum degree is €601 to €10,400 (Article 39.1.b)). The €30,000 is the ceiling of the maximum degree, not the fine that matches an ordinary breach.

Climbing to the medium degree requires proving at least one of four closed circumstances listed in Article 33.2: recidivism declared by a final administrative decision (more than one offence of the same nature within two years), violence or intimidation, covering the face to prevent identification, or using minors or vulnerable persons in committing the offence. For a paperwork breach, our reading is that only the first is realistic. The maximum degree is reserved for facts of particular gravity.

Minor infractions have no degrees at all. Article 33.3 states that the fine is determined directly from the circumstances of the case, and the tranches in Article 39.1 cover only serious and very serious infractions.

Not filing the guest report: serious, €601 to €30,000

This is the Article 8.2.b) scenario. You did not report the stay, and you never did. The classification is serious from the very first omitted report, with no need for repetition or volume.

The same bracket covers the fine for not collecting guest data: Article 8.2.a) makes the absence of the documentary registers the decree requires you to keep a serious infraction. That is not the same as a mistyped field; it is having no register at all.

Serious does not mean €30,000, though. Under Article 33.2 the fine is imposed at the minimum degree, €601 to €10,400, unless one of the four closed circumstances applies. Within that degree, individualisation looks at the extent of the risk created, intent, harm caused, and your economic capacity.

Fine for submitting the guest report late: minor (€100 to €600)

This is the Article 8.3 scenario. You filed, but late (letter b), or you filed on time with badly completed fields (letter a).

In practice, an accommodation that runs late on an isolated stay and reports it as soon as it notices sits at the low end of an already low bracket. With no degrees to climb, the amount is set directly from the circumstances.

Why the guest report cannot reach a very serious infraction

You will see the €30,001 to €600,000 bracket quoted alongside the guest report. It does not apply, and it is worth understanding why.

Very serious infractions live in Article 35 of Organic Law 4/2015, which contains exactly four types: unnotified assemblies at infrastructure providing basic community services where a risk to life or physical integrity arose, certain weapons or explosives conduct causing very serious harm, holding public events in breach of a prohibition or suspension ordered on public-safety grounds, and projecting light beams at pilots or drivers⁴.

None concerns documentary registers or lodging. And Article 8 of RD 933/2021 refers only to Articles 36.20 and 37.9: never to Article 35. There is no route, however many unreported stays pile up, from a guest-registration breach to a six-figure fine under this regime. Repetition can move you to the medium or maximum degree of the serious infraction, capped at €30,000, and that is where the ladder ends.

Six-figure fines in Spanish holiday rentals are real, but they belong to a different regime: the autonomous communities’ tourism laws, which penalise operating without a licence. The two get confused constantly, and we separate them in what “muy grave” actually means.

Who imposes the RD 933/2021 penalties

Not the Ministry of the Interior. Article 32.1.c) of Organic Law 4/2015 assigns the sanctioning of serious and minor infractions to the Government Delegates in the autonomous communities (Delegados del Gobierno) and in the Cities of Ceuta and Melilla⁵. The Minister of the Interior and the Secretary of State for Security are competent only for very serious infractions, which as we just saw are unreachable here.

Inspection is a separate thing from sanctioning power: it is carried out by the Directorate-General of the Police and the Directorate-General of the Guardia Civil, depending on the territorial scope.

Article 32.2 also makes the autonomous community’s own authorities competent within their public-safety powers. In Catalonia that authority is the Generalitat’s Departament d’Interior; in the Basque Country, the Basque Government’s Department of Security. The Mossos d’Esquadra and the Ertzaintza investigate and file the report, but they are not the ones who impose the fine.

A complaint can originate in three ways:

1. On-site inspection at the accommodation.
2. Cross-referencing SES.HOSPEDAJES data with other official registries (cadastre, regional tourism registry, OTA listings).
3. Third-party complaint (a guest, a competitor, a neighbour).

Among the accommodations that write to us after receiving a notice, cross-referencing is the most common origin. There is no published Ministry statistic confirming it nationally.

How a sanction is processed

The general sanctioning procedure includes:

1. Inspection report or complaint.
2. Proposed resolution with the classification and amount.
3. Allegations period in which the accommodation can provide evidence and acknowledge or challenge the facts.
4. Resolution that ends the administrative process.

There is a route here that halves the fine and almost nobody mentions it. Article 54 of Organic Law 4/2015 opens an abbreviated procedure for serious and minor infractions, which are exactly the two the guest report can reach: pay within fifteen days of being notified of the opening decision and the amount drops by 50%⁶. It does not apply to very serious infractions, which this route cannot reach anyway.

The discount comes with conditions worth understanding before you pay. Taking it waives your right to file allegations (any already filed are treated as not presented), the procedure ends on the day of payment with no express resolution, and from then on the only appeal is to the administrative courts. If your case has a defence, the ordinary procedure may serve you better; if the breach is clear, paying early costs half.

When an RD 933/2021 sanction prescribes

Article 38.1 of Organic Law 4/2015 sets the periods for infractions⁷. For the two that matter here:

• Minor infraction (report filed late or badly completed): prescribes in 6 months.
• Serious infraction (report never filed, or registers not kept): prescribes in 1 year.

The clock runs from the day the infraction was committed, with one relevant exception: for continuing infractions it runs from the last one, and for infractions with permanent effects from the moment the unlawful situation ended (Article 38.2). A sustained pattern of unfiled reports does not start prescribing with the first one.

Prescription is interrupted by any administrative action aimed at sanctioning that you are formally notified of (Article 38.3), so a notice received resets the clock.

Sanctions already imposed have their own periods (Article 40.1): 1 year for minor and 2 years for serious, counted from the day after the decision becomes final in administrative proceedings, not from the act itself.

Real cases of penalties: from Booking and Airbnb to reports filed late

These are the scenarios we see most often among accommodations that contact us after receiving a notice:

1. OTA reservations without a submitted report

A flat with high turnover on Booking or Airbnb that handles reservations outside the PMS and forgets to register the travellers. When inspectors cross-reference portal data with SES.HOSPEDAJES, the gaps come to light all at once.

Typical case: 40 stays in a quarter, 12 without a report. Because those 12 reports never went out, the conduct is the omission in Article 8.2.b): classified serious, with the fine at the minimum degree (€601 to €10,400) since none of the four closed circumstances applies. Within that degree, rectifying and producing the audit trail of what was sent is what pushes the amount down during individualisation.

2. Reports submitted past the deadline

The rule requires the communication immediately and in any case within 24 hours of two distinct moments: making the reservation or formalising the contract (or cancelling it), and the start of the contracted services (Article 6.3)⁸. Sending it weeks later, even if it gets sent, is an untimely communication: a minor infraction under Article 8.3.b), €100 to €600.

3. Incomplete or incorrect data

Common errors: missing second surname on Spanish documents, missing support number on the DNI, relationship not declared when a minor travels, dates of birth inconsistent with the document type.

4. Cancellation not reported

If a reservation is cancelled after the lodging reservation has been submitted to the Ministry and the cancellation is not reported, the system considers that the accommodation had unregistered guests.

5. Multi-property without registering all establishments

Each property needs its own establishment code. If you manage several and only register one, the rest are outside the registry.

How the RD 933/2021 fine is calculated in practice

The classification does not depend on volume: a single unreported stay is already serious under Article 8.2.b), and fifty are equally serious. What volume moves is the figure inside the degree, not the rung.

Within the minimum degree of the serious infraction (€601 to €10,400), three factors carry most of the weight:

1. Number of unreported stays and the extent of the risk created.
2. Time elapsed without rectifying. The longer, the worse.
3. Conduct after the inspection. Acknowledging and rectifying lowers the amount. Resisting raises it.

The only realistic degree jump here is the recidivism in Article 33.2.a), and it requires more than one offence of the same nature within two years, declared by a final administrative decision. A file listing many stays is not enough on its own.

Case officers have discretion in individualisation, but Article 33.2 sets the criteria that discretion runs on: the extent of the risk created, the harm caused, the degree of culpability, the economic benefit obtained and the offender’s economic capacity³. Documented diligence is the material you argue the degree of culpability with.

Three pieces that cut the risk: capture, filing and audit trail

The safest way to comply is not to remember to do it by hand. It’s to automate the process end to end.

A flow that works rests on three things.

The first is structured data capture. The guest fills in their data on a digital form that validates required fields in real time before letting them continue: no blank fields, no impossible dates, no badly formatted documents.

The second is automatic submission to SES.HOSPEDAJES, with no manual steps that can be forgotten, with submission confirmation and a record of the Ministry’s response. If submission fails, an immediate alert lets you fix it before the 24-hour deadline closes.

The third is full traceability: an auditable log of every communication, with what was sent, when, with what batch code, and what the response was. In a potential inspection, that’s what makes the difference. The classification is fixed by the offence type and is not negotiable, but documented diligence is what pushes the amount down.

FAQ

What is the fine for not submitting the guest report in Spain? The fine for not submitting the guest report is the one attached to a serious infraction: Article 8.2.b) of RD 933/2021 classifies the omission of mandatory communications that way, in relation to Article 36.20 of Organic Law 4/2015. The bracket is €601 to €30,000, but Article 33.2 requires the fine to be imposed at the minimum degree, €601 to €10,400, unless one of four closed aggravating circumstances applies. Submitting it late is a different matter: that is a minor infraction under Article 8.3.b), €100 to €600.

Can it reach a very serious infraction? No, a guest-report breach does not reach a very serious infraction through this regime. Very serious infractions are in Article 35 of Organic Law 4/2015, which contains four types (risky assemblies at basic-service infrastructure, weapons and explosives causing very serious harm, events held against a prohibition, and light beams projected at pilots or drivers). None refers to registers or lodging, and Article 8 of RD 933/2021 refers only to Articles 36.20 and 37.9. The real ceiling for the guest report is the €30,000 of the serious infraction. The €30,001 to €600,000 fines you will see quoted belong to the autonomous communities’ tourism laws, which penalise something else: operating without a licence.

Who enforces the RD 933/2021 penalties? The RD 933/2021 penalties are enforced by the Government Delegates in the autonomous communities, who under Article 32.1.c) of Organic Law 4/2015 are competent to sanction serious and minor infractions. Not the Ministry of the Interior, whose competence is limited to very serious ones. Inspection is carried out by the Directorate-General of the Police and of the Guardia Civil depending on the territory. In Catalonia and the Basque Country the competent regional public-safety authority sanctions (Article 32.2), the Departament d’Interior and the Department of Security respectively, with the Mossos d’Esquadra and the Ertzaintza investigating. Among the cases that reach RegistroViajero, the most common trigger for a file is cross-referencing SES.HOSPEDAJES data with other official registries.

How long until an unreported-guest infraction prescribes? An unreported-guest infraction prescribes in 1 year, since it is the serious one; the minor infraction prescribes in 6 months (Article 38.1), counted from the day of commission, except for continuing infractions (from the last one) or those with permanent effects (from when the unlawful situation ends). Any formally notified administrative action interrupts prescription. Sanctions already imposed have their own periods (Article 40.1): 1 year for minor and 2 years for serious, from the moment the decision is final in administrative proceedings.

Can the amount of the fine be reduced? Yes, the amount of the fine can be reduced, and by considerably more than people assume: article 54 of Organic Law 4/2015 lets you pay with a 50% reduction if you do so within fifteen days of being notified of the opening decision. It only covers serious and minor infractions, which are the two the guest report can reach, and in exchange you waive allegations and any administrative appeal, so the decision turns on whether your case has a defence. Rectifying quickly and documenting diligence (what was sent, when, and with what response) also weighs in your favour, because the degree of culpability is one of the individualisation criteria listed in Article 33.2 of Organic Law 4/2015.

How RegistroViajero prevents the failures that end in fines

RegistroViajero is built around those same three ideas:

• Digital check-in in 9 languages. The guest fills in their data from the phone with real-time validation. You can’t advance with mandatory fields blank or invalid formats.
• Direct, automatic submission to SES.HOSPEDAJES (and to Mossos/Ertzaintza systems when available). No manual forms. No XML uploads by hand.
• Automatic tracking of each communication’s status, with immediate notifications if the Ministry rejects the submission.
• Immutable audit log of every operation, downloadable for any administrative procedure.
• iCal synchronisation with Booking.com, Airbnb, VRBO, and Google Calendar so reservations enter the system without human intervention.

You can read more about the regulatory framework in What is Royal Decree 933/2021, see how to automate guest registration to minimise human-error risk, see how this applies in Catalonia and the Basque Country, review how to obtain your credentials, compare your current choice against Chekin alternatives, and check the annual VAU 1560/2025 deposit if you hold an NRUA. For operational questions, the help center.

Want to see it in action? See how RegistroViajero works.

This article is for informational purposes. It does not replace professional legal advice. The final classification of an infraction and the amount of the penalty are the responsibility of the competent Administration in each case.