Royal Decree 933/2021 Penalties for Vacation Rentals: Fines, Brackets, and How to Avoid Them

Since Royal Decree 933/2021 made electronic submission of guest reports through SES.HOSPEDAJES mandatory, agencies and owners ask the same question.

What exactly happens if I don’t comply?

Short answer: penalties can run from a few hundred euros to several hundred thousand. Long answer needs a look at how infractions are classified and which bracket applies in each case.

This article reviews the enforcement framework, the amounts set by Organic Law 4/2015 on Public Safety, and how to keep operational risk to a minimum.

Where do the penalties come from?

RD 933/2021 itself does not set the fines. What it does is establish the reporting obligation and refer to the general enforcement regime for public safety.

That regime is governed by Organic Law 4/2015, of March 30, on Public Safety, popularly known as the “Gag Law” (Ley Mordaza). It classifies infractions into three levels.

Article 37.3 of Organic Law 4/2015 expressly typifies as a minor infraction:

“The omission or inaccuracy of the communication to the Registry of the data referred to in the public safety regulations in relation to travelers and persons lodged in lodging establishments.”

So failing to submit the guest report falls, in principle, under minor infractions. That doesn’t cover the full picture. Repetition, the volume of failures, or the willful alteration of data can raise the classification to serious or very serious, with much larger amounts.

SES.HOSPEDAJES non-compliance fine amount: brackets

Within each bracket there are also degrees (minimum, medium, maximum) that the Administration applies based on circumstances such as intent, damage caused, the offender’s economic capacity, or repetition.

Spain fine for not registering guests with police: minor (€100–€600)

Applies by default for failing to submit a guest report or submitting it with errors. In practice, if an accommodation fails to report an isolated stay and rectifies promptly, the amount usually lands in the lower end of the range.

Serious infraction (€601–€30,000)

A minor infraction can escalate to serious when several circumstances converge:

• Repetition: several failures not corrected over time.
• Significant volume: failing to report tens or hundreds of stays.
• Deliberate concealment: not just omitting, but altering data to avoid reporting.
• Obstruction of the inspection work of the Security Forces.

Very serious infraction (€30,001–€600,000)

The very serious brackets are designed for repeated wilful conduct with serious public-safety impact. Not the typical scenario for an accommodation acting in good faith. They can arise in cases of accommodations that systematically operate outside the registry, with hundreds of unreported stays and active resistance to inspection.

Who sanctions and how the procedure runs

Enforcement authority rests with the Spanish Ministry of the Interior. Inspection is carried out by the Directorate-General of the Police and the Directorate-General of the Guardia Civil, depending on the territorial scope.

In Catalonia, the competent regional Ministry acts in coordination with the Mossos d’Esquadra. In the Basque Country, the Department of Security of the Basque Government with the Ertzaintza.

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).

Cross-referencing is the most common origin today.

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.

Voluntary acknowledgment and early payment can lead to reductions of 20% on the amount, under the general rules of the administrative sanctioning procedure.

How long until a sanction prescribes?

Organic Law 4/2015 sets prescription periods:

• Minor infractions: prescribe in 6 months.
• Serious infractions: prescribe in 1 year.
• Very serious infractions: prescribe in 2 years.

Sanctions already imposed have their own periods: 1 year for minor, 2 years for serious, 3 years for very serious.

The clock runs from the moment the act was committed. Initiating the sanctioning procedure interrupts the prescription.

Real cases: penalties for vacation rentals on Booking and Airbnb

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. Classification: minor in the medium degree. Proposed amount: €350. After allegations and rectification, settles at €200.

2. Reports submitted past the deadline

The rule asks for the communication at the moment of check-in or within the 24 hours following the start of the stay. Sending it weeks later, even if it gets sent, is an untimely communication. Sanctionable.

3. Incomplete or incorrect data

Common errors: missing second surname on Spanish documents, missing support number on the DNI, relationship not declared for minors aged 14 to 17, 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 fines are calculated in practice

Three main factors:

1. Volume of unreported stays. One is minor. Fifty can be serious.
2. Time elapsed without rectifying. The longer, the worse.
3. Conduct after the inspection. Acknowledging and rectifying lowers the amount. Resisting raises it.

Inspectors have discretion. Recent practice rewards documented diligence.

How to keep risk to a minimum

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

A solid flow rests on three pillars:

1. Structured data capture. The guest fills in their data on a digital form that validates required fields in real time before allowing them to continue. No blank fields. No impossible dates. No badly formatted documents.

2. Automatic submission to SES.HOSPEDAJES. No manual steps that can be forgotten. With submission confirmation and a record of the Ministry’s response. If submission fails, immediate alerts so you can fix it before the 24-hour deadline closes.

3. Full traceability. An auditable log of every communication: what was sent, when, with what batch code, and what the response was. In a potential inspection this is gold. It demonstrates diligence and reduces the classification.

How RegistroViajero handles this

RegistroViajero is built around this triple objective:

• 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, and check the help center for operational questions.

Want to see it in action? Create a free account and try the system for 15 days with no credit card.

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.