The guest is only yours if you have their details
There is a paradox in holiday rentals that hardly anyone points out: the owner is required by law to register every traveller who stays in the property and, even so, many of them cannot write to a single one when the next season comes round.
The paradox
If you rent out a holiday property in Spain you have an obligation to keep a documentary register of travellers. It is not optional, it does not depend on the channel the booking came through and the portal does not do it for you. You do it.
And yet, when you ask an owner how many email addresses of past guests they have, the answer is usually none. They hold the data because they are obliged to and they cannot use it for their business. It is worth understanding why.
What the law requires you to collect and report
Royal Decree 933/2021 of 26 October, published in the Official State Gazette number 257 of 27 October 2021, regulates the documentary registration and reporting obligations of those carrying out accommodation activities. Consulted on 27 July 2026, this is what it says on the points that affect you most.
- Article 6: the data must be reported immediately and, in any case, within no more than 24 hours.
- Article 5.3: the data in the computerised register must be kept for three years from the end of the service.
- The data includes name and surname, sex, document type and number, nationality, date of birth, address, telephone, email address and number of travellers.
- The report is filed through the Ministry of the Interior platform.
There is something here we would rather not publish. Two different versions circulate about the exact date from which these obligations take effect, and the consolidated text in the Gazette and what the industry repeats do not agree. Since we could not settle it beyond doubt, we are not giving a date. What is certain is that the obligation is in force and that anyone renting out must comply with it.
Take away the consequence, which is what almost nobody connects: if you comply with the law, you already hold the email address and the phone number of every guest from the last three years. The data is there. The problem is a different one.
What an OTA passes on and what it does not
When a booking comes through a portal, the relationship with the customer belongs to the portal. You receive what is needed to provide the service and little more. Communication goes through their system, the reviews stay on their listing, and that traveller history, their preferred dates, how many times they have come back, is held by the platform and not by you.
When the booking comes through your website, that same information is born in your house. It is not a marketing advantage, it is a difference of ownership.
Holding the data is not having permission
And now we get to the point that really separates those who build loyalty from those who do not. Collecting a piece of data because the law obliges you to does not entitle you to use it for commercial purposes. They are two different things and it is worth not mixing them up.
To write to a past guest with an offer you need a legal basis for that specific use, normally their consent, asked for clearly and separately, with the option to withdraw it at any time and with an unsubscribe link that genuinely works. If you have doubts about your own case, this is a ten-minute conversation with an adviser, not something you should settle by reading a blog. Including this one.
The practical part is easier than it sounds: the best moment to ask for that permission is when the guest is happy, that is, during the stay or right at the end of it. Not in the booking form, where it only gets in the way.
The day they look for you again
A guest who had a good time rarely remembers which portal they booked through. They remember the name of the house, or of the village, or a photo. When they type that into a search engine, they either find you or they find your listing on a portal. That fork decides whether their second booking pays a commission.
That is why your own website with your name on it and an email address of yours are worth more than any campaign. You are not winning over a stranger, you are catching someone who was already coming.
The mistake of treating the list as a megaphone
A word of warning, because we have seen it many times. Having a hundred email addresses is not having a channel. If the only message you ever send is a last-minute August offer, the list goes quiet within two seasons.
What works is boring, and that is exactly why it works: write rarely, write at the right moment and say something useful to whoever is reading. One note when you open next year calendar is worth more than five promotions.
Build your website and start taking bookings with your name on the front
Frequently asked questions
- Can I write to past guests to offer them a promotion?
- Holding the data because the law requires you to register it does not entitle you to use it for commercial purposes. For that you need a legal basis for that specific use, normally their consent. If you have doubts about your own case, ask an adviser: it is a short conversation and it saves you a long problem.
- Does the portal give me the real email address of the guest?
- Not always, and that is the point. When the booking comes through a portal, the relationship with the customer belongs to the portal and communication goes through their system. When it comes through your website, the contact is born in your house.
- How long do I have to keep my travellers data?
- Article 5.3 of Royal Decree 933/2021 sets three years from the end of the service for the computerised register.
- When is the best moment to ask for permission to write to them?
- When the guest is happy, that is, during the stay or right at the end of it. In the booking form it only gets in the way and lowers conversion.
- What do I do if someone asks me to stop writing to them?
- Stop writing to them, immediately and without asking why, and make sure the unsubscribe works from the very first click. An unsubscribe link that does not work is worse than having no list at all.
- How many emails should I send a year?
- Few, and at the right time. One note when you open next year calendar is worth more than five last-minute promotions. A list goes quiet from too much, not from too little.