As of immediate effect, holiday rental clients will have to have their documentation or ID supplied to the police as part of standard security requirements. The National Police announced today they want to collect the same data about private rental clients as they receive about hotel guests. In hotels, ID or passports are photocopied on checking in, and this information is then passed on to the security services so they can keep a close check on who is coming in and out of the Balearics.
The move is not related in any way to recent criminal activities in Majorca, it is simply complying with the law. Andalusia, for example, has carried out such a practice for many years as have a number of other regions, with many about to follow the Balearics’ lead.
This will mean more security personnel to gather and check the information received. Letting agencies will now have to provide photocopies of clients’ ID while private let owners will have to take care of things themselves , or find a local representative. Local agents used by website portals will have to be made responsible for collecting the relevant documentation and supplying it to the police. This is not a new strategy to try and track down illegal holiday let owners but simply to keep a check on who is coming and going to and from the Balearics.
The authorities and the police consider it only fair that, if hotels have to comply with the rules and regulations, then so should holiday accommodation. Especially when the holiday rental market has become such big business.
In 2014, for example, there were 27,108 registered holiday rental properties in the Balearics. This year, that figure stands at around at least 77,823; even more reason why the security services need to know who is staying in these properties.
6 comments
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Where does one take the documentation of guests ?
This is badly reported here. The original UH article refers only to regulated entities that collect the tourist tax already. They state that they plan to amend the laws for the rest by the end of the year.
s. If it is then it's a fundamentally flawed idea.
Is this a stealth way of determining how many Private Lets, are being used in Mallorca.?
This is a pack of lies. It's merely another attempt by the pathetic Hoteliers Federation, that wamt to remove competition from the private sector of course. The authorities already have the details of all arrivals and departures on the flight logs and by passport control at the airport. Hoteliers - Franco is dead, - we are in a democracy, get over it !
Seems strange. What about all the visitors that own property here, or that stay with friends ?