Register Guests in SES.Hospedajes by Scanning Their ID Over WhatsApp

Register Guests in SES.Hospedajes by Scanning Their ID Over WhatsApp

If you run a tourist rental, a small hotel, or manage properties in Spain, guest registration stopped being optional a while ago. Since 2 December 2024, sending traveller data to the Ministry of the Interior through the SES.Hospedajes platform is mandatory for every accommodation activity — including short-term rentals and even the occasional room let.

The problem isn't the rule. It's the data entry. Every guest means retyping a name, a document number, a support number, a nationality and a date of birth into a form, with a 24-hour deadline ticking. Do it for a full apartment on a Friday check-in and it's an hour of squinting at blurry photos of ID cards.

This article shows a faster way: the guest sends a photo of their ID over WhatsApp, and you get back the exact fields SES.Hospedajes needs — structured and ready to submit.

What SES.Hospedajes actually requires

SES.Hospedajes replaced the old police and Guardia Civil systems (WebPol and Hospederías) on 2 December 2024. Under Royal Decree 933/2021, you must communicate each traveller's data immediately, and in any case within 24 hours of check-in.

The core fields you need per traveller include:

• Full name and surnames
• Sex and date of birth
• Nationality
• Document type and number (DNI, NIE or passport)
• Support number (the *número de soporte* printed on the Spanish ID)
• Address, phone and email

On top of that, the register wants data about the reservation, the stay and the payment. Miss the deadline or file it wrong and the fines are real: light infractions run from €100 to €600, and serious ones — such as failing to communicate data at all — can reach €30,000.

Most of those €100–€600 fines aren't malice. They're typos and late filings — the direct result of manual data entry under time pressure.

The AEPD twist: don't keep a copy of the ID

Here's a detail many hosts get wrong. In a note published on 17 June 2025, Spain's data protection authority (AEPD) clarified that accommodations may not photocopy or scan and store a guest's DNI or passport. You can verify identity by having the document shown, and you should register only the required fields — not archive the whole document, which contains far more personal data than the law asks for.

That guidance fits perfectly with how a good extraction tool should work: read the fields you need, keep the structured data, and don't sit on a folder full of ID images. Capturing data is not the same as hoarding documents.

From WhatsApp photo to SES fields in seconds

This is exactly the job WhappScan was built for. Instead of an app to install or a form to retype, the flow is:

1. The guest photographs their DNI, NIE or passport and sends it to your WhatsApp number.
2. WhappScan's AI OCR reads the document and extracts the fields you configured — name, document type and number, support number, date of birth, nationality.
3. You get the result as structured data: an Excel row or a direct API call into your PMS or your SES.Hospedajes upload.

No app for the guest to download. No transcription. Results in seconds instead of minutes per person. If you already handle client identity this way, you'll recognise the pattern from our guide on how to automate KYC and client identification via WhatsApp.

Because the output is clean structured data, you decide what to keep — the required fields — instead of storing a pile of document photos, which keeps you aligned with the AEPD's guidance.

Why WhatsApp beats yet another app

Guests don't want to install anything. They already have WhatsApp open. That single fact removes most of the friction from remote or self check-in: you send a link or a number, they send a photo, you get the data. We make the full case for this in why your real estate agency doesn't need a scanner app, but a WhatsApp number.

And the accuracy question matters here more than usual, because a single wrong digit in a support number is a rejected record. Modern AI OCR reads worn cards, glare, and mixed document types far better than the template-based scanners of a decade ago — we break down why in OCR accuracy in 2026.

Fitting it into your existing workflow

Most hosts and property managers already juggle a PMS, a channel manager, or a plain spreadsheet. WhappScan doesn't ask you to replace any of it:

• Spreadsheet route: each guest becomes a row you can paste or import. If you like working in Excel, see how we turn documents into spreadsheets automatically.
• API route: push the extracted fields straight into your own upload to SES.Hospedajes or your PMS.
• Multi-guest check-ins: collect photos from a whole party over WhatsApp and process them together, instead of one form at a time.

The 24-hour clock stops being stressful when the transcription step disappears.

A realistic example

A Friday check-in for a four-person apartment. Under the manual method, that's four IDs, four forms, and roughly 40 fields typed correctly before Saturday afternoon — with a fine waiting if one support number is off.

With the WhatsApp flow, the four guests send four photos on their way from the airport. By the time they arrive, you have four clean records ready to submit to SES.Hospedajes. The deadline is met before check-in even happens, and there's no folder of ID scans left behind.

Ready to try it?

Guest registration is now a legal obligation with a tight clock and real fines — but it doesn't have to eat your evenings. Let guests send a photo over WhatsApp and get back exactly the fields SES.Hospedajes asks for.

Try it free at https://whappscan.com

*This article is informational and not legal advice. For your specific obligations under Royal Decree 933/2021, consult the Ministry of the Interior or a qualified advisor.*