Data protection in hotels: How to protect your guests' data

Whether consciously or not, hotel guests leave behind a wealth of confidential information during their stay. Besides their personal data, they also share their eating habits and preferences as well as their leisure interests. Hotels often also know their guests' illnesses, allergies and state of health. For these reasons, when handling guest data, the necessary measures must be taken to protect it. In this article, we take a closer look at data protection in the hotel industry and your obligations as a hotelier.

Receptionist and businesswoman at hotel front desk

The most important facts in brief

Collecting personal data from your guests is allowed if it is necessary for the performance of the accommodation contract.
In order to use your guest's personal data for other purposes, such as newsletter marketing, you must ask for their consent beforehand.
The declaration of consent must be in writing and be comprehensible to your guest. It must also contain the type, scope and purpose of the data collection.

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Collecting data from hotel guests: Is this allowed?

Generally, hoteliers are allowed to collect and process personal data of their guests if it is necessary for the performance of the accommodation contract. This data may include the name, address, email address and telephone number as well as the credit card information of your guests. Once guests have left or settled outstanding invoices, the accommodation contract expires. In this case, all registration forms containing personal data of your customers may only be kept for a maximum of one year. After that, they must be destroyed or deleted.

Using your guests' personal data for marketing purposes

Hotel owners who want to use and store the personal data of their guests even after the accommodation contract has expired need their active consent. This is especially the case if you want to send newsletters to encourage guests to come back. You can also use the data to optimise the guests' experience in your hotel. For example, during the booking process, you can recommend services to your guests that they might like based on their previous stays.

In order to obtain your guests' consent to store and use their data, you need to consider a few points:

the consent form must always be in writing
it should be written in plain language
it must explicitly state the purpose for which and the extent to which you will store and use your guests' personal data
If the data will be passed on to third parties, this must also be stated in the declaration of consent.

Remember that your visitors have the right to revoke the consent given at any time. Likewise, guests can request a copy of all personal data held about them.

Protecting confidential guest data: These are your obligations

When it comes to data protection, the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) puts hoteliers under an obligation:

to handle personal data with care
to maintain data secrecy
to control the handling of protected data if you use a service provider
to implement an appropriate technical standard for data security
to observe the principle of data economy

If you have more than 10 employees who process customer data, you must also appoint a company data protection officer. This officer should then inform the customers concerned and the supervisory authority if data breaches occur. In case of violations, the supervisory authority can impose fines on hotel businesses.