Hotel guest registration in Austria and Germany: registration forms and the rules

Why hotels have to register guests

In both Austria and Germany, registration law requires accommodation providers to record their guests’ data and keep it available for, or pass it on to, the authorities. The reasons are public safety, statistics and, in many places, the calculation of local tourist tax (Ortstaxe in Austria, Kurtaxe in German spa and holiday resorts). For you as a hotelier, this means the data must be complete, on time and traceable, including for fellow travellers.

The exact mandatory details, deadlines, exceptions and retention periods differ between the two countries and in part between federal states and municipalities. This guide describes the main points and is not legal advice. What is binding is what your municipality, tourist board or registration authority specifies; ask them before you set up your process.

Austria: Registration Act, guest form and guest register

In Austria, the Registration Act (Meldegesetz) governs the registration duty in accommodation establishments. Guests are recorded on the guest form (Gästeblatt), and the establishment keeps the guest forms as a guest register (Gästeverzeichnis). Registration must be made within 24 hours of arrival. For tour groups and families there are simplified forms in which fellow travellers can be recorded together.

In practice, many establishments now register electronically: the municipality or the tourist board provides a registration system to which guest data is transferred by file or through a direct interface. Many locations use the same data to calculate tourist tax and compile overnight-stay statistics, and some also issue the guest card through it. Which solution your location uses and which format it accepts varies by region.

Germany: Federal Registration Act and the special registration form

In Germany, the Federal Registration Act (Bundesmeldegesetz) governs the special registration duty in accommodation establishments. Guests are recorded on the special registration form (besonderer Meldeschein), which the guest fills in and signs on the day of arrival; the hotel keeps it and presents it to the authorities on request. Since 2025, the registration form requirement in principle applies only to foreign guests; German nationals are exempt. Accompanying spouses, partners and minor children can be recorded on a joint form.

Besides the paper version, the registration form can also be electronic, provided the legally approved procedures are followed. In spa and holiday resorts, the registration form often also serves as the basis for the spa tax (Kurtaxe) and the guest card and is then handled through the municipality’s registration system. How you may register electronically and which additional data your municipality requires for the spa tax is something to clarify locally.

Digital guest registration: less retyping, fewer gaps

With a digital registration form, guests fill in their own details on their smartphone, at the kiosk or on the front desk tablet. The data is immediately structured on the booking, legible and can be transferred to the municipality’s registration system without retyping. Mandatory fields can’t be skipped, and a missing nationality is noticed while the form is being filled in, not at the end of the month.

The biggest gain is with fellow travellers. On paper, a family is often recorded as “Mr Huber + 3”, and the names and dates of birth of the children are then missing for the registration. A digital form asks for the details of each person individually, and the same data later provides the age limits for the tourist tax.

Meeting deadlines: the day-to-day process

Deadlines are rarely missed through carelessness; they are missed because nobody has the overview: a guest arrives at 10 pm, the night shift checks them in, and the next evening someone notices the guest form is still incomplete. A fixed process with clear responsibility prevents this.

How STRYK handles guest registration

STRYK records registration data per traveller and attaches it to the booking, whether the guest enters it during online check-in or at the kiosk, or the front desk enters it at check-in. You define which fields are mandatory in the check-in settings. For walk-ins without online check-in, there is also a printable check-in form with a signature line. On every booking you can see whether the registration data is complete and whether it has been reported.

For hotels in Austria, STRYK monitors the 24-hour deadline: it starts with the actual check-in or, for properties without a front desk, with the planned arrival time. Two hours before it expires, STRYK flags the registration as due, and an overdue registration remains flagged until it has been dealt with. In the registration overview you filter by period, completeness and status; a total of open registrations also shows older cases that fall outside the current filter.

For transmission, STRYK produces a CSV file or a file in the Austrian MBS format, automatically on a schedule if you wish. A generated file only counts as reported once you confirm the actual submission. For locations that use Feratel, direct transmission with a result per guest is technically connected and is activated regionally after acceptance; until then, you register there by file. For Germany, STRYK also records registration data digitally and provides it as CSV; there is no dedicated transmission route to German registration systems. STRYK supports recording, review, export and deadlines; it does not replace a legal review of your process.