Guest Registration: What Hosts Need to Know Now

A folder full of registration forms, a slip of paper for every guest, and all of it kept on file: that was check-in in German holiday apartments for decades. Since 2025, much of it is no longer needed — but not all of it. Here is what applies now.

What has changed

The fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act (Bürokratieentlastungsgesetz IV) abolished the hotel registration requirement for German nationals as of 1 January 2025. This applies to holiday apartments just as it does to hotels: German guests no longer fill in a registration form at check-in.

Who still needs a registration form

For foreign guests, the requirement remains — the Federal Registration Act (Bundesmeldegesetz) says so. In practice that means:

• Every foreign guest fills in and signs a registration form on the day of arrival.
• The host keeps the form on file for one year and destroys it properly afterwards.
• The forms must be available to the authorities on request.

Ignoring this risks a fine. And having every guest fill in a form anyway wastes time — yours and your guests'.

Careful: the visitor's tax is a separate matter

In spa towns and tourist regions, a separate notification for the visitor's tax or guest card may still be required. Each municipality sets its own rules — the new federal regulation changes nothing here. When in doubt, ask your local council.

The real problem: the admin work

The new rules sound simple, but they make the admin work trickier: some guests need a registration form, others do not. Who tells them apart at check-in? Where are the signed forms? Which slip may go into the shredder, and when? This is exactly where the paperwork chaos starts.

How MeineFeWoSeite handles it

MeineFeWoSeite takes this admin work off your hands — with digital check-in and a digital registration form:

• Guest data comes from the booking — check-in is prepared before the guest arrives.
• A form only when one is needed — the system tells apart which guests the requirement applies to.
• Digital instead of paper — the guest fills in the form digitally, nothing gets lost.
• Deadlines under control — retention and deletion run in order. No folder, no shredding day.

No stack of paper, no hunting for slips, no guessing what has to be kept.

Conclusion

The registration requirement has become smaller, but it has not gone away. Anyone hosting foreign guests still needs a clean process. Digitally, it is faster, safer and free of paperwork chaos.

MeineFeWoSeite brings booking, check-in and the registration form into one system. Try it free of charge.

Try for free now →