Problem with providing accommodation the legal info they need

Amazing how illogical the Information Age can be. To expedite resolving this, the easiest thing to do is what you’ve already figured out and simply open a new e-mail address in your husband’s name.

No one says you have to use the email address. But if they will take your daughter’s, then is there a problem with using hers? She can tell you if you receive anything.

But I can confirm there is a lot of info needed by hotel providers in Spain.

I would just create a new email account on something like gmail. It takes minutes and you don’t ever have to actually use the email account once you do this registration.

It is clear that they are using email as the unique id for each person. I don’t think this is a language problem; it is likely a limitation of the registration system.

I would just create a new email account on something like gmail.

Exactly. If I'm doing a project (getting quotes for something like a car or home improvement) I'll create a gmail address for that limited purpose.

GMail in particular also allows you to create alternate address forms that end up in the same inbox. As I understand it they're using the email address as the lookup into the individual's info so they need a separate index into the database for each of you
So [email protected] could have an alternate address [email protected] as well as [email protected]. Technically different addresses but no difference in where they get delivered (Probably you could further filter into different folders). This is unique for Gmail so it you have a different provider you'd need to explore other options - perhaps just a unique address(es) for the trip.

This is an informative summary of the information that hotels and other accommodation providers in Spain are required to collect from guests: https://www.minut.com/es/blog/registro-de-huespedes-automatizado-guia-practica-2025

Email addresses, along with mobile phone numbers, are among the pieces of information that hotels are legally required to collect. If they don’t, they could face fines of up to 30,000 euros. If a guest refuses to provide this required data, the hotel is allowed to cancel the reservation and end the service agreement.

This information is sent to Spain’s Ministry of the Interior through the official SES.HOSPEDAJES system. This platform is subject to the full legal protections of the European Union’s GDPR (Regulation EU 2016/679), which governs the handling of personal data. For our American friends who might be uneasy about handing over personal details, GDPR protections are significantly stronger than anything currently offered in the United States—much stronger than laws like the California CCPA or CPRA. There’s a proposed federal law in the U.S. called the ADPPA (American Data Privacy and Protection Act), which would bring the country closer to the GDPR standard, but it’s still under debate and hasn’t been passed yet.

Personal comment: One could reasonably question the requirement to provide an email or even a mobile number, since these are not things people are universally expected to have. Unlike an address (everyone lives somewhere), a passport (required for international travel), or a date of birth (which everyone has), not everyone needs to have a mobile phone or an email account. In fact, there have been formal objections on this point presented in the Spanish Parliament. But so far, the officials at Spain’s Ministry of the Interior—an institution still influenced by the authoritarian mindset inherited from the dictatorship era—have decided that we must all have both an email and a mobile phone number.

So, my advice: just create a new email address for yourself and get done with it, even if you never plan to use it again.