What's the real deadline for reporting a guest to the police?

Two different deadlines, depending on how long the guest stays. For stays longer than 24 hours, the general rule under article 109 of Italy's TULPS applies: 24 hours from arrival. For stays that don't exceed 24 hours, typically rooms booked for a few hours rather than overnight, the deadline is 6 hours from arrival: the Alloggiati Web portal has applied it since 12 January 2022, when the Ministry of the Interior's decree of 16 September 2021 came into force, replacing the 2013 wording that required reporting «upon arrival itself» with a requirement to report «within six hours».

What do I do if Alloggiati Web isn't working right when I need to send the guest forms?

First, check that the problem is with the portal itself, not your computer or your connection, because a fault in your own PMS or line doesn't excuse you from the deadline. If the national portal really is down, notify the competent Questura (police headquarters) immediately and send the data through one of the two alternative channels the decree allows: fax or certified email (PEC). An ordinary email doesn't count. Keep proof of whichever channel you used, the fax confirmation or the PEC delivery receipt: that proof, not the attempt itself, is what shows you met the deadline.

I notice I entered a guest's data wrong after submitting it. How do I fix it?

You don't fix it: once the system has accepted a submission, that record can't be edited. You have to submit a new record with the correct data for just that guest, still within the legal deadline. The side effect is that the day's summary will show one guest more than actually stayed, since the wrong record stays counted alongside the corrected one. That's by design, not a bug, worth noting if anyone on staff cross-checks the numbers.

Do I need to report when a guest leaves, or only when they arrive?

Only arrivals. The requirement to report departures too was abolished on 3 October 1993 and hasn't come back since. The same goes for changes: if a guest leaves earlier or stays longer than the days declared at check-in, nothing needs to be updated on the portal.

How long do I have to keep the receipt the portal generates after each submission?

Five years. The Ministry of the Interior's decree of 7 January 2013 says so explicitly: the receipt, a digitally signed PDF the portal generates on each submission, has to be downloaded and kept by the property for five years, because it's what proves compliance in a check, not just the data sitting on the Questura's system. The portal itself only keeps the last thirty days of receipts downloadable: past that window, if you haven't saved it elsewhere, the Questura won't reissue it.

Alloggiati Web: the real deadlines for reporting guests to the police

Q: With a family or a group, do I need to enter everyone's ID document?

Identification remains required for every guest, ID included, minors too: that's the step you take at the front desk, not something the portal changes, as I wrote about automated check-in and remote identification. What changes is what you enter into the portal afterward: for a family, it's enough for one parent to fill in the record, naming the other parent and any minor children; for a group, the group leader does the same for the rest. For those additional guests the system only asks for basic personal details, without repeating each one's document data: a shortcut in what you type, not an exception to who you had to identify before handing over a key.

2 November 2026

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Whoever runs a property and hears about Italy's «schedine alloggiati» almost always thinks of a single number: twenty-four hours, and that's that. It's the figure that comes up most, and it's correct for most stays. But it isn't the only one, and the real gap between the two deadlines the law actually sets isn't about guests who stay a week, it's about the ones who book a room for a few hours.

Two deadlines, not one

Article 109 of Italy's TULPS, the consolidated public security law, requires anyone running an accommodation business to report every guest's details to the competent Questura. For most stays, the familiar figure holds: within 24 hours of arrival, through the Polizia di Stato's Alloggiati Web portal. I've already written about this, alongside the other legal obligation a PMS has to meet, in what hotel management software has to do by law.

For stays that don't exceed 24 hours, typically rooms taken for a few hours rather than overnight, the deadline is different: 6 hours from arrival. It affects few properties on any given day, but for those few it matters all the way through, because getting it wrong isn't an administrative slip: the omission remains a criminal offence under article 17 of the TULPS, punishable by detention up to three months or a fine up to 206 euros.

The short deadline changed in 2022, and not every guide says so

Until a few years ago, the deadline for very short stays wasn't six hours. The Ministry of the Interior's decree of 7 January 2013, which still governs the transmission rules today, required reporting «upon arrival itself», meaning essentially immediately, no margin at all. A 2019 law (decree-law 53/2019, converted into law 77/2019) had planned to widen that margin to six hours, but on one condition: the change would only take effect ninety days after the publication of a further ministerial decree setting the technical rules for it.

That decree arrived on 16 September 2021, published in the Official Gazette on 14 October of the same year: it explicitly replaces, in the 2013 text, the words «upon arrival itself» with «within six hours of arrival». Ninety days after publication lands on 12 January 2022, the date from which Alloggiati Web actually applies the new deadline: the Questura di Siena confirms it in its own official guidance for operators. It's the date worth remembering if you handle very short check-ins: before then, the margin didn't exist on paper at all.

The portal is the only channel, except when the portal itself breaks

Alloggiati Web is the ordinary channel and, day to day, the only one. There is an exception, but it's narrower than it sounds: it covers only a fault in the national portal, not a problem with your own computer, your connection, or your PMS. If it's the Polizia di Stato's system itself that isn't responding, the 2013 decree sets two steps: notify the competent Questura of the problem promptly, and send the data through one of the alternative channels it allows, fax or certified email (PEC). There's no third option: an ordinary email or a generic message doesn't count as a report, however urgent the situation.

Either way, you need proof of the alternative channel you used: for fax, the confirmation the device prints with date, time and outcome; for PEC, the sending and delivery receipts for the message. It's that proof, not the attempt itself, that counts as compliance if anyone checks later.

Wrong data doesn't get corrected, it gets resubmitted

It happens: after submitting a record, you notice a surname or a birth date was typed wrong. The portal doesn't let you edit it. Once the system has accepted a submission, that record stays as it is. The only fix is to submit a new record with the correct data for just the guest in question, still within the 24- or 6-hour deadline.

There's a side effect worth knowing before you run into it: the day's summary will show one guest more than actually arrived, because the wrong record stays counted alongside the corrected one. That isn't a malfunction, it's how the system is built. If anyone on staff periodically checks the number of records sent against the number of actual guests, it's worth noting down when and why this happened.

What you don't have to report

Two things that often get assumed the wrong way round. First: you don't have to report departures. That requirement existed until 1993, when it was abolished; since then the obligation covers arrival only, and if a guest leaves early or stays longer than declared, there's nothing to update on the portal. Second: meeting this legal obligation doesn't require a dedicated privacy notice signed by the guest. It's a public-security requirement set directly by law, not processing that needs the guest's consent; a data-protection notice only becomes necessary if, beyond this, you use the guest's data for something else, like marketing.

Families and groups: who fills in what

Identifying every guest, document in hand, remains required at all times, minors included: that's the step you take at the front desk before handing over a room, and nothing changes there, as I wrote about automated check-in and remote identification. What changes is what you then enter into the portal: for a family, it's enough for one parent to fill in the record, naming the other parent and any minor children; for a group, the group leader does the same, listing the other members. For these additional guests the system only asks for basic personal details, without repeating each one's document data: a shortcut in the entry, not an exception to who you had to verify before giving them a key.

Where to start

Three checks, in order. First, verify with whoever manages your Alloggiati Web access, or your PMS if it submits records automatically, that the six-hour deadline for very short stays is actually set correctly, since a system built before 2022 might not distinguish it from the general one. Second, make sure someone on staff knows, without having to search for it in a panic, your Questura's fax number or PEC address for when the portal is down. Third, check where you keep your submission receipts: the portal only lets you download the last thirty days, while the requirement to keep them runs five years.

If you'd like someone to look at details like these alongside the rest of your property's digital processes, there's the digital check-up. Otherwise write to me: tell me how you handle guest reporting today, and I'll tell you whether the deadline you're using is still the right one.