Germany Guest Registration Law: What Airbnb Hosts Must Know in 2026

Germany guest registration law required hotels, guesthouses, and short-term rentals to collect a signed Meldeschein from every overnight guest for decades, with the obligation coming directly from the Bundesmeldegesetz. The form captured full name, date of birth, nationality, and address, along with arrival and departure dates.

That single rule applied uniformly across every Land, regardless of property type or platform. Airbnb hosts, boutique hotel operators, and large chains were all held to the identical standard. The Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act (Viertes Buerokratieentlastungsgesetz, or BEG IV), passed by the Bundesrat on October 18, 2024, changed that picture for domestic travelers. Since January 1, 2025, German nationals no longer need to complete a Meldeschein when staying in accommodation anywhere in the country. Foreign guests are unaffected by the exemption and must still present a valid passport or recognized travel document and sign a full Meldeschein at check-in.

The required fields for foreign guests now include surname, given names, date of birth, nationality, ID document number, home address abroad, arrival date, and expected departure date. For an Airbnb host managing bookings from multiple countries, the practical fields to confirm before every foreign guest arrives typically include:

Retention rules under the Bundesmeldegesetz are specific and apply regardless of whether a host uses a paper form or a digital check-in flow. Completed Meldescheine for foreign guests must be kept for 12 months from the date of the stay. After that window closes, hosts have a further 3 months to destroy or securely delete the records. Failing to retain the form for the required period, or keeping it longer than allowed, can both create compliance exposure. Properties operating in neighboring Austria should also review our Austria guest registration law complete 2026 guide.

Retained forms are not just an internal filing exercise. Police authorities, public prosecutors, courts, and customs investigation services can request access to Meldeschein records during the retention window, and hosts are expected to produce them without delay. Digital check-in platforms that timestamp and archive guest data automatically can reduce the risk of a missing or incomplete record when that request comes.

This matters most for hosts running several listings, where paper Meldescheine are easy to misplace across properties. A dependable German guest registration workflow generally needs to account for the following retention checkpoints:

Manually tracking who is exempt, who still needs a signed Meldeschein, and how long each record must be kept becomes harder the more properties a host manages. Digital check-in tools can prompt only the guests who actually need to complete a Meldeschein, based on nationality entered at booking or during pre-arrival check-in. This removes the guesswork of asking every guest for a form that German nationals no longer need to sign.

Six German states, including Berlin, Hamburg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Baden-Wuerttemberg, have published implementing rules for the e-Meldeschein as of mid-2026, allowing an electronic signature to replace the wet-ink signature historically required for foreign guests. Properties integrated with systems like AVS (Abrechnungs- und Verwaltungs-Systeme GmbH) can generate and submit the required registration data directly to local authorities.

Hosts operating in the remaining states should confirm with their local Meldebehoerde whether a digital signature is accepted yet, since paper processes are still the default there. Automated guest registration for German properties typically covers: