SES Hospedajes registration step by step: certificate to credentials
Two separate registrations that people conflate constantly: the obliged party with its establishments, and the web service user. What each one needs to get through.
· 8 min read
Nearly every hold-up we have seen while onboarding a client to SES Hospedajes comes from the same misunderstanding: believing the registration is one thing. It is two, they happen in different places, and one is useless without the other.
- Registering the obliged party and its establishments, on the Spanish Ministry of the Interior’s electronic office. This is what makes you someone who is allowed to file.
- The web service user, which is what a program needs to file on its own. Without it you have the obligation but no automated way to meet it.
Plenty of people complete the first, see their property listed in the portal, consider the paperwork done, and find out weeks later — usually on integration day — that they are halfway there.
What you need before you start
The process is electronic from end to end, so the first requirement is being able to identify yourself electronically. Without it you do not get past the first screen:
- A digital certificate or Cl@ve for the individual or company that will act as the obliged party.
- Tax details for that person or company: tax number, legal name and registered address.
- Details of each property or establishment: full address and, where applicable, its regional tourism registration number.
The registration, step by step
- Enter the registration module on the Ministry of the Interior’s electronic office, identifying yourself with the certificate or Cl@ve.
- Declare the obliged party’s details. This is where it distinguishes whether you carry out the activity professionally or not, and the fields change accordingly.
- Register each establishment or property. They go in one at a time; a manager with twenty flats declares twenty times.
- Request web service access, the step almost nobody expects. This is where the credentials your system will use come from.
The first three steps are what the Royal Decree calls the communication prior to starting the activity, and they carry their own deadline: a maximum of ten days from completing the administrative formalities to operate.
Which identifier comes out of each step
This is the part that causes the most confusion, because they are three different things with similar names, handed over at different moments.
| Identifier | Where it comes from | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
codigoArrendador | Assigned by the Hospedajes system when you register | Identifies you uniquely as the holder. It travels in every submission’s header. |
| Establishment code | One per declared property | Says which accommodation the report belongs to. |
| Web service username and password | From the web service access request | Authenticate each call. They are not your electronic office credentials. |
There is a fourth value, aplicacion, that nobody hands you: you choose it. It is the name of the system the request is launched from, and it travels in the header alongside the lessor code. It exists so that, looking at a submission, you can tell what originated it.
The two surprises at the end
There is no test environment
There is no sandbox to point at while you build. The first call you make with your credentials goes against the real system, and a report sent by mistake is a report filed. It is worth verifying the lessor code and the username before writing the first line, not after.
That is why our API has an endpoint that only tests credentials: it makes a real call and tells you whether they get in, covering username, password, endpoint and TLS in one go. It is in the SES credentials documentation.
The format is not what you expect
When you finally hold the credentials, what sits behind them is not a REST API: it is a SOAP service that takes XML compressed as ZIP and encoded in Base64, and processes it in asynchronous batches. Which means accepting a submission and accepting its contents are two different things that happen at two different times. We cover it in full in how to integrate SES Hospedajes with your PMS.
If your properties are in Catalonia or the Basque Country
This registration is no use to you. Those two regions have their own police force with competence in the matter and their own channels, with their own per-establishment credentials. The details are in traveller registration in Catalonia.
Sources
- Royal Decree 933/2021 — article
6, on the prior communication and its deadlines. - The Ministry of the Interior’s Hospedajes Communication Service specification (MIR-HOSPE-DSI-WS), which is where the header and the identifiers come from.
Kinapi files the report for you
The guest registers from their phone with the data already validated, signs the contract, and Kinapi transmits the report to SES Hospedajes. €0.50 per booking filed, no subscription.