Complying with the law is an essential requirement for any business. One of the most important legal obligations in the tourist accommodation sector is the registration of guests by the tourist establishment and the subsequent communication of this information to the relevant authorities. With the police and administrative change carried out in Portugal with the transition from SEF to AIMA, the traveller entry form template must be communicated through the SIBA-SEF platform, or in other words, the Accommodation Bulletin Information System.
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In Law 23/2007 of 4 July, “ENTRY, STAY, EXIT AND REMOVAL OF FOREIGN NATIONALS FROM NATIONAL TERRITORY”, article 16, section 1, states:
“Companies operating hotels, complementary tourist accommodation facilities or tourist complexes, as well as all those providing accommodation to foreign citizens for a fee, are required to notify the GNR or PSP within three working days, by means of an accommodation bulletin.”
Therefore, regardless of the type of rental or lease contract entered into, if the person staying in a property is a foreign national (not a Portuguese citizen), the property owner must communicate the accommodation bulletin to SIBA-SEF / AIMA-SEF.
Furthermore, article 15, section 4, states:
“In order to simplify the sending of accommodation bulletins, hotels and similar establishments must register with the Borders and Foreigners Coordination Unit (UCFE) as users of the Accommodation Bulletin Information System so that they can make the respective electronic communication under secure conditions.”
Therefore, it is no longer mandatory to register the guest on paper and deliver the form to the police, but it is mandatory to register the guest’s accommodation bulletin in the Accommodation Bulletin Information System (SIBA).
According to Portuguese legislation, any property owner or company managing a property intended for tourist rental where people from another country are accommodated must communicate the guest details to SIBA-SEF / AIMA-SEF.
Furthermore, owners who sign a lease contract with a foreign national must also report the accommodation bulletin to SIBA-SEF / AIMA-SEF.
The same procedure applies if the property is sublet to foreign nationals. Therefore, if the property owner has a lease contract with a Portuguese tenant and this tenant in turn rents the property to a foreign national, the tenant will be responsible for communicating the accommodation bulletin to SIBA-SEF / AIMA-SEF.
Below you will find a guide to the process of registering a property in SIBA and then communicating the guest registration.
First, go to the SIBA-SEF website to begin registering the accommodation in the system. Then complete the form with the required data:
If you are already registered in SIBA and are currently sending guest registrations using a given sending method (Portal, file upload or Web service) and you want to change to another of the aforementioned methods, you must do the following:
From: (contact email used to register with SIBA)
To: siba@sef.pt
Subject: Change of guest registration sending method
Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is (Name of the contact person appearing in the Hotel Unit registration on the SIBA form)
I would like to request a change in the method of communication of guest registration with SEF to the sending type (Insert sending type to be changed to).
I am responsible for the Hotel Unit: (Tax identification number),
Establishment: (Establishment number to which the change refers).
Thank you for your attention.
With Check-in Scan you can carry out the online check-in of your guests without the need for them to be physically present and the generated guest registration will be sent to the authorities automatically. In this way, you can forget about having to upload the guest registration to the SIBA – SEF Portugal portal.
