(1) Anyone staying in facilities for the purpose of the commercial reception of persons (commercial accommodation) for longer than six months is subject to the registration requirement under section 17 or section 28. Anyone who is not registered at a residence in Germany is required to register with the registration authority within two weeks as soon as his or her stay exceeds three months.
(2) Foreign nationals staying in commercial accommodation are required to sign a special registration form on the day of arrival which contains the data referred to in section 30 (2). Only the number of accompanying foreign spouses, life partners and minor children is to be stated on the registration form. In the case of groups of more than 10 persons travelling together, the requirement under sentence 1 applies only to the group leader; he or she is required to state the number of foreign nationals in the group and their nationality.
(3) Foreign nationals staying in commercial accommodation who are to be named on the registration form as required by subsection (2) are to verify their identity by presenting a valid identity document (recognised and valid passport or passport substitute) to the managers of the commercial accommodation when checking in.
(4) Persons spending the night in tents, caravans, motor caravans or water vessels at commercially operated sites are not subject to the registration requirement under section 17 (1) and (2) as long as they are registered in Germany in accordance with section 17 or section 28. Anyone who is not registered in accordance with section 17 or section 28 is required to register with the registration authority within two weeks as soon as his or her stay exceeds three months. Subsections (2) and (3) apply accordingly to foreign nationals.
(5) In derogation from subsection (2) sentence 1, the registration requirement may also, with the consent of the person staying in commercial accommodation, be met in such a manner that the data referred to in section 30 (2) are collected electronically and the person staying in the commercial accommodation confirms their accuracy and completeness on the day of arrival by
1. using a card-bound payment method with Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) within the meaning of section 1 (24) of the Payment Services Supervision Act (Zahlungsdiensteaufsichtsgesetz) in the course of which the payment method’s specific allocation number is captured,
2. providing electronic proof of identity pursuant to section 12 of the eID Card Act (eID-Karte-Gesetz) or section 78 (5) of the Residence Act or
3. using his or her eID card in accordance with section 13 of the eID Card Act or his or her residence title in accordance with section 78 (5) of the Residence Act for the purposes of on-site reading.
Anyone operating commercial accommodation may, in relation to his or her own commercial accommodation and other commercial accommodation which is contractually associated with his or her commercial accommodation for the purpose of providing commercial accommodation services, submit to the Federal Office for Information Security an application for the approval, for a period of no more than five years, of a procedure other than that referred to in sentence 1 in order to test other electronic procedures for fulfilling the registration requirement if
1. the data referred to in section 30 (2) are collected electronically with the consent of the data subject,
2. the person staying in commercial accommodation confirms, in a suitable manner, the accuracy and completeness of the data referred to in no. 1 on the day of arrival and
3. a level of security comparable to the procedures referred to in sentence 1 nos. 1 to 3 exists.
Anyone who offers electronic procedures to fulfil the registration requirement is entitled to submit an application as referred to in sentence 2.
(6) Subsections (2) and (3) do not apply to
1. residential institutions providing youth or adult education, basic or advanced training if persons are accommodated for those purposes,
2. company or club accommodation if only company employees or club members and their family members are staying there,
3. youth hostels and mountain huts, institutions of public or publicly recognised youth work providers in temporary use or
4. institutions of religious communities under public law.