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I booked a property through Airbnb in Budapest. I checked the whole listing for any specific requirements and duly asked the host for it. He said none. But when I reached there he asked me to provide my details (Passport number, DoB, address etc). I asked him why did he need this information and he said tax purposes and mentioned hotels do so. My main concern was with those details he can, if he wants to, impersonate myself and get me into trouble wrt credit, fraud. I did submit the details when I book in a hotel, but the hotel has a prerogative to protect it's customers and their details which affect their reputation.

My main query, are these details required by laws applicable in Hungary or the host was trying to make a mickey out of me ?

DumbCoder
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2 Answers2

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In Hungary, if you run an Airbnb legally there's a ton of legalities you need to adhere to as you are basically running a very small hotel. Among other you must have a formal guest book which contains

  • First and last name of the guest, in case of a guest from abroad citizenship (or stateless status).

  • in case of a guest from abroad date and place of birth

  • Address of the guest

  • for guest from abroad/stateless the passport number, number of visa or residency permit, for Hungarians # of id card

  • when and where did the guest enter the country

  • check in/out date and time

  • Signed by the guest.

Your host asked these so they can fill out for you ahead of the time. They just want to save time for you. Once again: this the law and you can't avoid giving this data to them. Of course, if you want, you can wait until you check in but that's all you can do. You can't check into any kind of hotel, big or small, airbnb or hostel or anything without giving out this data. See 4. § (2) in 110/1997. (VI. 25.) Korm. Rendelet and also 4. számú melléklet in there for yourself if you speak Hungarian.

Of course, this data is not for everyone: only the tax authority, immigration authority, police, and the various intelligence agencies can look into it / request data from it ( 4. § (4) ).

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It seems to me your main concern is with the credit card. If he asked you the credit card number you should definitely be concerned.

Other than that he won't be able to access it. The advantage of airbnb is exactly the fact that you pay to an entity (airbnb) that is, in principle worthy of trust. They are in the end a broker that than deal with the host and his payment. They will not reveal payment details. In other words, the host does not get your CC number. He sure can use your info to impersonate yourself, but not with the CC number.

nsn
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