Every hostel and riad in Morocco is legally required to register foreign guests with local police. Most owners do it by hand on paper forms. Many have been sent back to redo incorrect paperwork — wrong date format, missing fields, name in the wrong order. This guide covers exactly what the law requires, the most common mistakes that cause rejections, how and where to submit, and what a modern digital workflow looks like so you never have to make a return trip to the commissariat.
What is police registration in Morocco?
Police registration in Morocco (known as the "fiche d'hébergement") is the legal requirement for all accommodation providers — hotels, riads, and hostels — to record passport data for every foreign guest and submit it to local authorities within 24 hours of arrival. Failure to comply can result in fines or loss of operating licence.
What the Law Actually Requires
Which properties must register guests
The obligation applies to all classified accommodation establishments in Morocco — hotels, hostels, riads, guesthouses (maisons d'hôtes), and camping sites. If you take money from guests in exchange for a bed, you are covered by this requirement. There is no size threshold: a two-room riad and a 200-bed hostel face the same legal duty.
The 24-hour rule — when does the clock start
The clock starts the moment a guest checks in — not when they book, not at midnight. You have 24 hours from the time of check-in to submit the guest registration to the local police (or gendarmerie in rural areas). In practice, most operators submit the same day, often first thing in the morning for guests who arrived the previous afternoon or evening. Do not wait until the guest checks out.
Which nationalities require registration
All foreign nationals must be registered — this is not limited to non-African or non-Arab visitors. A French tourist and an Algerian visitor staying at your property both require a submission. Moroccan citizens are not subject to this particular registration requirement (they have separate national ID obligations), but every foreign passport holder is.
What data must be collected per guest
You must collect the following for each foreign guest, exactly as it appears in their passport:
- Surname (family name)
- Given names (first and middle names, in full)
- Date of birth (day, month, year)
- Place of birth
- Nationality
- Passport number
- Passport expiry date
- Issuing country
- Date of arrival at your property
- Date of departure (or expected departure)
- Permanent home address
That is eleven fields per guest. For a group of five travellers arriving together, you are filling in 55 pieces of data by hand — before your shift has even started.
The Standard Paper Process, Step by Step
Filling out the fiche d'hébergement correctly
The fiche d'hébergement (accommodation form) is the official paper form used for guest registration. It is available from the local police station or gendarmerie — some offices supply pads in bulk, others expect you to print your own from the standard template.
Fill in one form per guest. Use block capitals throughout. The form must be legible — if an officer cannot read a field, the submission will be rejected.
Common errors that get forms rejected
These are the most frequent reasons submissions are sent back:
Wrong name order
A passport for "MARTIN Sophie Claire" has "MARTIN" as the surname and "Sophie Claire" as given names. Staff sometimes copy the whole name into the surname field, or reverse them. The surname field must match the machine-readable zone (the two lines of text at the bottom of the passport data page) exactly.
Wrong date format
Morocco uses DD/MM/YYYY. A British passport shows dates as "12 MAR 1990" — this should be written as "12/03/1990" on the form. Writing "03/12/1990" or "12-03-90" will cause a rejection. This is the single most common error.
Missing fields
"Place of birth" and "permanent home address" are the fields most often left blank. Some guests will not know these details off the top of their head — you need to ask them directly at check-in and record the answers before they go to their room. A form with any blank mandatory field is invalid.
Illegible handwriting
Officers will not decipher unclear writing. If the passport number or any name is ambiguous, the form will be returned. Passport numbers often contain both the digit "0" and the letter "O" — write these clearly.
Using nationality instead of issuing country
A guest can be a French national holding a passport issued by France — in most cases these match. But a dual national may hold a British passport and have French nationality. The form asks for the issuing country of the passport used at check-in, not the guest's stated nationality.
How and where to submit — the police station process
Forms are submitted in person at the local commissariat de police or gendarmerie post. You bring the completed forms for all guests who checked in since your last submission. An officer stamps and logs the forms. There is no fee.
Most operators go once a day — early morning, before the day gets busy. If you miss a submission or arrive with errors, the officer will send you back to redo the forms. That means another journey, more time off the desk, and a gap in your registration log.
How long to keep copies
Keep a copy of every fiche for at least two years. Inspections can happen at any time and officers may ask to see historical records. A simple binder organised by month is enough — the requirement is retention, not a fancy filing system.
What Happens If You Don't Comply
Fines and inspection risk
Non-compliance carries fines under Moroccan tourism and public security law. The Ministry of Tourism conducts spot inspections of classified accommodation, particularly in cities with high tourist footfall like Marrakech, Fes, and Agadir. Inspectors will check that registration logs are up to date, that records are retained, and that submissions have been made within the required 24-hour window. Fines are issued per missing or defective submission — a backlog of a week's worth of un-submitted forms can become expensive quickly.
Real consequences for riad and hostel licences
Repeat non-compliance can affect your classification status with the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism. In serious cases, an establishment's operating licence can be suspended. Beyond the legal dimension, there is a practical one: police officers often ask to see your registration book during routine visits. A property that is consistently well-organised builds goodwill; one that consistently presents problems will receive more scrutiny.
How Digital Registration Changes the Workflow
Scan the passport — data fills automatically
Instead of reading each field and writing it by hand, you point a phone camera at the passport data page. The AI reads every field — surname, given names, date of birth, passport number, expiry date, place of birth, nationality, issuing country — and fills them in automatically. The whole process takes about ten seconds. There is no typing, no squinting at small print, and no risk of copying a date in the wrong format.
CSV export in the correct format for police submission
Once scanned, each record is saved digitally. You can export your guest records as a CSV file — a spreadsheet that contains every field the police require, already formatted correctly with dates in DD/MM/YYYY, names in the right order, and no blank fields. Print it, bring it in, hand it over. The officer gets clean data; you get a stamped submission.
No return trips for errors
Because the data comes directly from the passport — read by AI, not typed by hand — the common errors simply do not happen. Wrong date format: eliminated. Name in the wrong order: eliminated. Missing fields: the app flags incomplete records before you export. The return trip to redo paperwork becomes a thing of the past.
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Stempel reads every passport field automatically and exports a ready-to-print record for police submission. Works on any phone. No hardware required.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to register guests who stay only one night?
Yes. The registration obligation applies from the first night. Duration of stay does not affect the requirement — a guest checking in for one night generates the same paperwork as a guest staying two weeks. The 24-hour submission window runs from check-in regardless of when the guest checks out.
What if a passport is damaged or unreadable?
You are still obligated to register the guest. If the passport is partially damaged but the key fields (surname, given names, date of birth, passport number) are legible, record what you can read and note on the form that the document was damaged. If a passport is so badly damaged that it cannot be read, the guest should be directed to their country's embassy or consulate for an emergency travel document. You cannot host a foreign guest without being able to complete the registration.
Can I submit registration forms by email?
As of 2026, the standard process remains in-person submission at the local commissariat or gendarmerie. Some urban police stations — particularly in Marrakech and Casablanca — have begun piloting digital submission channels, but this is not yet consistent across the country. Check with your local station directly. Until a standardised digital channel is confirmed in your area, assume in-person submission is required.
Guest registration is a non-negotiable part of running a hostel or riad in Morocco. The process is straightforward once you know exactly what is required — but handwriting eleven fields per guest, every day, for every foreign visitor, adds up. Small errors cause return trips. Missed submissions create liability.
The practical solution is to eliminate the handwriting step entirely. Scan the passport, export the record, submit it. Ten seconds of work instead of ten minutes.
If you want to see how it works before committing, start a free trial — no credit card required, 14 days to test it with real guests. Or see our pricing if you're ready to get started.