TL;DR — Both Conforme and Chekin help short-term-rental operators meet guest-registration obligations across the EU. The honest difference, in a Conforme vs Chekin comparison, is scope: Chekin is a mature Layer 1 tool focused on guest check-in and police-portal submissions across many countries. Conforme is being built Layer-2-first — registration-number validation, expiry tracking, OTA listing-field parity, and the EU SDEP filings that arrive with Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 on 20 May 2026. If you only need to send guest data to SES Hospedajes or Alloggiati Web tonight, either tool will do the job. If you need a single audit trail showing that every listing carries the correct registration number across Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo — and that you can prove it on demand — read on.
What “compliance” actually means in 2026
Short-term-rental compliance in the EU has split into two distinct layers, and most tools on the market only address one of them.
Layer 1 — Guest registration. This is the well-known obligation to transmit traveller identity data to the relevant ministry: SES Hospedajes in Spain (under Real Decreto 933/2021), SIBA in Portugal, Alloggiati Web in Italy, and the equivalent national systems elsewhere. It happens at or near check-in. The data goes to interior or police ministries.
Layer 2 — Registration-number lifecycle. This is the obligation to obtain, display, renew and file information about your registration number itself: the RNAL number in Portugal, the CIN in Italy, the VUT/VFT codes in Spanish autonomous communities, the Déclaloc number in France, and from May 2026 the harmonised registration ID under Regulation (EU) 2024/1028. Layer 2 is where fines for unregistered listings are issued, where OTA delistings happen, and where the new EU Single Digital Entry Point (SDEP) will demand structured periodic data filings.
Most “compliance software” today is Layer 1 software with a marketing budget. The Conforme vs Chekin question really comes down to whether you also need Layer 2 cover.
Country coverage
Both products operate across the EU’s main STR markets. Here is a neutral side-by-side of where each integrates today.
| Jurisdiction | Layer 1 system | Chekin | Conforme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spain | SES Hospedajes (RD 933/2021) | Yes | Yes |
| Portugal | SIBA + RNAL lookup | Yes | Yes |
| Italy | Alloggiati Web + CIN | Yes | Yes |
| France | Déclaloc | Yes | In progress |
| EU-wide | SDEP (Regulation 2024/1028) | Not publicly documented | In progress, on the regulation timeline |
Chekin publicly markets coverage in roughly 20+ countries and a long tail of regional sub-portals. Conforme is starting with the four-country beachhead (ES / PT / IT / FR) plus the EU SDEP layer, with depth prioritised over breadth.
If your portfolio sits outside ES / PT / IT / FR today, Chekin’s geographic footprint is wider. If your portfolio is concentrated in those four markets and you want Layer 2 cover for them, Conforme is purpose-built for that profile.
Layer 1: guest registration — table stakes
For Spanish, Portuguese and Italian operators, the Layer 1 feature set is now fairly standardised across vendors:
- A guest-facing online check-in form (passport upload, signature, traveller details).
- OCR or MRZ parsing of identity documents.
- Submission to the relevant national portal (SES Hospedajes, SIBA, Alloggiati Web).
- Storage of the resulting confirmation receipt for the legally required retention period.
- Optional bolt-ons: digital contracts, tourist tax collection, smart-lock codes, upsells.
Chekin offers all of this and has been doing so for years. Conforme offers the same, with two architectural choices worth flagging:
- EU-resident infrastructure. All guest data and registration receipts are stored on EU-resident infrastructure, which simplifies Article 28 GDPR processor agreements for operators with German or French guests.
- Receipt-first design. Every submission produces a downloadable, timestamped receipt object — see the audit-trail section below.
For most operators, Layer 1 capability is no longer a differentiator. Both tools can ingest a guest, parse a passport and submit to a police portal. The interesting question is what happens after that.
Layer 2: the registration-number lifecycle
This is where the Conforme vs Chekin comparison stops being symmetric.
A registration number is not a one-off field. Across the four beachhead markets it has a lifecycle:
- Issuance. Apply, receive, store the official document.
- Validation. Confirm the number is active in the public registry (RNAL portal in Portugal, the regional VUT/VFT registries in Spain, Banca Dati Strutture Ricettive for the Italian CIN).
- OTA parity. Ensure the same number is displayed on the Airbnb listing, the Booking.com listing, the Vrbo listing and any direct-booking site. OTAs are increasingly required to verify these and delist non-compliant properties.
- Expiry and renewal. Some numbers are time-bounded; some are tied to the property and survive ownership changes; some require annual confirmation.
- Periodic filings. From 20 May 2026, Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 requires structured monthly data returns through each member state’s SDEP. The reference implementation (SEMICeu/sdep) defines an OAuth2 client-credentials flow against a STR-AP JSON payload schema — meaning operators or their software vendors will need to authenticate machine-to-machine and submit structured data, not PDFs.
Chekin’s publicly documented feature set is centred on Layer 1 and on associated guest experience features (online check-in, identity verification, tourist tax, upsells). It does not publicly document a registration-number validation engine, an OTA listing-field parity checker, or an SDEP filing pipeline. That may change; vendors iterate.
Conforme is being built Layer-2-first. The product roadmap leads with: registration-number validation against public registries, an OTA listing scraper that compares the displayed number on each platform against the number on file, expiry alerts, and an SDEP filing module timed to the May 2026 effective date of Regulation (EU) 2024/1028. Layer 1 is supported as a prerequisite, not as the headline.
If you operate five units in one Spanish autonomous community and trust your colleagues to keep the VUT number visible on every listing, Layer 2 may not feel urgent. If you operate fifty units across three countries and three OTAs, Layer 2 is where your fine exposure lives.
Receipt and audit-trail handling
The single question that separates a usable compliance tool from a dashboard is: “can you show me the receipt?”
Spanish inspectors auditing SES Hospedajes compliance, Portuguese ASAE inspectors checking SIBA submissions, and Italian Questura officers verifying Alloggiati Web entries all want the same thing: proof that a specific submission was made on a specific date for a specific guest, and the reference number the portal issued in response.
In a properly designed audit trail, each submission produces:
- A timestamped receipt object linked to the booking, the guest, the property and the user account that triggered the submission.
- The exact payload sent (so disputes about field-level errors can be resolved).
- The portal’s response, including any reference or tracking number.
- An immutable record — i.e. you cannot quietly edit a submission after the fact.
Chekin surfaces submission status to the operator and stores submissions for the retention period. Operators should confirm with their account manager exactly what is exportable and in what format if they need to respond to an audit.
Conforme is designed to produce a single PDF audit pack per property per period: every Layer 1 submission, every Layer 2 status check, every OTA parity scan, with timestamps and original portal responses attached. The same evidence trail feeds the eventual SDEP filings.
This is mainly a question of how you want to spend your time when an inspection letter arrives.
PMS support footprint
Both tools support the major property-management systems used by EU operators in the 5–200 unit segment. The realistic comparison:
- Hostaway — both supported.
- Lodgify — both supported.
- Guesty — both supported.
- Beds24 — both supported.
- Avantio — both supported. (Avantio is particularly common among Spanish operators, which matters for this audience.)
If you are on a niche or regional PMS, ask both vendors for a definitive answer before signing.
Pricing posture
Pricing changes too often to commit to a comparison table here. Both vendors price per active unit per month, with tiers tied to country count and feature scope. Ask each for a written quote that matches your actual portfolio: country mix, unit count, OTA mix, and PMS.
Which tool fits which operator
A neutral read of the current state of both products:
- Choose Chekin if your priority is Layer 1 guest registration across many countries, you want a mature product with a long track record, and your registration-number obligations are simple enough to handle manually or inside your PMS.
- Choose Conforme if your portfolio is concentrated in Spain, Portugal, Italy or France, you are worried specifically about registration-number parity across OTAs, and you want a single audit pack and SDEP filing pipeline ready for 20 May 2026.
Neither answer is wrong. The Conforme vs Chekin question is genuinely about which layer of the compliance stack is your bigger risk.
Next step
Conforme is in early access. The fastest way to see whether Layer 2 exposure is real for your listings — before you commit to anything — is the Conforme Free Audit Tool. Paste an Airbnb, Booking.com or Vrbo listing URL and you’ll receive a one-page PDF within 60 seconds showing registration-number compliance gaps and per-country fine exposure for that listing. No signup required for the audit itself.
If the audit surfaces gaps you want closed before May 2026, reserve a place on the early-access list. Early-access operators get onboarding support, priority country expansion votes, and SDEP filing setup at the regulation deadline.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to switch from my current Layer 1 tool to use Conforme for Layer 2? No. Conforme is being designed to coexist with existing Layer 1 vendors during the transition. You can keep submitting guest registrations through your current tool and run Conforme alongside for registration-number validation, OTA parity and SDEP filings. Operators consolidating onto a single vendor can do that later once Conforme’s Layer 1 coverage matches their country mix.
What changes on 20 May 2026? Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 takes full effect, requiring each EU member state to operate a Single Digital Entry Point through which short-term-rental data is collected and shared with platforms and authorities. Operators will need to file structured periodic data through their national SDEP. The exact scope and frequency are being finalised by member states, so operators should confirm with their local authority during the first half of 2026.
Is the registration number on my Airbnb listing my responsibility or Airbnb’s? The legal obligation to hold and display a valid registration number sits with the operator (the host). Platforms increasingly verify and may delist non-compliant listings, but they do not assume your liability. If your listing carries a wrong, expired or missing number, the regulatory exposure is yours.
Does Conforme work if I’m not on a PMS? Yes. Conforme can be used directly without a PMS, with bookings entered manually or imported via OTA connections. The audit-trail and registration-number features work the same way; only the booking ingestion path changes.
How is guest data protected? Conforme runs on EU-resident infrastructure with standard GDPR Article 28 processor terms. Guest data is encrypted at rest and in transit, and submission receipts are stored for the retention period required in each jurisdiction. Operators retain controller status; Conforme acts as processor.
What if I operate in a country Conforme doesn’t cover yet? For now, those listings should remain with your current Layer 1 vendor. The early-access programme includes a vote on country expansion priorities, so operators with mixed-country portfolios can flag where coverage matters most.