You are on holiday in Spain, or staying in a rental for a few weeks, and you need something delivered. Perhaps you forgot a charger, a prescription item is running low, or you simply want to order something online rather than hunt for it in town. Your hotel or holiday flat has an address, so in theory it should be easy. In practice, parcels sent to temporary accommodation go missing, get refused or sit in the wrong place more often than people expect.
This guide explains how to give your parcel the best chance of reaching you at a hotel, apartment or holiday rental in Spain, what to ask before you order, and what to do instead when a temporary address is not a good idea.
Ask Before You Order, Not After
The single most useful thing you can do is ask your accommodation first. Hotels and hosts are under no obligation to accept parcels for guests, and policies vary a lot.
- Hotels with a 24-hour reception will often sign for small parcels, but some only accept them during certain hours, and some refuse anything that arrives before you check in or after you check out.
- Apartment hotels and aparthotels may have a reception desk that keeps limited hours, so a courier arriving in the afternoon could find nobody there.
- Private holiday rentals booked through a platform usually have no one on site. The host or a key-holding company may live elsewhere, and there may be no letterbox you can reach, or no letterbox at all.
Send a short message asking three things: will they accept a parcel for you, will someone be there to sign for it, and how should it be addressed. Get the answer in writing through the booking platform or by email, so there is a record if anything goes wrong.
Address the Parcel So the Right Person Gets It
A parcel addressed only to you at a busy hotel can end up in a back office with nobody knowing whose it is. Spanish addresses also have their own format, with street, number, floor and door, so a missing detail can send a courier to the wrong flat. Our guide on how to write a Spanish address correctly covers the format in detail.
For a hotel, a good pattern is:
- Your full name, followed by Guest or Huésped
- The hotel name
- A/A Recepción (for the attention of reception)
- Your booking reference and arrival date
- Street name and number, postcode, town and province
For an apartment or rental, include the building name if it has one, the block, floor and door (for example Bloque 2, 3º B), and the name of the host or management company as c/o if they have agreed to receive it. Always add your mobile number with the international prefix. Couriers in Spain commonly phone or text before delivering, and a working number can save a failed attempt.
Time the Delivery Around Your Stay
Arrival date and delivery date rarely line up perfectly, so build in a margin.
- Avoid having anything arrive before you check in unless the hotel has confirmed it will hold it.
- Do not order anything in the last few days of your stay. If it is delayed, it may arrive after you have left, and getting it back or redirected is slow and sometimes impossible.
- Remember that delivery estimates for islands such as Gran Canaria are often longer than for mainland Spain, and some sellers do not ship to the Canary Islands at all.
- Choose tracked delivery so you can see where the parcel is and contact the carrier if it stalls.
Watch Out for Customs and Payments on Delivery
A parcel that needs money paid before handover is the one most likely to fail at a hotel. Reception staff will not normally pay duties or fees for a guest, and the parcel may be returned if no one pays.
This matters especially in the Canary Islands, which are outside the EU VAT area. Orders from mainland Spain or elsewhere in the EU can still involve customs paperwork and local tax, and the carrier may ask for payment or documents before delivering. We explain how this works in Do You Pay Customs on Online Orders to the Canary Islands?. If you are staying on the islands, check before ordering whether the seller handles these charges, and expect a possible delay.
Consider a Collection Point Instead
If your accommodation cannot take parcels, or you would rather not rely on reception, have the parcel sent somewhere designed for collection.
Correos Citypaq lockers. Correos, the Spanish postal service, runs a network of Citypaq parcel lockers in supermarkets, petrol stations and other public places. Many shops offer them at checkout. You receive a code when the parcel arrives and open the locker yourself. Correos explains on its comparison of office and Citypaq collection that you have five calendar days to collect from a locker, after which the parcel moves to a post office.
A post office. You can choose to collect from a Correos office. You will need the tracking or notice details and an original photo ID such as your passport. Correos sets out what to bring on its page on collecting a parcel.
Courier pickup points. Many private carriers deliver to local shops that act as pickup points. These can be convenient, but opening hours and holding periods vary, so check the details in the carrier’s notification.
Collection points work best for short stays and everyday items. They are less suitable for anything that must be signed for by you personally at a specific address, or that you need to keep for longer than the holding period.
What to Do if Something Goes Wrong
If tracking shows the parcel as delivered but the hotel cannot find it, ask reception to check the signature name and time against their records, and ask whether it might have gone to a sister property or a central storage room. Then contact the seller, not just the carrier, since the seller is usually the one who opens a claim.
If the parcel was refused or could not be delivered, look at the tracking for a redelivery or collection option. Act quickly, because undelivered parcels are generally returned to the sender after a set period. If you have already left, ask the seller whether it can be sent on to another address, but do not count on it.
Our article on how to avoid missed parcel deliveries abroad has more on preventing failed attempts in the first place.
When a Temporary Address Is the Wrong Choice
A hotel or holiday flat is fine for a one-off order. It is a poor choice for anything ongoing or important, such as bank cards, official letters, documents you need to sign, or regular deliveries over several months. Hotel staff change, rentals change hands, and once you leave there is usually no one to tell you that something has arrived.
If you spend long stretches in Spain, move between places, or simply want one reliable address that does not depend on where you are sleeping, a staffed mail and parcel address is a better fit. Your post and parcels go to the same place every time, someone signs for them, and you decide when and where they are sent on. If you travel by van, our guide to receiving post while touring Spain in a motorhome covers the same problem from the road. Our guide to a Spain mail forwarding service explains how sending on works.
How Letterbox.es Can Help
Letterbox.es provides a secure, staffed address for post and parcels, with locations in Gran Canaria, Cambrils and Barcelona. We receive and sign for deliveries, let you know when something arrives, scan letters so you can read them from anywhere, store parcels safely and forward them to you when you are ready, whether that is your hotel, your rental or your home.
If you would rather not leave your deliveries to a hotel reception desk, get in touch with our team to set up an address before your next trip.
This guide is general information. Hotel policies, carrier procedures and Correos services can change, so confirm the details with your accommodation and the official Correos pages linked above before you rely on them.