What a hotel should receive from an Aadhaar check, and what it should never keep

Good verification gives the hotel what it needs to be sure of the guest and no more. The full Aadhaar number is the clearest example of something a front desk does not need.

Enough for check-in

• The guest's name, to compare with the booking.
• Whether the guest is an adult, or the year of birth.
• The last four digits of the Aadhaar number, to tell two people with the same name apart.
• The photograph from the document, to compare with the person in front of you.
• A reference for the check, with the time and the route used.

Only if the hotel and the guest agree

Some hotels also ask for the date of birth, gender, address, mobile number or email. In CheckInKYC these are switched on by the platform administrator for a hotel and listed in the notice the guest sees before anything is read. A hotel may also keep pictures of the card, but only when it turns that on and the guest ticks a separate agreement, because the pictures show the full number.

Never needed

• A photocopy of the card kept in a paper file.
• The full 12-digit number stored in a spreadsheet or a booking system.
• Details kept for ever "just in case".

Keep a clear end date

Decide how long records are kept after check-out, tell the guest, and delete on that date. CheckInKYC deletes personal data automatically when the hotel's retention period ends, and keeps only a log of each attempt (time, route, result) with no personal data.

This article explains public information in plain words, as of 18 October 2026. It is not legal advice and rules can change. CheckInKYC is operated by SWASTIK ENTERPRISES, a UIDAI-registered OVSE (No. OR11274063); nothing here says UIDAI endorses or certifies any hotel or product.