Corporate cases and scandals of corruption have emerged in the hospitality industry. In Spain, the recent Criminal Code (1/2015) proposed an organisational model by developing norms of surveillance and protocols to prevent corruption. Forty-nine hotels were involved in a preliminary study to adapt the general regulatory system to the specific management of hotels. One hundred twelve Spanish hotels in the touris-tic region of Extremadura eventually participated in the research. Data were treated through Structural Equation Modelling. Theoretical and practical conclusions were drawn from the study. Findings highlight the big gap between 1-star and 2-star hotels from the 3-star, 4-star and 5-star in approaching the new regulatory system. Higher quality hotels have developed their own regulatory system based on norms of surveillance as well as official channels to detect employee misconduct. Working atmosphere also influences their adoption of the voluntary protocols or their adherence to the protocols and the evaluation of the surveillance policies to prevent corruption.
