Holiday rental blog

Practical guides on managing tourist accommodation in Spain, up-to-date rules to meet your legal requirements, register on SES.HOSPEDAJES, and manage your region's tourist licence.

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Regulations & obligations

Every rule that governs short-term rentals in Spain, gathered and kept up to date: the obligations under Royal Decree 933/2021, guest registration, the tourist licence in each autonomous community and the penalties. Step-by-step guides to stay compliant, with the official source always at hand.

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Legal updates

The legal changes affecting short-term rentals, explained as soon as they land and with the official source: Supreme Court rulings, regional decrees, the EU short-term rental regulation and SES.HOSPEDAJES updates.

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Software & automation

Honest comparisons of apps and tools for holiday rentals: what to choose to automate check-in and guest registration, how to sync your bookings by iCal with Booking and Airbnb, and how to save hours of admin every week.

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Rental management

Tutorials and articles to run your holiday rental better, beyond the paperwork: pricing strategy, guest communication, productivity and the day-to-day business decisions of managing one or several tourist properties.

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Latest

Cobalt-blue azulejo: in a 1940s Spanish provincial office, an official with a cord-tied dossier under his arm pins a blank tag onto a large map of Spain on a corkboard, its regions shaded and unlabelled; beside him the manager with her folder points at another region; a cat sleeps on a stack of files

Tourist licence

Tourist rental inspections and fines in Spain by region (2026)

Madrid inspects 588 flats a year and fines 86% of them, Mallorca proposed 10 million euros in penalties, and six regions publish nothing. The tracker, region by region, with the source behind every figure.

October 2, 2026

Cobalt-blue azulejo: in the waiting room of a Valencian town hall in the 1940s, with a wooden bench and a grille counter at the back, the seated agent compares two blank forms, one in each hand; through the window, in the distance, the Miguelete tower; a cat dozes under the bench

Tourist licence

Tourist Licence in the Valencia Region: Requirements

The Valencia region asks for a municipal urban-compatibility report before it will register a flat. And since August 2026 the requirements have changed.

September 29, 2026

Cobalt-blue azulejo: in the entrance hall of a 1940s apartment building, with brass letterboxes and a glazed door onto the street, six owners sitting on folding chairs vote by a show of hands while the administrator counts them from a small table with the minute book open; outside, on the pavement, a guest with a suitcase waits; a cat under the table

Tourist licence

Owners' Association and Tourist Flat: Spain's 3/5 Majority

The owners' association has decided on tourist flats by three fifths since 2019, and since 2025 anyone starting out needs its approval. How it is obtained, how far the resolution reaches and what protects the flat that was already operating with a licence.

September 25, 2026

Cobalt-blue azulejo: in front of a Canarian house of volcanic stone with a carved wooden balcony, a civil servant holding a tied bundle of papers points up at the balcony while the property manager, hat in hand, looks up; a dragon tree in the background and a cat on the doorstep

Tourist licence

Tourist Licence in the Canary Islands: Requirements

Ley 6/2025 governs registration since December 2025 and Decreto 113/2015 still governs operation: planning that allows the use, a ten-year-old building, and an authorisation that expires after five.

September 22, 2026

Cobalt-blue azulejo: in the registration room of a 1940s Seville delegation office, with the arched courtyard and an orange tree visible through the open door, the manager reads a large bound register on a lectern, her finger on the page; a clerk waits behind a small counter; a cat at the foot of the lectern

Tourist licence

Tourist Licence in Andalusia: Requirements and Process

Andalusia registers flats in the RTA through a declaration, and has cancelled over 15,300 since 2024. What it asks for, and in what order.

September 18, 2026

Cobalt-blue azulejo: in the front office of a 1940s police station, a uniformed officer has pushed a bundle of carbon-copy guest reports tied with a ribbon back across the counter and carries on writing in his register; on the other side, the manager gathers the papers in silence, folder under his arm; a cat sleeps on a bench

Guest registration

WebPol and e-Hotel: Spain's Old Guest Report Channel

The police channel that survives in tutorials and in the checkboxes of property software. How it really worked, and what is left of it.

September 15, 2026

Cobalt-blue azulejo: in the back room of a Spanish guesthouse, the manager files a stack of documents into an open antique safe that already holds cord-tied bundles; the cat watches from on top of it while, through the doorway, a guest waits at the reception counter beside her suitcase

Guest registration

GDPR Duties When Registering Guests in Spain

Real Decreto 933/2021 makes you collect the data; the GDPR makes you handle it properly. Which role you hold, which legal basis applies, what you must have in writing, and what to sign with your check-in provider.

September 11, 2026

Cobalt-blue azulejo: one Spanish facade with two adjoining open doors, a family table laid for a meal on the left and a lodging's reception counter with its bell and a suitcase on the right; between them the manager, folder under her arm, looks from one doorway to the other while the cat watches from the step

Guest registration

Housing or lodging in Spain: the line that decides your obligations

You can be housing under the LAU and lodging for the tax office. The four boundaries, the test each one uses, and a table by autonomous community.

September 7, 2026

Cobalt-blue azulejo: in a second-floor office above a Spanish street, the manager sorts coins and notes into two separate piles on her desk beside an adding machine; through the open window, two floors below, a guest walks away down the cobbles with his suitcase; the cat sleeps on the sill

Rental management

Tourist Rental Taxes in Spain: IRPF, VAT and the AEAT Forms

What you owe the Spanish tax office for a tourist rental, and the single cut that decides it: services typical of the hotel industry. IRPF, VAT, transfer tax, and which forms survived the end of modelo 179.

September 4, 2026

Cobalt-blue azulejo: on the doorstep of a whitewashed Spanish house, the outgoing owner hands a heavy ring of iron keys to the incoming manager; the house cat sleeps on the threshold between them and a handcart with tied boxes waits at the curb

Rental management

Changing ownership of a Spanish holiday rental: licence and SES

In Spain the licence does not always travel with the house: in the Valencia region it does not survive the sale, in Catalonia it follows the property. And SES.HOSPEDAJES has no transfer procedure at all: it is deregistration plus a fresh sign-up. The complete guide to not ending up paperless mid-handover.

August 28, 2026

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