If you are going to rent out a tourist flat or apartment in Spain, you do not have one obligation, you have three, and they are different. The tourist licence from your autonomous community, the national single registry and the guest report get confused all the time because all three are called a “registry”, but each is required by a different authority, fulfilled at a different moment, and one of them has just been annulled by the Supreme Court. Here, in order, is who needs what.
The short answer: yes, you need a tourist licence to operate, and yes, you are still required to file the guest report with every guest. What you no longer need to process is the national single registry. Let us take it step by step.
The three obligations, at a glance
| Obligation | Who requires it | When it is fulfilled | Status in 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regional tourist licence or registration | Your autonomous community | Once, before operating | In force. It is the number the platforms verify |
| National single registry (NRUA) | Ministry of Housing (RD 1312/2024) | Once, per dwelling | Annulled by the Supreme Court’s Ruling 620/2026 |
| Guest report | Ministry of the Interior (RD 933/2021) | With every booking, within 24 hours | In force. Unaffected by the ruling |
The mental rule to keep things straight: the licence is processed once before you start, the national registry is no longer processed, and the guest report repeats with every guest, forever. We develop this in full in licence, NRUA and guest report; here we give you the map so you know where to begin.
1. The tourist licence: the first, and the one that counts for advertising
In Spain there is no national tourist licence. The competence is regional: each autonomous community has its own registry, its own rules and its own requirements, and even the name of the number you are assigned changes depending on where you operate. It is RTA in Andalusia, Registre de Turisme de Catalunya in Catalonia, REAT in Galicia, REATE in the Basque Country, and so on in every territory.
In practice it is almost never a prior authorisation that has to be granted to you, but rather a declaración responsable (responsible declaration): you submit a form to your autonomous community and the activity is enabled from that moment, with the dwelling entered in the tourist registry, which assigns you a number.
Three things matter in almost every community:
- It comes first. Without registration you cannot legally market the dwelling.
- It is the number the platforms verify. Airbnb, Booking and the rest remove listings without a valid registration number, and it has to be published on every listing.
- It is not eliminated by the Supreme Court ruling. The ruling annulled the national registry, not the regional ones.
Because each community regulates surfaces, equipment, saturated areas and procedures differently, what applies in Andalusia does not apply in the Canary Islands. The guide to the tourist licence by region gathers, territory by territory, the registry, the rule that governs it and the 2026 development that affects you most. Start there to locate yours.
What changed in 2025-2026 and applies to almost all
- Vote of the owners’ association. The reform of the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal (Horizontal Property Law, Organic Law 1/2025) requires the favourable agreement of 3/5 of the owners for a new tourist-use dwelling in a building under the horizontal property regime.
- Stressed areas and per-neighbourhood caps. More and more communities and municipalities are limiting or suspending new tourist dwellings in the most saturated areas. It is worth checking your municipality’s planning before buying or refurbishing for tourist rental.
2. The national single registry (NRUA): annulled, but keep the paperwork
The single rental registration number was created by RD 1312/2024 and was processed at the Land Registry. For a few months it was an obligation that added to the regional licence. The Supreme Court’s Ruling 620/2026 has annulled it, on the grounds that the State invaded regional competences when it created it.
What that means today:
- It no longer has to be applied for. If you did not have it, do not start the procedure.
- If you have it, keep the documentation. There are still no clear public instructions on the numbers already granted or on the fees paid, so it is worth keeping everything and checking the status at the official source.
The expensive mistake is to read “the Supreme Court annuls the registry” and extend it to everything else. The ruling removes a national procedure for dwellings; it touches neither the regional licence nor the guest report. The detail, with the nuances, is in the analysis of Ruling 620/2026.
3. The guest report: the obligation that never ends
Here is the underlying difference. The licence and the national registry are one-off paperwork. The guest report is daily operations: each guest generates the obligation to collect their data and report it.
Royal Decree 933/2021 requires you to register the data of every traveller and send it to the Ministry of the Interior through SES.HOSPEDAJES within a maximum of 24 hours from check-in. It is the Ministry of the Interior’s system, not Housing’s, so neither the Supreme Court ruling nor any change in the tourist registries affects it.
It is not optional and it is not replaced by the licence. And non-compliance is sanctionable independently: the fines under RD 933/2021 are the competence of the Ministry of the Interior and accumulate on top of any regional tourist sanction. We detail them in penalties under RD 933/2021. To start complying, the SES.HOSPEDAJES guide explains how the system works and what you need.
Why the three get confused
All three use the word “registry” and all three end in a number or an official submission. But they respond to different logics, and mixing them up is costly.
| Common belief | Reality |
|---|---|
| “The Supreme Court has annulled the guest registry” | It annulled the national dwelling registry (NRUA). The guest report remains intact |
| “With the regional licence I am already registered for everything” | The licence does not register you with SES.HOSPEDAJES; they are separate systems |
| “If I file the reports, I do not need a licence” | The guest report does not replace the regional tourist authorisation |
| “Since I manage few flats, it does not apply to me” | The three obligations apply from the first accommodation, with no minimum number of places |
What if I operate without a licence?
It is the shortcut that costs the most. Renting out a tourist dwelling without your community’s licence is an infringement of the regional tourism law, and in several communities the fines reach six figures. On top of the financial sanction, the platforms remove the listing without a valid registration number and many communities can order the activity to cease.
And since the two fines are independent, you can be fully in order with your community and still be sanctioned by the Ministry of the Interior for not sending the reports, or vice versa. The table of amounts community by community is in renting without a tourist licence: fines by region.
The recommended order, step by step
If you are just starting, this is the path:
- Check your municipality’s planning. Make sure your area is not saturated or stressed before investing.
- Obtain the owners’ association agreement (3/5) if the building is under horizontal property.
- Gather the documentation your community requires: cadastral reference, habitability or occupancy certificate, civil liability insurance and, where required, a technical certificate.
- Submit the declaración responsable at your community’s electronic office and obtain the tourist registration number.
- Publish the number on all your listings.
- Register the guest report with SES.HOSPEDAJES and start reporting each guest’s data within 24 hours.
Steps 1 to 5 are done once. Step 6 returns with every booking, forever.
The part that repeats every day
Of the three obligations, two are resolved with one-off paperwork. The third, the guest report, returns with every guest: collect complete data, validate it and send it on time. If you manage several flats, that work multiplies booking by booking.
That is exactly what RegistroViajero automates: digital check-in for your guests in 9 languages, validation of the mandatory fields and automatic sending to SES.HOSPEDAJES, with nothing copied by hand. Check-in is never blocked by the subscription state, and it is 5 € per active accommodation per month, with a 15-day free trial, no card. You can see how to automate guest registration or start straight away with the SES.HOSPEDAJES guide.
Regional tourism rules and the situation of the national single registry change frequently. This guide reflects the framework in force on the publication date; always verify the detail with your community’s registry and with the official SES.HOSPEDAJES portal before processing.
