Tourist Licence in Asturias, Spain: Requirements

The Principado de Asturias lets you open on the same day you file the form, and checks afterwards. That order is what puts the risk in Asturias not in the procedure but in what arrives months later: a request for documents, an inspection that no longer stops at the door and, if something essential does not add up, cancellation of the registration and a fixed period during which you cannot try again.

What is specifically Asturian is that there are two categories, not one, and that the building decides which one is yours. A flat in a block of several storeys is a vivienda de uso turístico; a detached or terraced house let as a whole is a vivienda vacacional (holiday home). They go into the same register, with different caps on places, different physical requirements and different service obligations.

The framework has moved twice in two years: Ley 6/2024 brought viviendas de uso turístico into the tourism act with the rank of statute, and Decreto 4/2026 developed them, rewriting sixteen articles of the 2016 decree along the way. One of the adaptation deadlines it opened has already expired.

Vivienda vacacional or VUT: which category applies in Asturias

The distinction is not a label: it changes the cap on places, the minimum floor area and the compulsory services. Bathrooms are precisely the exception, because Decreto 4/2026 levelled the two categories at one per four places or fraction thereof. That same decree reworded the concept of vivienda de uso turístico like this:

Viviendas de uso turístico are independent dwellings located in a building of several storeys subject to the horizontal property regime, furnished and equipped in conditions of immediate use, temporarily ceded by the natural or legal person owning them or holding an enabling title, directly or indirectly, to third parties for a tourist purpose, and in which the tourist accommodation service is provided habitually and for a price, together with the tourist services established in this decree.

The vivienda vacacional is defined by exclusion, with a phrase that settles most of the doubts: it covers only the whole dwelling and not lettings by the room, “with the exclusion of flats”. If the property is a flat in a building under the horizontal property regime, you cannot register it as vacacional even if you let it in its entirety.

Two practical consequences. A four-bedroom flat you were marketing for ten people has its months numbered: the VUT cap is 8 places and dwellings already registered have to meet it by 3 March 2027. If you declare it now, it applies to you from day one. And the Asturian vivienda de uso turístico obliges you to provide services, which brings it close to lodging: if you offer neither daily cleaning nor reception, you are not compliant. Asturias is one of only two regions where the services provided decide which side the accommodation falls on, along with the Balearics, and the full map is in housing or lodging.

One case the rules leave open: a terraced house in an estate under the horizontal property regime is not a “building of several storeys” under Article 12.1, but neither does it fit the exclusion of flats. Ask the Servicio de Ordenación, Innovación y Calidad Turística for the classification before you declare: the type and the category are an essential change, and correcting them afterwards forces you to declare again.

When one letting a year makes you a tourist business

Ley 6/2024 added to Article 30 of the Asturian tourism act a definition of habitual activity that is triggered by two routes at once, the letting and the channel:

For the purposes of this act, the regulated tourist activity shall be deemed to be carried out habitually where the service is provided at least once a year or where it is marketed through tourist intermediaries, digital channels with a connotation of tourist supply, tour operators or any other means of communication, booking or sale, or through tourist supply channels.

A single letting a year turns you into a tourist accommodation business. And the decree reinforces the rule from the other side: a letting marketed through tourist intermediaries, digital channels with a connotation of tourist supply or tour operators is presumed to be subject to the rules. Publishing the listing is, on its own, sufficient indication.

Three situations fall outside, and only three:

• Lettings for holiday or tourist reasons without economic consideration.
• Dwellings let for more than four continuous months to the same tenant.
• Leases of urban property under Ley 29/1994 and accommodation that fits another category in the act (hotel, tourist apartment, rural tourism, hostel). Watch the last one, which produces the most misclassified registrations: a house in a traditional settlement of fewer than 500 inhabitants or on non-developable land is a casa de aldea (village house), rural tourism accommodation, and it is declared under code RECE0033T04, not as a vivienda vacacional.

And two absolute prohibitions: dwellings under a public or official protection regime cannot be vacacional or de uso turístico, nor can those located in areas declared unsuitable by their town halls.

The REAT: which register enters you, and the number it gives

The register is called the Registro de Empresas y Actividades Turísticas del Principado de Asturias, abbreviated to REAT, and it is run by the Consejería responsible for tourism. The act defines it as an administrative register of a public nature whose entries are made of the administration’s own motion or at the request of the interested party, and which is free of charge³.

You do not ask for the number: it is communicated to you. Once the declaration is filed, the dwelling is entered and the administration sends you electronically the number, the category and, where applicable, the speciality, together with a copy of the libro de inspección turística (tourism inspection book) and the statutory complaint forms, two documents an inspector asks for the moment they turn up.

That signatura, the assigned register reference, takes the form XYZ.0000.AS, and until it arrives the Consejería accepts a transitional solution that bridges the gap between filing and advertising: in platform advertising you may use the filing-receipt reference the electronic office returns, of the type ENT202X0000000⁴.

That number has to appear in two places, in a different form for each category:

• On the outside. The vacacional displays beside the main entrance a standardised plaque with the assigned signatura (annex I). The VUT displays a pictogram with the letters VUT and the registration number (annex II).
• In all advertising. Operators and owners of tourist supply channels have to include the REAT number and the exact location of the dwelling, whatever the medium. The content is the operator’s responsibility even where the medium belongs to a third party: an incomplete listing on a platform is your problem, not the platform’s.

A point of vocabulary that confuses people in their dealings: Decreto 4/2026 calls “registration number” what the 2016 decree called “signatura”, but only in the articles it rewrote, so Article 11 still speaks of signatura. Which number the platforms ask for today is in the registration number Airbnb and Booking require.

What the tourist licence costs in Asturias: nothing

Registration in the REAT is free by law and the electronic procedure carries no fee. What costs money is meeting the requirements before you declare:

• Public liability insurance for the business, with minimum cover of 150,250 euros and an excess no higher than 602 euros¹.
• Municipal licence of use or a cédula for second and subsequent occupations, as required by the habitability rules for the property.
• A certified technical project or distribution plans at a scale of 1/100, with the use and the floor area of each room.
• Energy certificate for the property.
• Individual meters for water and for energy supplies, in the VUT.
• Sound-level meter in the VUT’s living room, with external monitoring of the noise level and an alert to the owner when municipal thresholds are exceeded.

The last two are the expensive novelty of Decreto 4/2026 and affect only VUTs. The recurring cost, which is fiscal, is in taxes on a tourist-use dwelling.

Requirements for a vivienda de uso turístico in Asturias

Article 13 of the decree, as worded in 2026, brings together the physical requirements an inspector checks inside the dwelling:

1. Municipal licence of use or a cédula for second and subsequent occupations, and permanent compliance with the technical conditions required of dwellings.
2. Residential use in the planning rules and an area declared suitable by the town hall.
3. Complete furniture and household goods, appropriate to the number of places, in good condition and with replacement guaranteed.
4. Individual meters for cold and hot domestic water and for energy, with sufficient heating.
5. A 6 kg ABC powder extinguisher and emergency lighting.
6. Direct ventilation to the outside or to uncovered courtyards, with window blackout.
7. One bathroom per four places or fraction thereof, with a washbasin, a toilet and a shower or bath.
8. VUT pictogram on the outside, with the REAT registration number.
9. First-aid kit, an exit plan showing the rooms and the places in each bedroom, and a telephone or internet connection unless the area has no coverage.
10. A noise monitoring system in the living room, with external monitoring and an alert to the owner when municipal thresholds are exceeded.
11. Emergency information: the nearest fire brigade, police and health services, and 112.

And two obligations that are operational rather than equipment, the ones that complicate registrations most:

The second is the package in Article 13.3: repairs and maintenance, daily cleaning except for the kitchen and the household goods, a change of linen every four days, and tourist information about the area. The rules close off the usual escape route: the party responsible is the owner or titleholder, directly or through third parties, “without the mere indication of a professional or company providing the service being sufficient”. Handing over the phone number of a cleaning company is not providing the service.

The vivienda vacacional: up to 14 places, 7 bedrooms

The vacacional has a lighter regime because it is not obliged to provide services, only accommodation. Its maximum capacity is 14 places in no more than 7 bedrooms, almost double the VUT⁵. Its minimum standards, after the 2026 rewrite, are these:

• Hot and cold drinking water and electricity guaranteed 24 hours a day, waste water disposal, heating and refuse collection authorised by the town hall.
• A first-aid kit and a 6 kg ABC powder extinguisher per storey, plus an internet connection unless the area has no coverage.
• A double bedroom of 10 m² and a single of 6 m², beds 0.80 and 1.35 metres wide, bedside tables, a chair or armchair per occupant and a wardrobe with hangers.
• Bathrooms with sufficient ventilation, two sets of linen per person per week and one bathroom per four places or fraction thereof.
• A kitchen with a sink, two rings, an oven, a fridge, a pantry or cupboards, a complete set of crockery and pans, a washing machine and an iron.
• Signposted access, passable by any car, up to the vicinity of the dwelling.

An isolated house at the end of a track usually founders on the last point, not the first ones.

Filing the declaración responsable in Asturias, step by step

The procedure is compulsorily electronic and has a code per category in the Principado’s electronic office: RECE0033T02 for viviendas vacacionales, RECE0033T03 for viviendas de uso turístico and RECE0033T04 for rural tourism⁴. Everything that follows is notified by electronic means only. This is the real order, including what happens after you think you have finished:

1. Work out the category and check that the area has not been declared unsuitable by your concejo, the Asturian municipality.
2. Gather the documents. They are not attached, but the declaration states that you hold them: legal personality, title showing availability of the dwelling, compliance with municipal rules, a certified project or plans at a scale of 1/100, licence of use or cédula de ocupación, authorisation from the co-owners, certificate from the owners’ association meeting, public liability insurance, energy certificate and being up to date with the tax authorities and social security.
3. File the declaración responsable with the data listed in Article 30: cadastral reference (only one dwelling per reference, unless you prove there are two or more), category, capacity, places and bedrooms, an immediate-response telephone number, the maintenance company, the periods of operation and the statements on public protection and planning compatibility.
4. Start operating that same day. Filing enables the activity from that moment and for an indefinite period, without prejudice to the municipal opening formalities.
5. Receive the number. The dwelling is entered in the REAT and you are sent the number, the category and the speciality, with the inspection book and the complaint forms.
6. The administration asks the town hall for a report, mandatory and binding, on four points: whether the dwelling is residential and compliant with municipal building rules, whether the activity fits the planning use envisaged, whether the maximum occupancy appears in the municipal records, and whether the environmental requirements are met.
7. The town hall has three months. If it does not reply, compliance is taken as verified: municipal silence works in your favour.
8. The documents are requested from you within 15 working days of the notification. That is where the folder from step 2 becomes genuinely compulsory.
9. Put up the plaque or the pictogram and publish the number with the exact location in every listing.

If the check finds an inaccuracy, a falsehood or an essential omission, the consequence is not a fine: it is removal from the register, cancellation of the registration and a ban on operating, or closure. And the decision may stop you trying again for a fixed period, cumulative up to four years¹.

The periods are cumulative: two one-year breaches add up to two. And if you declare again once the period is over and the same essential omission persists, the new period is set at double the original, subject to the four-year limit. The change of titleholder, which in Asturias is an essential change and obliges the incoming party to declare on their own account, is compared in change of ownership of a holiday rental.

Who needs the owners’ association certificate

Since Ley 6/2024, the declaración responsable for a VUT has to state that you hold a certificate from the owners’ association meeting proving that tourist marketing is possible, on the terms the horizontal property legislation requires of by-laws and resolutions. It is read together with the amendment that the fourth final provision of Ley Orgánica 1/2025 made to Ley 49/1960: express approval by the favourable vote of three fifths of the total number of owners, who must in turn represent three fifths of the participation quotas⁶. They are two majorities required together: with three fifths of the neighbours but less than three fifths of the quota, the resolution does not pass.

There is a nuance that gets lost in almost every case. The second transitional provision of Ley 6/2024 exempts the holders of VUTs already registered on 20 November 2024, the date it came into force, from producing that certificate⁷. Businesses already registered also had eighteen months to adapt to the rest of the act, a deadline that expired on 20 May 2026.

The two norms do not say the same thing. The act exempts VUTs already registered from producing the certificate; Article 27 of the decree includes holding it among the operator’s obligations, and the decree’s transitional provision does not mention that article among those with an adaptation period. If your VUT was registered before that date and you do not have the certificate, ask the Servicio de Ordenación, Innovación y Calidad Turística in writing before assuming the exemption covers you.

Decreto 4/2026 adaptation deadlines: one past, one live

Decreto 4/2026 came into force on 3 March 2026, twenty days after its publication in the BOPA of 11 February. Its single transitional provision gave two different deadlines to dwellings already registered¹.

The first has already passed. Since 3 September 2026, a VUT registered before March without the sound-level meter installed, the exit plan on the wall or the daily cleaning organised is failing to meet an enforceable requirement, not enjoying a moratorium.

The second hurts financially, because the cap of 8 places and the floor-area ratios are not solved by buying a device: they force you to reduce your offer or to carry out works. If your VUT advertises 10 or 12 places today, March 2027 is the date by which you have to have brought it down.

Asturias fines for operating unregistered: 150 to 100,000 €

Operating without having filed the declaración responsable is a serious infringement, not a very serious one, and the act defines it precisely:

The provision of services or the carrying out of tourist activities by a party that has not filed the prior declaración responsable referred to in Article 25 of this act, or has filed it with a falsehood or omission, of an essential nature, in any item of data, statement or document accompanying it; has not obtained the corresponding authorisation where it is mandatory; or lacks the qualification required by the rules in force.

The same conduct jumps to very serious where it entails serious risks to users. Accumulation works separately, and it adds rather than replaces: collecting more than two serious offences declared by a final decision within a year is in itself a very serious infringement, and more than two final minor offences within a year is in itself a serious infringement. They do not reclassify the earlier conduct or the later one: they are added to the fines already imposed. The brackets and their degrees are in Article 77, rewritten by Ley 6/2024⁹.

Four things the table does not say:

• The fine is not the only consequence. For serious and very serious offences it is compatible with suspension of the activity (up to six months and up to two years), and closure and revocation of the authorisation are available only for very serious ones. Published in the BOPA are the suspensions, once the decision is final, and the penalties for very serious offences that entail closure, suspension or revocation.
• Closure for lack of a declaration is not a penalty. It is ordered to restore legality, so it does not depend on the penalty proceedings or wait for them to end: it runs separately and adds to them.
• Infringements lapse quickly: six months for minor ones, a year for serious ones and two for very serious ones, counted from the day they were committed. And the penalty procedure lapses one year after it is opened.
• Who signs depends on the bracket: the Directorate-General for tourism for minor offences, the Consejería for serious and very serious ones, and the Consejo de Gobierno for very serious ones involving closure or revocation.

There are also two serious infringements that get overlooked: failing to display the identifying plaque on a VUT, and advertising more places than are registered in the REAT. Both can be checked from a computer, without setting foot in the dwelling. The comparison across the nineteen regions is in fines for renting without a tourist licence.

The tarjeta de admisión signed before check-in

The decree does not end at registration. Every stay generates one more piece of paper, and it is the one fewest people have ready because no platform asks for it: the tarjeta de admisión of Article 20, one of the articles Decreto 4/2026 left untouched.

“Every client shall, before their admission, be given a document or card, by way of contract, stating the name, the category, the name of the company operating the dwelling, the signatura assigned by the Administración turística, the full final price of the accommodation, where applicable the number or identification of the bedroom or bedrooms assigned, the number of places contracted, the entry and exit dates, and any other agreed condition.”

Nine items, and the last one opens the list rather than closing it:

• The name of the accommodation.
• The category, vacacional or de uso turístico, which is what decides the rest of the regime.
• The name of the operating company, which need not be the owner.
• The signatura assigned by the Administración turística, the XYZ.0000.AS the REAT sends you.
• The full final price of the accommodation.
• The number or identification of the bedroom or bedrooms assigned, where there are any.
• The number of places contracted.
• The entry and exit dates.
• Any other agreed condition. Among them the term: Article 17.1, as worded in 2026, requires the agreed duration to appear expressly in the card¹.

Signed by the client, the card has evidentiary value for administrative purposes, and the copy is kept for one year at the establishment at the disposal of the Administración turística. There is no official model and no imposed format: a sheet in duplicate is enough, one copy for the client and one for you, with the nine items and the signature, and that second copy findable throughout the year.

Two questions a property manager asks before the first guest, which the decree answers even if it does not look like it:

• When it is signed. “Before their admission”, not on departure or midway through the stay. In Asturias that fits with two more rules in the same decree: the key box on the public highway is banned, and Article 17.2 requires the handover of keys to be arranged in advance when you will not be at the dwelling at the time of arrival. That arranged handover is the natural moment for the signature; if you collect it electronically beforehand, our reading is that it complies just as well, provided the client holds the document when they go in.
• If the booking comes from Airbnb or Booking. The card is still yours. Asturias grants no exemption where an intermediary is involved, unlike Aragón and Extremadura, so the platform confirmation does not replace it: the client does not sign it, it does not carry the REAT signatura, and it does not stay at the establishment at the inspector’s disposal.

Failing to hand it over, or to keep it for that year, falls in the minor bracket of Ley 7/2001, 150 to 1,500 euros: Article 70.d) covers breaches of the tourism rules on documentation and information, and 70.k), the failure to keep mandatory documentation for the period laid down¹⁰.

Asturian tourism inspections, in the region’s own figures

Of the regions that publish figures, Asturias is the one with the sharpest rise in inspections, and they were given by the consejera de Presidencia, Reto Demográfico, Igualdad y Turismo, Gimena Llamedo, before the Comisión de Presidencia, Reto Demográfico, Igualdad y Turismo, y de Vicepresidencia on 27 November 2025¹¹.

The 2025 figures are those accumulated at the time of the appearance, not the year-end close. The consejera specified that the files counted as tourist-use dwellings also include those for vacacionales. And one doubt was left open in the committee itself: asked about the difference from the figures the opposition was working with, she replied that these might cover physical visits and not the actions carried out with the digital tool, said she did not know, and undertook to clarify it.

With that reservation, three concrete things lie behind the jump: the Servicio de Inspección grew to 16 posts (three created in 2024 and one more in 2025), rolled out a technology application developed by Estrategia Digital, and acted for the first time against illegal advertising, requesting the removal of 151 listings on Airbnb and Booking, of which 89 had been taken down by that date.

The Servicio de Inspección works with a Plan de Inspección Turística that the Consejería approves each year at the request of the Viceconsejería de Turismo. On how that plan decides who gets inspected, the answer in committee was this:

And that plan sets the methodology, establishes the priorities and organises the actions according to the risk of the complaints received and of the communications the businesses themselves make.

Translated into decisions: neighbours’ complaints weigh, and so do the communications you file yourself. An unreported change or a declaration inconsistent with what is published on the platforms is the signal that plan is looking for. And the decree closes the last defence: a business cannot invoke the dwelling’s status as a home to prevent an inspection. The comparison with the other regions is in inspections and fines by region.

The Asturian tourist tax is a bill, not a law yet

It is worth saying plainly, because it circulates as though it had been passed: in October 2026 Asturias charges no tourist tax. There is a bill for a tax on tourist stays, admitted for processing by the Mesa de la Cámara on 7 July 2026, published in the Boletín Oficial de la Junta General on 8 July and referred to the Comisión de Hacienda, Justicia y Asuntos Europeos¹². It is still going through parliament.

If it passes as drafted, the mechanism explains the confusing headlines. The rates run from 0.50 to 3 euros per day depending on the type of accommodation (2.50 € in a VUT, 2 € in a vacacional, 0.50 € in rural tourism and campsites), but the net amount carries a 100 % rebate, so the regional tax comes to zero. What would be paid is the voluntary municipal surcharge, which each town hall may establish by by-law up to 100 % of the gross amount. The bill exempts stays between 1 October and 31 May, except the central days of Semana Santa, and counts a maximum of five days per stay.

The model is the one already operating in Galicia, and the full map is in tourist taxes by region.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a tourist licence in Asturias, or is the declaración responsable enough? In Asturias the declaración responsable is enough: there is no tourist licence to apply for and be granted. You file it electronically before starting the activity, that enables you from that same day and for an indefinite period, and the dwelling is entered in the Registro de Empresas y Actividades Turísticas of the administration’s own motion. What may arrive afterwards is a check which, if it finds an essential inaccuracy, cancels the registration.

How many places can I offer in a vivienda de uso turístico in Asturias? In a vivienda de uso turístico in Asturias you can offer a maximum of 8 places, with a limit of three per bedroom. Single bedrooms need 6 m², doubles 10 m² and triples 13 m², and the living room 8 m², or 11 m² if you put two extra places in it. Dwellings registered before March 2026 have until 3 March 2027 to adjust.

Can I open a vivienda de uso turístico if the owners’ association does not authorise it? You cannot open a vivienda de uso turístico if the owners’ association does not authorise it: the declaración responsable has to state that you hold a certificate from the owners’ association meeting proving that tourist marketing is possible, and national horizontal property legislation requires the favourable vote of three fifths of the total number of owners. Declaring it when an association prohibition applies to you can stop you declaring again for three years.

How much does it cost to register a tourist dwelling in the REAT in Asturias? Registering a tourist dwelling in the REAT in Asturias costs nothing: the act declares registration free of charge and the electronic procedure carries no fee. The expense lies in the prior requirements: public liability insurance with minimum cover of 150,250 euros, the plans or the certified project, the energy certificate, the individual meters and, in VUTs, the sound-level meter.

What is the fine for letting without being registered in the REAT? The fine for letting without being registered in the REAT runs from 1,501 to 15,000 euros, because providing tourist services without having filed the prior declaración responsable is a serious infringement. It rises to the very serious bracket, 15,001 to 100,000 euros, where it entails serious risks to users or where more than two final serious offences accumulate within a year. On top of that, the administration orders closure to restore legality, and that closure does not count as a penalty.

Is a sound-level meter compulsory in an Asturian vivienda de uso turístico? Yes, a sound-level meter is compulsory in Asturian viviendas de uso turístico since Decreto 4/2026: a noise monitoring system is needed in the living room, allowing external monitoring and alerting the owner when municipal thresholds are exceeded. Dwellings already registered had six months to install it and that deadline expired on 3 September 2026. The vivienda vacacional does not need one.

What the REAT does not cover: the parte de viajeros

Registration in the REAT settles the dwelling’s authorisation and nothing else. Guest registration is a separate obligation, national and daily: Asturias is SES.HOSPEDAJES territory, so every booking generates a parte de viajeros, a guest report, to be sent to the Ministry of the Interior within 24 hours, with penalties of its own for omitting it. They are independent obligations: the REAT number is obtained once, the reports repeat with every arrival.

The Asturian decree itself recalls this among the operator’s obligations, referring to Real Decreto 933/2021 and its annex of required data. Failing to send the reports is also a breach of the decree that authorises you, and the tourism inspector sees it on the same visit.

That second part is what RegistroViajero automates: digital check-in in nine languages, validation of the data required by RD 933/2021 and automatic submission to SES.HOSPEDAJES. The REAT will ask you for papers once; the reports will be asked of you every day you have guests. If you operate in several regions, the guide to tourist licences by region sets out each one’s register and rules.

This article is for information purposes and is not a substitute for professional legal advice. Classifying a dwelling, classifying an infringement and setting the amount of a penalty are matters for the competent administration in each case.