Tourist Licence in Spain by Region: Requirements 2026

A manager who has filed half a dozen registrations in Andalucía arrives in the Canary Islands and finds that almost nothing carries over: a different registry, a different law, a different piece of paper from the town hall. That is not an exception in Spain, it is the rule, and even the name of the number you are assigned changes.

The hard part is not the concept. It is pinning down the exact procedure that applies to you before the first listing goes live. Start with the common framework, because the mechanics repeat almost everywhere.

What the tourist licence is and why you need it

The “tourist licence” is the regional authorisation that lets you legally market a tourist-use dwelling (vivienda de uso turístico, VUT). In practice it is almost never a prior authorisation but a declaración responsable (responsible declaration). You file a form with your community and the activity is enabled from that moment: the dwelling enters the tourist registry, which assigns it a number.

Andalusian law, for one, puts it in writing:

“The filing of the declaración responsable referred to in this article shall suffice for the duty to register the person or the establishment in the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía to be considered fulfilled, and the activity may begin, except in the case of tourist guides in the cases required by their implementing rules.”

Three things matter in almost every community:

• It comes first: without registration you cannot market the dwelling.
• It is the number platforms verify. Airbnb, Booking and the rest remove listings without a valid registration number. You must publish it in every listing.
• The Supreme Court ruling did not abolish it. Judgment 620/2026 annulled the state registry (the NRUA of RD 1312/2024), not the regional ones. The number platforms verify today is your community’s; how the three obligations divide up is in tourist licence, NRUA and the guest report.

What changed for the tourist licence in 2025 and 2026

• Vote of the owners’ association: since 3 April 2025, the reform of the Horizontal Property Law (Ley Orgánica 1/2025) requires the favourable agreement of 3/5 of the owners for a new VUT in a building under horizontal-property regime. It applies in every community.
• Stressed zones and per-neighbourhood caps: more and more communities and town halls limit or suspend new VUTs in saturated areas (Cataluña, Canarias, Balears, Andalucía…). Do not confuse these with the zonas de mercado residencial tensionado of Ley 12/2023, which cap residential rents rather than tourist use: they are two separate mechanisms.
• NRUA annulled: the state single registration number is no longer required; the regional one is what remains.

That 3/5 majority comes from paragraph 12 of article 17 of the Horizontal Property Law:

“The express agreement approving, limiting, conditioning or prohibiting the exercise of the activity referred to in letter e) of article 5 of Ley 29/1994, of 24 November, on Urban Leases, on the terms set out in sectoral tourism rules, whether or not it amends the constitutive title or the statutes, shall require the favourable vote of three fifths of the total number of owners who, in turn, represent three fifths of the participation quotas.”

The majority is a double one: three fifths of the owners who also add up to three fifths of the participation quotas. The activity the paragraph points to is the temporary letting of the whole dwelling marketed through tourist channels, and its closing sentence makes clear that these agreements have no retroactive effect.

The tourist licence, community by community

The fines for operating without a licence do not come from the guest report but from each community’s tourism law, and the brackets are serious: a very serious infringement reaches €500,000 in the Illes Balears³ and €600,000 in Cataluña⁴. The brackets of all nineteen laws, compared: renting without a tourist licence: risks and fines.

Registry, registration procedure and head law of each territory:

Andalucía: Registro de Turismo de Andalucía (RTA)

The declaración responsable is filed electronically with the department competent for tourism, which enters the dwelling in the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía of its own motion and free of charge. In it you declare that the dwelling is compatible with municipal planning, that neither the constitutive title nor the community statutes prohibit tourist use and, since Decreto-ley 1/2025, that the owners’ association has expressly authorised it on the terms Spanish state law requires⁵. It is governed by Ley 13/2011 on Tourism¹ and Decreto 28/2016, reformed by Decreto 31/2024: since then only one dwelling per cadastral reference is allowed, unless you can prove that reference holds two or more⁶. Seven town halls have agreed to suspend new registrations while they amend their general plan: Cádiz, Chiclana de la Frontera, Córdoba, El Puerto de Santa María, Granada, Málaga and Sevilla⁷.

The code the registry issues has the form VUT/province/number and must appear in every listing.

Aragón: Registro de Turismo de Aragón

Aragón grants the authorisation through a declaración responsable. It must be accompanied by a suitability certificate (certificado de idoneidad) issued by a competent technician. It is governed by Decreto 1/2023, still in force in 2026⁸.

Principado de Asturias: Registro de Empresas y Actividades Turísticas (REAT)

The Asturian declaración responsable is mandatorily electronic. Where the dwelling is under horizontal property rules, it goes with a certification from the owners’ association attesting that tourist marketing is possible; a detached dwelling files none. It is governed by Ley 7/2001 on Tourism⁹ and by Decreto 48/2016 on holiday and tourist-use dwellings, which Decreto 4/2026 of 2 February (BOPA of the 11th, in force on 3 March 2026) reformed with an 8-guest cap for the vivienda de uso turístico¹⁰.

Illes Balears: Island registry of each consell

The DRIAT (responsible declaration of start of tourist activity) is not filed with a single regional registry but with the relevant consell insular: Mallorca, Menorca, Eivissa or Formentera. It requires a habitability certificate in force, and the number of guest places you may market is the one stated on it. It is governed by Ley 8/2012¹¹. Decreto-ley 4/2025 tightened the regime and set very serious infringements at between 50,001 and 500,000 euros³; there are also capacity limits and zones where marketing is suspended.

Canarias: Registro General Turístico

The declaración responsable is filed with the cabildo insular, which enters the activity in the Registro General Turístico of its own motion; you may operate from the day you file. It must be accompanied by a planning certificate (cédula urbanística) showing that municipal planning expressly enables tourist accommodation use in that dwelling. The registration framework changed entirely with Ley 6/2025, of 10 December (LOSUTV), in force since 13 December 2025¹². Decreto 113/2015 was not repealed: the law expressly struck down its articles 12.2 and 13, and articles 7, 11, 12.4 and 16 still govern advertising, prices, complaint forms and the document both parties sign before occupation where there was no prior written contract.

Cantabria: Registro General de Empresas Turísticas

The declaración responsable is filed with the Directorate-General for Tourism. You must provide a legal title proving the right of use over the dwelling. Decreto 50/2025, in force since July 2025, regulates VUTs in detail for the first time and gives an adaptation period to those already operating¹³.

Castilla-La Mancha: Registro de empresas y establecimientos turísticos

The declaración responsable of start of activity is filed on the electronic office, as procedure KT4. The register’s name depends on where you read it: Decreto 36/2018 calls it the Registro de empresas y establecimientos turísticos de Castilla-La Mancha in its articles 19.2.a) and 25, and that is the name your paperwork has to carry; the KT4 procedure sheet stretches it to “Registro General de Empresas, establecimientos, asociaciones de empresarios turísticos y entidades turísticas no empresariales de Castilla-La Mancha”¹⁴. It is the same register. There is no added technical certificate. It is governed by Ley 8/1999 and Decreto 36/2018¹⁵, with a draft decree in progress. There are no moratoriums or per-neighbourhood caps.

Castilla y León: Registro de Turismo de Castilla y León (RTCYL)

The declaración responsable comes before the activity starts. It requires a licence or habitability certificate for the dwelling. It is governed by Ley 14/2010 on Tourism¹⁶ and Decreto 3/2017.

Cataluña: Registre de Turisme de Catalunya (RTC)

The Catalan authorising title is not a regional procedure but a prior notice to the town hall; entry in the Registre de Turisme de Catalunya follows, of the administration’s own motion. The dwelling is let whole, never by rooms, and for stays of 31 days or fewer⁴. Decreto-ley 3/2023 added a prior urban-planning licence in 262 stressed or at-risk municipalities, valid for five years and capped at 10 tourist-use dwellings per 100 inhabitants¹⁷. For the guest report, note that Cataluña uses the Mossos d’Esquadra.

Comunitat Valenciana: Registro de Turismo

The declaración responsable is filed with the regional tourism administration, which enters the dwelling in the Registro de Turismo de la Comunitat Valenciana of its own motion. You need a favourable municipal urban-compatibility report for tourist use, or the equivalent document. It is governed by Ley 15/2018¹⁸. Decreto-ley 9/2024 reinforced that report and limited the registration to 5 years: to keep operating you must file a renewal declaración responsable in the month before it expires¹⁹.

Extremadura: Registro General de Empresas y Actividades Turísticas

Registration in Extremadura goes through a declaración responsable. There is no specific VUT decree: the tourist-apartment regime of Ley 2/2011²⁰ and Decreto 182/2012, the classification decree, applies instead. The day-to-day operating rules sit in a separate norm, Decreto 203/2012, of 15 October, on prices, bookings and complementary services, which reaches every tourist accommodation establishment: displayed prices, the booking and cancellation regime, invoicing, and the hoja de admisión handed over before the stay begins, except where the booking was made through an intermediary²¹.

Galicia: Registro de Empresas e Actividades Turísticas (REAT)

The Galician declaración responsable is called DRIA and is filed with the provincial office of the Axencia Turismo de Galicia. Entry in the REAT is automatic. It is governed by Ley 7/2011²² and Decreto 12/2017. More detail in REAT and TURESPAZO in Galicia.

Comunidad de Madrid: Registro de Empresas Turísticas de la Comunidad de Madrid

The declaración responsable is filed with the directorate-general competent for tourism, by electronic means only, and the dwelling is then entered in the Registro de Empresas Turísticas de la Comunidad de Madrid. In it you must state that you hold the CIVUT, the suitability certificate issued by a competent chartered technician after checking the dwelling on site. It is governed by Decreto 79/2014²³. Decreto 27/2026, of March 2026, rewrote that article 17 and reinforced equipment, occupancy and minimum fittings²⁴; the rest of its changes are in Madrid’s Decree 27/2026.

The number that comes out of that entry starts with VT followed by a serial (VT-1, VT-21, VT-4023). The format appears nowhere in the rules. In the registry’s public extract, released as open data by the Dirección General de Turismo y Hostelería, every tourist-use dwelling carries it in the signatura field. Hotels and hostales carry HM, and tourist apartments AM²⁵.

Región de Murcia: Registro de Empresas y Actividades Turísticas (ITREM)

The declaración responsable of tourist classification is filed with the ITREM. You must provide the cadastral reference and civil-liability insurance. It is governed by Ley 12/2013²⁶ and Decreto 256/2019.

Comunidad Foral de Navarra: Registro de Turismo de Navarra

The declaración responsable comes before the activity starts. It requires civil-liability insurance. It is governed by Ley Foral 7/2003, amended by Ley Foral 19/2020²⁷. In 2025 the Orden Foral 157E/2025 declared 21 municipalities as zonas de mercado residencial tensionado, a Ley 12/2023 measure about residential rent prices that does not cap VUTs.

País Vasco: Registro de Empresas y Actividades Turísticas de Euskadi (REATE)

The declaración responsable leads to automatic entry in the Basque REATE, and requires civil-liability insurance. It is governed by Ley 13/2016 on Tourism²⁸ and Decreto 101/2018. Two recent changes narrow the door: Decreto 52/2025 repealed the first additional provision of Decreto 101/2018, so dwellings on rural and non-developable land are no longer excluded from the regulation²⁹; and since 30 December 2025 article 7 of Ley 6/2025 has rewritten article 20.4 of Ley 13/2016 to automatically suspend the activity of new tourist dwellings and rooms in areas declared stressed residential markets, which means they are not entered in the register. Bilbao, Donostia and Vitoria are all declared³⁰. For the guest report, the Basque Country uses the Ertzaintza.

La Rioja: Registro de Proveedores de Servicios Turísticos

Registration in La Rioja is a notice of start of activity. The rule that regulates the tourist-use dwelling is Decreto 10/2017, of 17 March, the Reglamento General de Turismo de La Rioja³¹, issued in development of Ley 2/2001 on Tourism³². The dwelling is let whole and must meet the minimum habitability conditions of Decreto 28/2013, which is the habitability rule that regulation refers to, not the one that orders the tourist activity.

Ceuta: Registro de Proveedores de Servicios Turísticos

The notice of start is filed with the competent department. Ceuta is governed by a 2010 Tourism Regulation, not by its own tourism law³³. The specific penalty regime is not clearly set, so the amounts are best confirmed directly with the autonomous city.

Melilla: Registro de Empresas y Actividades Turísticas

The declaración responsable is filed with the tourism authority. It requires civil-liability insurance. Melilla is governed by the Tourism Regulation approved by Decreto 351/2010³⁴. There is no specific VUT decree or moratorium.

How to get the licence, in six general steps

The exact procedure is regional, but the path is similar almost everywhere:

1. Identify the registry and the procedure that apply in your community.
2. Gather the paperwork: cadastral reference, habitability or occupancy title, civil-liability insurance and, where required, a technical certificate (CIVUT in Madrid, suitability certificate in Aragón).
3. Check municipal planning: that your area is not saturated or stressed.
4. Get the owners’ association agreement (3/5) if the building is under horizontal-property regime.
5. File the declaración responsable on your community’s electronic office, usually with a digital certificate.
6. Publish the number in all your listings.

The document signed for every stay

The licence entitles you to operate. What comes back with every guest, alongside the parte de viajeros, is a second piece of paper that fifteen of the nineteen territories require you to hand the guest: the hoja de admisión, the ficha de entrada or the documento a modo de contrato, depending on what each rule calls it.

It is not the parte. The parte is State-level, goes to the Ministry of the Interior and is kept three years. This one stays with you and is shown to the regional tourism inspection. Both arise at the same moment and share nearly the same data, which is why so many owners only know about one of them.

Catalonia and Melilla do not require it. Madrid and the Basque Country ask for no per-stay contract either, but they do ask for something else: Madrid, a house-rules form the user must expressly accept; the Basque Country, pre-booking information in a durable medium.

In the other fifteen the minimum content is much the same, price, dates, occupants and identification of the accommodation, and what really changes is four things:

• Who signs. The guest in eleven territories. In the Canary Islands both parties sign. The Balearics accept the signature or proof of receipt by another route. Aragon and the Valencia region require no signature at all.
• When it is handed over. Almost always before admission or at reception. The Balearics are the exception that changes the workflow: they require it before the client accepts, which means at booking, not at the door³⁵.
• How long it is kept. From six months in Castile and Leon and the Valencia region to five years in Castile-La Mancha¹⁵, through the one year most of them set and the two years of the Balearics. The Canary Islands, Aragon and Navarre set no period.
• Whether the booking came from a platform. This is the most asked question and the answer is not a single one. Aragon waives the document when the client contracted through an intermediary³⁶; Extremadura likewise excepts cases of intermediation²¹; the Valencia region allows the voucher issued by a travel agency or tourism mediation company to replace its tarjeta de entrada³⁷; and the Canary Islands require it only where the booking was not made in writing beforehand³⁸. In the remaining eleven there is no exemption: an Airbnb or Booking confirmation discharges nothing.

If you operate across several regions, that last point is the one that costs the most work, because it means treating the same booking differently depending on where the flat is.

After the licence: the guest report to SES.HOSPEDAJES

The licence is a one-time procedure. The obligation that returns with every guest is the guest report: collecting their data and reporting it to SES.HOSPEDAJES within 24 hours. If you operate in several communities, that work multiplies. It is exactly what RegistroViajero automates: digital check-in, validation and submission to the Ministry without copying anything by hand. Start with the SES.HOSPEDAJES guide.

Regional tourism law changes often (decrees, moratoriums, stressed zones). This guide reflects the framework in force on the publication date; always verify the detail with your community’s registry before applying.