You can read this article in Spanish, Catalan, or English.
This article provides a general overview on regional laws and regulations that may affect hosts in Catalonia. Besides these laws, municipalities may have approved zoning regulations and/or restrictions that can impact your activity. You're required to make sure that you follow the laws and regulations that may apply to your specific circumstances and locality.
We recommend that you do your own research, as this article isn’t comprehensive, and doesn’t constitute legal or tax advice. Also, as we don’t update this article in real time, please check each source and make sure that the information provided hasn’t recently changed. Consult with your legal and/or tax advisor for your specific case.
The Regional Government of Catalonia has specific regulations for tourist accommodations. According to the regional Decree on the matter, “tourist accommodations” are understood to be those rented out directly or indirectly, to third parties, in exchange for a price, for a temporary stay, and under conditions of immediate availability.
Tourist accommodations will need to be offered as an entire place (single unit).
All tourist accommodations rented out for thirty-one (31) days or less for tourist purposes must comply with the obligations and requirements foreseen in the regulation mentioned above. Otherwise, it will fall under a different category of accommodation, such as a “seasonal rental."
Also, Catalonia regulation foresees the “shared houses” (“Llars compartides”), understood as a tourist accommodation, as defined above, that constitutes the primary and actual residence of the host (who is required to live in the property while rented out).
In order to rent out a shared house, you may need to comply with regional and local requirements or provide a specific license.
In Catalonia, you need to register any accommodation that you plan to offer as a tourist accommodation, either as an entire place or as a shared house, within the Tourism Register of Catalonia. As part of the process, you will first need to submit a statement of responsibility to the General Directory of Tourism that declares compliance with current regulations and any other requirements foreseen at regional and local levels.
After you complete the registration process successfully, a registration number will be assigned to your tourist accommodation (Example: HUTB000000).
To learn more about specific requirements, obligations, or any other relevant topics that you should be aware of as a host, you can review Airbnb’s Frequently Asked Questions, or the Frequently Asked Questions for tourist accommodations and shared houses provided by the Regional Government of Catalonia.
In order to host in Spain, you may have an obligation to obtain a national registration number within the Property Registry and display it when listing your properties on Airbnb.
Review this article for further information on your national registration obligations and other relevant topics.
Catalonia requires you to display your registration number on any type of advertisement for your tourist accommodation, including your Airbnb. There’s a field that you can use to include your registration number in the Listing details section.
To learn more about how Catalonia tourist-accommodations regulations may be applicable to you or to your property, you can contact the Territorial Delegation of Enterprise and Labour.
We're committed to working with the local authorities to make the regulations clearer in the context of a collaborative economy, and to help them keep in mind the benefits of Airbnb to our community. Whenever necessary, we will continue to defend any changes to allow private individuals to rent their dwellings.