Short-Term Tourist Letting Register in Ireland 2026: guide
Ireland Short-Term Letting Register: key facts 2026
Updated October 2026 · official source (DETE)- Ireland's Short-Term Letting Register is run by Fáilte Ireland under the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill, published on 6 October 2026.
- It is due to open on 1 December 2026, and every host must register by 31 December 2026.
- It covers accommodation let for up to and including 21 nights at a time, anywhere in the State, including rooms in your own home.
- To register you must confirm planning compliance; letting your whole home while you're away is planning-exempt only up to 90 days a year.
- Each unit gets its own registration number, which must appear on every advertisement and listing.
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The Short-Term Letting Register, run by Fáilte Ireland, is the biggest regulatory change for Irish short-term let hosts in years. Under the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill, published on 6 October 2026 to give effect to the EU Short-Term Rental Regulation, every host letting accommodation for up to 21 nights at a time must register each unit, confirm that it complies with planning rules and display a registration number on every listing. The register is due to open on 1 December 2026 and the deadline is 31 December 2026. In this guide we outline what the register requires, how it interacts with the planning rules, and how to keep listings compliant.
- Short-term letting in Ireland – what you need to know (Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment)
- Government publishes Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill (Department announcement, 6 October 2026)
- Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill 2026 (Houses of the Oireachtas: text and current stage)
- Short-term letting register information and frequently asked questions (Fáilte Ireland)
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 on short-term accommodation rental data (EUR-Lex)
What the Short-Term Letting Register is
The Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill, published by the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment on 6 October 2026, designates Fáilte Ireland as the competent authority for short-term letting and creates a national register of short-term lettings for stays of up to and including 21 nights. It gives effect in Irish law to the EU Short-Term Rental Regulation (EU 2024/1028). The requirement applies to all properties nationwide, regardless of location.
- Register opens: 1 December 2026 (announced date)
- Deadline for all hosts: 31 December 2026
- Renewal: every year after the initial registration
- Fee: a nominal annual registration fee; as of 3 November 2026 the amount had not been published. The Department says details will be available shortly, and Fáilte Ireland says fees will be kept to a minimum
- Platforms: from 31 December 2026 they must display registration numbers, carry out random checks on listings, send Fáilte Ireland data on nights rented and guests (typically monthly, through a Single Digital Entry Point) and remove or disable non-compliant listings when ordered to
The Bill was published on 6 October 2026 and initiated in the Dáil on 23 October 2026; as of 3 November 2026 it had completed Dáil First Stage only. The government has announced that the register will open on 1 December, while Fáilte Ireland says registration will open once the necessary legislation has been passed. Check Fáilte Ireland's short-term letting register page and the Bill on the Oireachtas website, where its current stage and the final text are published.
Who must register
Every host offering accommodation for rent for periods of up to 21 nights at a time, as classified under NACE 55.20 (holiday and other short-stay accommodation), must register each unit. That class covers holiday homes, houses, apartments, flats, bungalows, cottages, cabins, bed and breakfast units without housekeeping services, guest rooms provided by private households, lodges and similar tourist accommodation. In practice:
- Rooms let in your own home (a unit can be a single room)
- Your whole home, let while you're away
- Second homes, holiday cottages and investment properties
- Self-catering apartments and holiday homes
- B&B rooms without daily housekeeping
Lettings longer than 21 nights at a time are outside the short-term letting register; a longer-term letting of a home may instead fall under the Residential Tenancies Acts and the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).
Planning rules and the 90-day limit
Registration and planning are now locked together: to register, every host must confirm that the unit complies with planning requirements. The rules that matter most:
| Property type | Activity | Planning position |
|---|---|---|
| Your principal private residence | Letting a room or rooms in your home | Exempt from planning, no day limit |
| Your principal private residence | Letting the whole home while you're temporarily absent, up to 90 days a year in total | Exempt from planning |
| Your principal private residence | Letting the whole home for more than 90 days a year | Change-of-use planning permission required |
| Second home / investment property | Short-term letting of the whole unit | Must be planning compliant to register (see below) |
The planning approach comes from the Bill and from a National Planning Statement on short-term letting from the Minister for Housing (approved by the Government in June 2026 and still being finalised in October 2026). In cities and towns with a population of more than 20,000 at the last census, new planning permissions for short-term letting are restricted, and hosts must confirm planning compliance on registration with no lead-in period. In towns of 20,000 or fewer (CSO census town boundaries), hosts have two years to meet planning requirements. There is a presumption in favour of permission where a dwelling has been used continuously for short-term letting for at least seven years without enforcement action. The Change of Use Regulations 2026 (S.I. 500/2026), in operation since 29 September 2026, provide a simplified, fully administrative retention application for short-term letting operators.
Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) rules were extended to the whole country on 20 June 2025, so the old question “is my property in an RPZ?” no longer separates hosts: what matters now is your planning position, which your local planning authority can confirm.
How to register with Fáilte Ireland
Registration is an online process through Fáilte Ireland's registration portal and, according to the Department, takes about five minutes per unit. You will need:
- Your full name, email address, telephone number, PPSN, date of birth, country of residence and address with Eircode (or, for a company, business name, company registration number, registered address and legal representative)
- The full address of the unit, with Eircode
- Whether the unit is in your principal primary residence or is a separate secondary residence advertised as a whole house or apartment
- The number of bed places (a single sleeping space for one person) and the total number of guests the unit can accommodate
The host must complete the registration personally, including legal declarations about planning and fire safety compliance; an agent cannot register on your behalf unless the unit is registered for a company. Fáilte Ireland issues a unique registration number for each unit, and that number must be included in every listing and advertisement.
Enforcement and penalties
The Bill gives Fáilte Ireland registration officers and authorised officers who can carry out inspections and investigations and require information and records. For hosts, it provides for fixed payment notices and summary offences; the amounts should be checked in the final Act and any regulations made under it. For online platforms, serious breaches can be referred to a Panel of Adjudication Officers appointed by the Minister, with financial sanctions of up to 2% of annual worldwide turnover.
What good operational practice looks like
For Irish hosts in 2026, the practical compliance checklist looks like this:
- Check the planning position of every property you let, with your local planning authority if in doubt.
- For second homes and investment properties: make sure you are planning compliant before registering; in towns of 20,000 or fewer you have two years to regularise, in larger towns and cities there is no lead-in period.
- For your own home let whole while you're away: track your nights let to make sure you stay within 90 a year.
- Register every unit with Fáilte Ireland between 1 and 31 December 2026.
- Update every listing on Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, your own website and any other channel with the STTL registration number.
- Add the number to your direct booking pages and confirmations too: the legal requirement covers advertisements and listings, and consistency avoids questions.
- Keep records of all bookings, dates, durations and total nights let, in case of inspection.
- Renew the registration annually before expiry — set a calendar reminder.
How a PMS helps you stay compliant
If you are choosing a PMS, these are the functions that cover the most error-prone parts of compliance. It is a checklist of what to look for, not a description of any one product: in Vezpa, nights let per property are already in the statistics, while the STTL number field and the 90-day tracker are in development.
| Function | What to look for |
|---|---|
| STTL registration number storage | Stores the number in property settings |
| Direct booking pages | Displays the number on every booking confirmation and invoice automatically |
| Annual nights let tracker | Counts cumulative nights let in the calendar year — warns when approaching 90 |
| Planning status | Stores whether each unit is in your own home or a separate property, so the right limits apply |
| Renewal reminders | Sends a notification 30 days before the registration expires |
| Channel manager sync | Pushes the registration number to Airbnb, Booking, Vrbo through the channel manager API where the platforms support a structured field |
The 90-day tracker is the single most useful function. Manually counting cumulative nights let is something nobody does until they realise they're already at 95 nights for the year — at which point they're in breach. A PMS that shows "nights let YTD: 67 / 90" on the dashboard removes the risk entirely.
Keep your bookings and nights let in one place
Vezpa is a PMS and channel manager for B&Bs and holiday lets: calendar, direct bookings and nights let per property in its statistics. A dedicated STTL number field and a 90-day tracker are in development. See it running on a live demo account, nothing to install.
Try it in your browser →Frequently asked questions
Does the register apply to Northern Ireland?
No. The Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill applies only to the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom and has its own regime for tourist accommodation, run by Tourism NI. If you have properties on both sides of the border, only the properties in the Republic go on the Fáilte Ireland register.
What if I already have planning permission for short-term letting?
Then you can confirm planning compliance when you register, and the 90-day limit that applies to letting your own home while you're away does not constrain that property. Keep the grant of permission to hand: registration includes a legal declaration on planning compliance, and Fáilte Ireland's officers can ask for records.
Do I need to register if I rent out a spare room in my house?
Yes. A room or rooms let in your own home count as a short-term letting unit, so they must be registered like any other unit. Letting rooms in your principal private residence is exempt from planning requirements, without a day limit. The fee structure had not been published as of 3 November 2026; the government describes it as a nominal annual fee.
What happens to my existing Airbnb listing if I don't register?
From 31 December 2026 platforms must display the registration number on every Irish listing and carry out random checks. Where Fáilte Ireland identifies a missing or invalid number, it can order the platform to suspend, remove or disable the listing. The register is due to open on 1 December 2026: register during December rather than waiting for a takedown order.
Does the register interact with the Local Property Tax (LPT)?
Not directly. The LPT is a tax on the value of residential property and the register does not change it. Short-term letting income is taxable and must be declared to Revenue as before; booking platforms already report host income to Revenue under the EU DAC7 rules, and the Bill also allows Fáilte Ireland to share short-term rental data with other public bodies.
What about Bed & Breakfasts and guesthouses?
It depends on how the accommodation is classified. The register covers NACE 55.20 accommodation, which explicitly includes bed and breakfast units without housekeeping services and guest rooms provided by private households: those must register. Accommodation with daily cleaning, bed-making and on-the-spot customer service falls under NACE 55.10 (hotels and similar) and is outside the new register; guesthouses registered under the Tourist Traffic Acts keep that separate registration, which the Bill modernises. If you're unsure which side you're on, ask Fáilte Ireland.
Is there a separate EU registration as well?
No. The EU Short-Term Rental Regulation (EU 2024/1028) does not create an EU register for hosts: it sets common rules for national registration schemes and for data sharing by platforms. In Ireland the scheme is the Fáilte Ireland register, so that is the only registration you need for this purpose.
How much does it cost to register with Fáilte Ireland?
No amount has been published yet. As of 3 November 2026 the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment says a nominal annual registration fee will apply and that details of the fee structure will be available shortly, and Fáilte Ireland says the fees will be kept to a minimum. Registration must be renewed every year, and the fee applies to each annual renewal.
When does Fáilte Ireland registration open, and what is the deadline?
The government has announced that the register will open on 1 December 2026, that all hosts must register by 31 December 2026 and that platforms must display registration numbers from 31 December 2026. Fáilte Ireland says the register will commence once the necessary legislation has passed, and as of 3 November 2026 the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill had completed only Dáil First Stage, so check both sites for confirmation.
How do I register my Airbnb with Fáilte Ireland?
Online, through Fáilte Ireland’s registration portal once it opens; the Department estimates about five minutes per unit. You register each unit separately with its Eircode, state whether it is in your principal residence or a separate property, give the number of bed places and guests, and make legal declarations on planning and fire safety. You then add the registration number Fáilte Ireland issues to your Airbnb listing and to every other advertisement.
Conclusion
The Short-Term Letting Register is the most important regulatory change for Irish hosts in a generation. It combines registration, planning compliance and platform enforcement into a single mechanism, and a listing without a valid number can be taken down. The good news is that for hosts who comply, the register reduces uncertainty: you know your status, you have a number, and you have a clear answer to give a platform if it asks.
The practical advice for 2026 is simple: check your planning position, register every unit between 1 and 31 December 2026, store the number in your PMS, display it on every listing, track your nights let against the 90-day limit if you let your own home while you're away, and renew every year. If you do those things consistently, the rest takes care of itself.