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Registering a Holiday Let (Alojamento Local) in Portugal

How to get an Alojamento Local number for a holiday let in Portugal, where new lets are restricted, and the insurance, guest and tax duties.

Registering a Holiday Let (Alojamento Local) in Portugal

Last verified: September 2026.

Who this is for

  • You own a flat, house, or spare rooms in Portugal and want to let them to tourists or short stays.
  • You rent a property and your landlord has agreed, in writing, that you can sublet it to tourists.
  • You already list on Airbnb or Booking and want to check your number and duties are in order.

Not for you if: you let a home to someone who lives there for months or years. Read "Declaring Rental Income as a Landlord in Portugal" instead.

Updated September 2026. Since 20 May 2026, booking platforms must check your registration number and remove listings without a valid one. Councils with more than 1,000 holiday lets can pause new registrations until 31 December 2026.

Alojamento Local (AL, local accommodation) is Portugal's legal category for paid short stays, such as a flat on Airbnb, a guest house, or rooms in your own home. If you let to tourists, you need an AL registration number before you advertise. You apply online to your council. National law sets no application fee. The council has 60 days to object, or 90 days in a restricted area, and you get your number when that period ends. Allow about three months. The real costs are insurance, safety equipment, and tax.

Do you need a registration?

The law assumes you are running a holiday let if either of these is true:

  • You advertise a property, anywhere, as accommodation for tourists or as temporary accommodation.
  • You offer a furnished property with extras such as cleaning, for stays shorter than 30 days.

You can rebut that by showing a proper lease registered with Finanças. Otherwise you need a number.

If you operate or advertise without a valid number, that is a serious offence. You can be fined, and your listing can be removed. The platform can be fined too.

The four types of holiday let

You register under one of four types. Pick the one that matches the property.

  • House (moradia). A whole detached, single-family building.
  • Flat (apartamento). A whole flat, or part of a building that can be used on its own.
  • Guest house (estabelecimento de hospedagem). Rooms let inside a flat or building. If most guests sleep in dormitories, it can call itself a hostel.
  • Rooms (quartos). Rooms in the home where you live and are tax resident. You can let up to three rooms.

The size limits are:

  • Houses, flats, and guest houses: up to nine bedrooms and 27 guests. Rooms and hostels follow their own limits.
  • Guests per unit: two per bedroom. Houses and flats can add two more on a sofa bed in the living room.
  • Extra or convertible beds: no more than half the number of fixed beds.
  • The same operator (including a spouse, parents, or children) cannot run more than nine flats in one building if that is more than 75% of the building.

Check these before you apply

Most refusals come from problems you could have spotted first. Work through this list in order.

  1. Check the use licence. The property needs a valid use licence (autorização de utilização) for a use your council accepts for holiday lets. For the rooms type, it must be a home. See "Checking a Property's Habitation Licence (Licença de Utilização)".
  2. Check your council's rules. Many councils have containment areas (áreas de contenção), where new lets are capped or banned. Some also have sustainable growth areas, with extra conditions such as an energy rating of D or better. A council can also refuse new lets in a flat that had a long-term tenant in the previous two years. Look up your council's AL regulation, or ask its urban planning office.
  3. Check the building rules. If you are in a flat, read the building's founding deed (título constitutivo) and condominium regulations. If either bans holiday lets, you cannot open. If the owners' meeting voted a ban by two-thirds of the building's value before you apply, it applies to you too.
  4. If you want a hostel in a building with homes, you need the owners' meeting to authorise it first. You must attach the minutes to your application.
  5. If you rent the property, get your landlord's written consent to tourist letting. If the lease does not already say so, attach a separate signed authorisation.
  6. Register the activity with Finanças. Open a self-employed activity (início de atividade), or update an existing one, using the activity code for tourist accommodation. You can do this on the Portal das Finanças. See "Registering as Self-Employed (Recibos Verdes) in Portugal".
  7. Buy the insurance. You need liability insurance for guests and third parties, with at least €75,000 of cover per claim. If the let is a flat in a shared building, you also need fire insurance for the flat.

Documents you need

Have these ready as scans before you start:

  • Your passport or citizen card (or, for a company, the access code to its commercial registry certificate).
  • Your NIF and your address.
  • A signed statement of responsibility (termo de responsabilidade). It confirms the property is fit for guests and meets the rules. The form is part of the online application.
  • The property's tax record (caderneta predial urbana), if you own it.
  • Your lease or other right to use the property, plus the landlord's authorisation, if you do not own it.
  • Proof that you registered the activity with Finanças.
  • Proof of the liability insurance.
  • For a hostel in a building with homes: the minutes of the owners' meeting that authorised it.

You will also give the use licence details, the name of the let, its capacity (rooms, beds, and guests), the opening date, and an emergency contact with a phone number.

If you consent, the council can fetch documents that another public office already holds, so you may not need to upload them.

How to apply, step by step

  1. Log in to gov.pt. This is the government services portal. You need your Chave Móvel Digital or citizen card to sign in. You can also apply at your council's front desk.
  2. Find the AL registration service. It runs through the single electronic counter (Balcão Único Eletrónico). Choose the council where the property is.
  3. Fill in the form and upload the documents. Choose your type of let. Sign the statement of responsibility.
  4. Submit. The application goes to the mayor of your council. This is a prior notice (comunicação prévia com prazo), not a licence you wait for someone to grant.
  5. Wait out the objection period. The council has 60 days to object, or 90 days if the property is in a containment area. Portuguese administrative deadlines normally skip weekends and public holidays, so this is roughly three months, or four in a containment area.
  6. Get your number. If the council does not object, the portal issues your registration number. The document showing it is your only valid permit to open.
  7. Put the number on every listing. Your listings, website, and any advertising must show your name or logo and the number.

The council must also inspect the property within the same 60 or 90 days. It can do this before or after it decides.

If the council objects

The council can only object for one of these reasons:

  • Your application was incomplete or wrong.
  • A previous registration for the property was cancelled and the waiting period has not ended.
  • The let breaks the council's containment or growth-area rules, or the use licence does not fit.
  • The let breaks another legal rule.

An objection means you get no number. You can ask, once, for the council to inspect the property to review its decision. You pay for that inspection. You can also challenge the decision in the administrative courts. A lawyer or solicitador can advise you.

Where new holiday lets are restricted

National law no longer freezes new lets across the country. Each council now decides for its own area. The picture changes often, so always check the current regulation before you buy or apply.

  • Lisbon. A new regulation, approved in December 2025, puts six parishes under absolute containment: Arroios, Santo António, São Vicente, Santa Maria Maior, Misericórdia, and Estrela. Further neighbourhoods have absolute or relative containment. In relative areas, residents of flats with two or more bedrooms can still let rooms in their own home.
  • Porto. The historic centre is a containment area. Bonfim and Cedofeita were reclassified as sustainable growth areas in late 2024, with extra conditions.
  • Other councils. Many coastal and historic towns have their own rules. Check the council's website or ask its urban planning office.

A rule approved in July 2026 affects any council that had more than 1,000 holiday lets at the end of 2025 and has no AL regulation. It must decide by 31 December 2026 whether to adopt one. Until then, it can pause new registrations once, but no pause can run beyond 31 December 2026. A pause never cancels a valid registration you already hold.

Can the neighbours stop you?

If you have a flat in a shared building, you do not need the other owners' consent to register. The exceptions are hostels, and buildings whose deed or regulations already ban holiday lets.

Once you are open, the owners can still act against you, but only in two ways:

  • A ban for the future. The owners' meeting can change the building regulations to ban holiday lets, by a two-thirds majority of the building's value. It applies only to applications made after the vote.
  • A complaint about disturbance. If guests repeatedly disturb the building, owners holding more than half of its value can vote a reasoned request to the mayor. The council then runs a procedure and can cancel your registration. It can also close the case if you accept conditions.

The building can also charge you an extra contribution of up to 30% of your yearly condominium fee, for the extra wear on shared areas. You pay the cost of any work to the shared areas needed for your let. You are also jointly liable with your guests for damage they cause to the building. See "How a Condominium (Condomínio) Works in Portugal".

What you must do once you are open

Keep your insurance valid. Your insurer's expiry date is published on the Turismo de Portugal public register. If the council asks for proof, you have three days to send it. A lapsed policy is grounds for cancelling your registration. In February 2026, Lisbon cancelled thousands of registrations over missing insurance proof.

Report foreign guests. You must report every guest who is not a Portuguese citizen, including EU citizens and children. You do this online through the immigration authority's accommodation system (SIBA), within three working days of check-in. You also report the departure within three working days, unless you gave both dates at check-in. Keep proof of every report.

Have the safety kit. If your let takes 10 guests or fewer, you need:

  • a fire extinguisher and a fire blanket that guests can reach;
  • a first-aid kit that guests can reach;
  • the emergency number 112 displayed where guests can see it.

Larger lets must meet the full fire safety rules for their size.

Meet the basic standards. Each bedroom needs a window to the outside, a way to block out light, and a door that locks. Bathrooms need a lock. You need hot and cold running water, and the property must be clean and in good repair.

Provide a house information book. It covers how the let works, rubbish and recycling, appliances, noise, and your phone number. It must be in Portuguese, English, and at least two other languages. In a shared building, include the building rules that affect guests. Give the building management your phone number and email address.

Put up the plaque. Flats, guest houses, and rooms must show the official AL plaque by the entrance. Hostels show it outside the building. Houses do not need one.

Keep a complaints book. You must have the official complaints book (livro de reclamações), in the form the law requires.

Keep your details up to date. If anything in your registration changes, update it on the portal within 10 days. If you stop letting, tell the portal within 10 days. If your registration is cancelled or suspended, tell the booking platforms within 10 days.

Collect the tourist tax where it applies. Many councils, including Lisbon and Porto, charge a tourist tax (taxa turística) per guest per night. You collect it and pay it to the council at the rate and on the schedule the council sets.

The EU rules for booking platforms

An EU regulation on short-term rental data has applied since 20 May 2026. Portugal already had a national register, so your AL number is your registration number for these rules. What changed is on the platform side:

  • Platforms must ask for your number and show it on every listing.
  • Platforms must check numbers against the national register and remove listings with missing, invalid, or false numbers.
  • Platforms send booking data (nights and guests) to the authorities, who use it to check that hosts are registered.

If you are registered, check that the number, name, and NIF on each listing match your registration exactly.

How holiday let income is taxed

Holiday let income is self-employment income (IRS Category B), not rental income. You declare it in your annual IRS return.

Most small hosts use the simplified regime, which applies if your yearly turnover stays under €200,000. Finanças taxes a fixed share of what you earn:

  • Houses and flats: 35% of turnover is taxed.
  • Houses and flats in a containment area: 50% of turnover is taxed.
  • Guest houses, hostels, and rooms: 15% of turnover is taxed.

The taxed share is added to your other income and taxed at the normal IRS rates. The other option is organised accounts, where you pay tax on actual profit. An accountant (contabilista certificado) can tell you which works out cheaper.

VAT (IVA). If your turnover in the previous year was €15,000 or less, you can use the small business exemption. You then do not charge VAT and cannot reclaim it. Above that, you charge VAT on accommodation at 6% on the mainland. Madeira and the Azores have lower rates. Extras billed separately, such as parking, may carry a higher rate.

The 2023 extraordinary contribution (CEAL). This was abolished with effect from 31 December 2023, so it was never due. You do not need to pay or file it.

IMI and selling. You still pay the normal yearly property tax (IMI). When you sell, the gain is taxed under the normal capital gains rules.

What it costs

  • Registration: no fee in national law. Ask your council whether it charges for inspections or other steps.
  • Liability insurance: required, with at least €75,000 of cover per claim. Prices vary by insurer and property.
  • Fire insurance: required for a flat in a shared building.
  • Safety kit, plaque, and complaints book: one-off costs, usually modest.
  • Tourist tax: collected from guests, not paid by you, but you must administer it.
  • Accountant: optional in the simplified regime, but worth it for most hosts.

Sources

Last verified September 2026. Rules and fees change; check the official source before acting.

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