Ireland's short-term letting register: a host's guide for 2026

Ireland's short-term letting register is administered by Fáilte Ireland. According to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE), platform obligations take effect from 31 December 2026. Some of those obligations are display of registration numbers and removal of listings on order. With roughly ten weeks left, hosts who prepare now will avoid a rush later.

This guide gives you a working sequence: decide whether the register applies to you, gather the data, check planning status, align your listings, register, and keep evidence. It doesn't invent fees, form fields or penalties that the official sources haven't published. Where a detail is unconfirmed, the guide says so and tells you where to verify it.

What you'll achieve, who this is for and what you need

By the end, you'll have classified your letting activity, assembled a registration-ready data pack, mapped your planning position, and aligned every listing channel so that the registration number can be added without conflicts.

Audience: owners and hosts of holiday homes, cottages, apartments, guest houses, spare rooms and small multi-unit portfolios in Ireland, whether you list directly or through platforms such as Airbnb, Booking.com or Vrbo.

Prerequisites:

• Eircode and full address of each letting unit
• A list of every channel on which each unit is advertised
• Your planning status (permission granted, exemption claimed, or unknown)
• Ownership or authority-to-let documentation
• Access to your platform accounts

Difficulty and time: low to moderate. Allow 60 to 180 minutes for preparation. If planning status is unresolved, the planning track can take far longer, and it runs independently of your registration prep.

Step 1: Decide whether the register applies to you

The DETE "Short-term letting" page states that registration with Fáilte Ireland is required for short-term letting, and that listings must carry a unique registration number. The legislative framing comes from the Short-Term Letting and Tourism Bill. Work through this decision sequence:

1. Do you let accommodation to paying guests for short stays? If no, the register is unlikely to apply. If yes, continue.
2. Is the let advertised or booked, even occasionally, through an online platform or directly? Occasional letting is not automatically outside scope. Check the official definition of short-term letting rather than assuming a night-count exemption.
3. What is the unit? A whole home, a spare room, a self-contained annex and a separate cottage may each be treated as a "unit" in registration terms. Count each unit separately.
4. Does a scope exclusion apply? The DETE page references NACE classification (including NACE 55.20) when explaining scope and exclusions. NACE 55.20 covers holiday and other short-stay accommodation. If you operate a regulated accommodation business, such as a registered guest house, confirm with Fáilte Ireland whether you fall under an existing regime or this one.
5. Does an area-based condition affect you? Some of the debate around the register concerns thresholds that determine which areas are caught. In built-up areas of 20,000 or more people (Drogheda, Dundalk and Navan in this part of the country), there is no grace period to get your planning position sorted. Our population-threshold debate piece covers why this matters for towns such as Drogheda. Verify your location against the current official text.

Checkpoint: write one line per unit, in this form: "Unit A, whole home, Co. Louth, platform-listed, in scope / unsure." Anything marked "unsure" goes on a query list for Fáilte Ireland or your solicitor. Our explainer on who the register affects gives a plain-English walk-through of the same question.

Step 2: Understand what the register does

The register is a national list of short-term letting units, managed by Fáilte Ireland. Its practical function for you is the registration number. Once issued, that number must appear on each of your listings. Platforms then use it to verify the listing against the register.

Terms you'll meet:

• Host: the person or entity letting the unit.
• Unit: the individual letting accommodation being registered.
• Online platform: an intermediary that publishes or facilitates listings.
• Registration number: the identifier tied to a unit, which platforms must display.

The DETE page also covers who must register, renewal concepts and the online registration process. It does not publish a simple host workflow, which is why the remaining steps in this guide are practical translations.

Checkpoint: you should be able to state, in one sentence, that your registration number will be displayed on every listing for that unit and checked by platforms.

Step 3: Audit your current letting set-up

Create a one-page audit per unit. Capture:

• Unit identity: address, Eircode, unit type (whole home, room, annex)
• Capacity: bedrooms, maximum guests as currently advertised
• Channels: Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, Expedia, TripAdvisor, direct site, other
• Listing URLs: one URL per channel, per unit
• Operator: self-managed or managed by a third party
• Ownership: owner, co-owner, tenant with sub-letting rights, company

The audit exposes mismatches early. A typical one: a listing on one platform says "sleeps 6" while another says "sleeps 5". Registered data and listing data should agree, and the audit is where you reconcile them.

Warning: if you hold a tenancy rather than ownership, check your lease and landlord consent before registering. Registration doesn't create a right to sublet. If a mortgage applies, lender consent is a separate requirement, covered in our guide to renting out a mortgaged house.

Step 4: Assemble your registration data pack

The Department has now published what you'll be asked for, though you should still confirm the final form on the Fáilte Ireland page when the register opens. For individuals: name, email, phone number, PPSN, date of birth, country of residence, and address with Eircode. For companies: business name, CRO number (or other registration number), business email, registered address and legal representative. For each unit: the Eircode, the unit type (in your principal private residence, or a separate whole house or apartment), the number of bed places and the maximum number of guests. You'll also make a legal declaration, covering planning and fire safety, and pay the fee. The Bill as initiated adds that you confirm the unit complies with the planning authorisation scheme, and that any later change to the information you give is a "material change" you must notify. Have the following ready for each unit.

Gather, per unit:

• Host identity: full legal name, or company name and CRO number
• Contact email and phone number
• Unit address and Eircode
• Unit type and, where relevant, whether it is your principal private residence
• Planning status evidence (see Step 5)
• Platform listing URLs and any existing platform host IDs
• Property photographs and a floor plan (useful for consistency checks, not necessarily a registration requirement)
• Proof of ownership or authority to let

Store everything in a single folder per unit:

• /Owner-compliance/
  • /Unit-A-Louth/
    • 01-identity-and-ownership
    • 02-planning-evidence
    • 03-listing-urls-and-screenshots
    • 04-registration-confirmation
    • 05-insurance-and-safety

Checkpoint: every unit folder contains items 01 to 03 before you open any registration page.

Step 5: Check planning status in parallel

The register and planning permission are separate compliance tracks. Registering does not grant planning permission, and having planning permission does not register you. Citizens Information's "Renting your property for short-term lets" page sets out conditions and exemptions for planning permission, and also mentions the Fáilte Ireland register. Some older guidance, including parts of that page, still reflects the rules before March 2026, so check the date on anything you read.

Run this planning check for each unit:

1. Identify the use. Is it your principal private residence, a second home, or a dedicated holiday let?
2. Identify the location. The old Rent Pressure Zone test is gone. Rent Pressure Zones ended on 1 March 2026, and letting for 21 consecutive nights or fewer is now a material change of use anywhere in Ireland. Letting your whole principal private residence is exempt for up to 90 days a year, and letting rooms in your own home (up to four bedrooms) is exempt too. Our planning permission rules article summarises the 90-day threshold and what changes above it.
3. Check for existing permission or exemption evidence. Save the grant notice or your written basis for claiming an exemption.
4. Resolve doubt before listing continues. If you can't confirm that an exemption applies, contact your local authority planning office or a planning consultant.

Troubleshooting: if you've been letting for years and can't find paperwork, request your planning file from the local authority and ask a professional to review it. Don't register a unit on a planning assumption you can't evidence.

Step 5b: Sort out planning with Form 24 (if you're already letting)

If you've been letting short-term for a while without planning permission, there's now a simpler way to put that right. Since the end of September 2026, you can apply to retain the change of use using Form 24, added by S.I. No. 500 of 2026. It's for one situation only: an application solely to retain an existing short-term let. It goes alongside the normal application form and doesn't replace it.

Which planning route is yours?

• Already letting without permission and want to keep going: a retention application with Form 24, filed with the usual application form.
• Not letting yet, or the application also includes building work: a standard planning application with the usual drawings. Form 24 is for retention of the use only (the regulations say "solely"), so ask a planning consultant if your case is mixed.
• Letting rooms in your own home, or your whole principal private residence for up to 90 days a year: exempt from planning permission, but you notify the council using the exempt-letting forms (Forms 15, 16 and 17).
• Already have permission for tourism or short-term letting use: nothing new on planning, but you still need to register.

What Form 24 asks for

• Floor space: an estimate in square metres, worked out by eye. You don't need a measured survey.
• A short description: the maximum number of guests at full capacity, when you let (all year or seasonally), and who manages the property (owner-run or a letting agent).
• Previous use: what the land or building was used for before.
• A signed and dated declaration: that the information is correct. For online applications, valid login credentials replace the signature.

What's different from a normal application

• Fewer drawings: no floor plans, elevations or sections for a pure change of use.
• One further-information request: the council can ask only once, and only on technical or environmental points or new issues raised by public submissions.
• Still required: the application fee, a newspaper notice and a site notice. Check your council's validation checklist, because the form warns that an incomplete application will be invalid.

The Bill, as initiated, sets out how the planning deadline works. Unauthorised lets outside the listed built-up areas of 20,000 or more people get a 24-month window to apply for permission, starting on a "relevant date" of 23 October 2026 as drafted. If the Bill commences later, hosts whose seven years could be reached in between get the 24 months from commencement instead. Drogheda, Dundalk and Navan are on the list, so there is no window for them: confirm your planning position before you register. As we read it, if you don't apply within the window, or you withdraw your application, those 24 months don't count towards the seven-year route, so don't rely on seven years of letting without checking. Seven years of continuous letting without enforcement action still strengthens a retention case, so start gathering your booking history now. The date and the detail could change as the Bill goes through the Oireachtas, and a planning decision isn't guaranteed, so a planning consultant is worth asking about your own case.

Checkpoint: write down which of the four routes each unit falls under before you do anything else.

Step 6: Prepare your listings for the registration number

From 31 December 2026, DETE indicates that platforms must display registration numbers and must remove listings on order. A listing without a valid number is exposed. Prepare in three moves.

1. Normalise listing data. Make capacity, unit type, address-level details and host name consistent across all channels.
2. Identify where the number goes. Each platform will set its own field. Expect a dedicated registration field in host settings, so keep your login credentials current and enable two-factor access for the right people.
3. Plan for verification. Platforms may query listings that don't match registered information. Keep screenshots of current listing content so you can show what was live and when.

Operators with synced multi-channel calendars have an advantage here. At Sos Stays, listings across Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, Expedia, TripAdvisor and direct booking are managed from a synced set-up, so one corrected data point propagates to every channel instead of being edited six times.

Checkpoint: open each live listing and compare it to your audit sheet. They should match field for field.

Step 7: Submit the registration and file the evidence

Once the register opens, follow the official online process. The Government's timetable has it opening on 1 December 2026, with all hosts registered by 31 December 2026. Fáilte Ireland's own page still says registration is not yet open and will open once the legislation passes. The Bill, as initiated, would come into operation by ministerial order, provision by provision, and it contains no 1 December or 31 December date, so confirm the dates on the Fáilte Ireland page. You register personally as the owner: an agent can't register for you unless the unit is owned by a company.

1. Create or access the host account on the official registration service.
2. Enter details for one unit at a time, copying from your data pack rather than retyping from memory.
3. Review each entry against your audit sheet before submitting.
4. Pay the registration fee, if one applies. The Bill says any fee must reflect Fáilte Ireland's reasonable and proportionate costs, that renewal must cost less than first registration, and that there is no refund if a registration is later removed or suspended. No amount has been published yet, so check the official page.
5. Save the confirmation and the registration number to folder 04.
6. Add the number to every listing for that unit.

Each unit gets its own registration number. Registration runs for 12 months from your registration date, and you apply to renew up to 30 days before the anniversary. If you declare that nothing has changed, you don't have to resubmit your information. Put the renewal date in your calendar the day you register.

Checkpoint, you're registered when:

• You hold a confirmation record and a registration number per unit
• The number appears on each live listing
• The listing's content still matches the registered data
• Your folder 04 is complete and backed up

What does it cost?

Most of the cost sits on the planning side, not the register. Here is what's published and what isn't.

• Retention application: the standard retention fee is €10.80 per square metre of floor space, with a €240 minimum, so an 80 m² house comes to about €864. We found no separate Form 24 fee, so confirm with your council. Figures from Citizens Information.
• New permission: €3.60 per square metre, with an €80 minimum.
• Newspaper and site notices: the price varies by paper. Our estimate is a few hundred euro.
• Professional help: a planning consultant or solicitor varies widely. Form 24 should cut the drawing costs, since it doesn't need floor plans.
• Fáilte Ireland registration: described by the Department as a nominal annual fee. The Bill says any fee must reflect reasonable and proportionate costs, and renewal must cost less than the first registration. No amount has been published yet.
• Exempt-letting notifications (Forms 15 to 17): no fee.

Timeline: now through 31 December 2026

• Next 7 days: classify units (Step 1), complete audit sheets (Step 3), start the planning check (Step 5)
• Next 30 days: complete data pack (Step 4), reconcile listing data (Step 6), and lodge a Form 24 retention application early if you need one (Step 5b), since councils generally aim to decide within eight weeks
• Registration opening: 1 December 2026 is the Government's target for the register to open, though Fáilte Ireland says it opens once the legislation passes. Register unit by unit and apply numbers to listings (Step 7)
• Before 31 December 2026: verify numbers display on every channel, and test each listing URL
• After 31 December 2026: monitor for platform verification requests and keep evidence current

Warning: leaving everything to late December compresses the dependent steps. If a platform can't display a valid number for your listing after 31 December 2026, the listing is at risk of removal, and bookings already in the calendar become a guest-service problem.

For realistic expectations on processing, our piece on the registration timeline explains why no official processing time has been published and what typically consumes the most time.

Common mistakes that stall registration

• Inconsistent data across channels. A different bedroom count on each platform is the most predictable cause of a verification query.
• Treating planning and registration as one process. They are separate tracks with separate authorities.
• Starting data collection at the deadline. Ownership and planning documents take longest to retrieve.
• Misclassifying units. A self-contained annex listed as part of the main house can distort your unit count.
• Ignoring the tax side. Registration doesn't change your income reporting duties. See our guide to Revenue income guidance for the Case IV and form details.
• Using the wrong planning route. Form 24 is only for retaining an existing let. A new let, or an application with building works, needs a standard application.
• Advertising without your number. Under the Bill, offering a unit for short-term letting anywhere other than a platform, such as your own website or social media, without the valid registration number is an offence.

Pre-submission validation checklist:

• Each unit has a classification and a planning evidence file
• The planning route is confirmed for each unit: exempt, Form 24 retention, or a standard application
• Listing data matches the audit sheet on every channel
• Ownership or authority-to-let documents are current
• Contact details are monitored, since platform and Fáilte Ireland notices will go there
• Open queries are logged with a named authority and a date

What you've set up and where to go next

You now have a unit classification, an audit sheet, a data pack, a planning position, aligned listings and a filing structure for your registration evidence. That is the full preparation for the Fáilte Ireland register, and it's the work that most often delays hosts when it's left until the register opens.

Next actions: finish the planning check first, because it has the longest lead time. Then reconcile listing data across channels, and register as soon as the official process opens.

If you'd rather not run this alongside guest communication, cleaning turnovers and pricing, Sos Stays manages short-term lets on a commission-only basis, starting from 15% of rental revenue for urban properties, with no setup fee. That covers listing consistency across channels, verified check-in, turnover coordination and owner reporting, so your listings stay accurate while the compliance work gets done. Owners in the Louth and Meath area can start with our Boyne Valley short-let management guide, then get in touch through sosstays.com.

Latest updates (checked 24 October 2026)

Here's what has changed recently. Sources are listed below, and we'll update this section as things move.

• What the Bill says on planning (section 47): as initiated, unauthorised short-term lets outside the listed built-up areas of 20,000 or more people (Drogheda, Dundalk and Navan are on the list) get a 24-month window to apply for permission, starting on a "relevant date" of 23 October 2026 as drafted. If the Bill commences later, hosts whose seven years could be reached in between get the 24 months from commencement instead. As we read it, if you don't apply in that window, or you withdraw your application, those 24 months don't count towards the seven-year route. The date and detail could change as the Bill goes through the Oireachtas.
• What it says on registration: Fáilte Ireland is the competent authority. You declare the Eircode and planning compliance, and for individuals your date of birth and PPSN. Any fee must reflect reasonable and proportionate costs, with a cheaper renewal, and renewal is annual from your registration date.
• What it says on penalties: advertising a unit off-platform without a valid registration number is an offence, and so is not notifying a change to your registered details (any change counts as a "material change"). Both carry a fine. Knowingly or recklessly giving false or misleading information can also carry up to three months in prison. Fáilte Ireland can serve fixed payment notices of up to €500, payable within 21 days. Platforms face sanctions of up to 2% of annual turnover.
• When it applies: the Bill (the Short-term Letting and Tourism Act 2026 if enacted) comes into operation by ministerial order, provision by provision, and is not yet law.
• 6 October 2026: the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill was published. The Government says the register opens on 1 December and all hosts must register by 31 December 2026. Fáilte Ireland's page still says registration is not yet open and will open once the legislation passes, so the date could move.
• End of September 2026: S.I. No. 500 of 2026 came into operation, adding the Form 24 retention route. The Department of Enterprise gives the date as 29 September and the Department of Housing circular says 30 September, so we say "the end of September".
• 17 June 2026: a draft National Planning Statement on short-term letting was published. It is still a draft as far as we can find.
• April 2026: S.I. No. 130 of 2026 extended the principal private residence exemptions nationwide and removed references to Rent Pressure Zones.
• 1 March 2026: short-term letting became a material change of use nationwide, defined as a letting of no more than 21 consecutive nights. Rent Pressure Zones were replaced by national rent rules.
• Tax: income from short-term guests is taxed as trading income (Case I) or occasional income (Case IV), and rent-a-room relief does not apply to short-term guest lets. Platforms report host earnings to Revenue, and Revenue has said hosts must declare additional income.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. For anything that depends on your own property, check with a solicitor, planning consultant or accountant.

Sources

• Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: Short-term letting in Ireland
• Fáilte Ireland: Short-term letting register
• Government press release: Government publishes Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill
• Department of Housing circular: Planning and Development (Short Term Letting) (Change of Use) Regulations 2026
• Department of Housing: Draft Short Term Letting National Planning Statement
• Planning and Development Act 2000, section 3A (revised)
• S.I. No. 130 of 2026, Irish Statute Book
• Residential Tenancies Board: Rental law changes from 1 March 2026
• Citizens Information: Planning permission
• Citizens Information: Renting your property for short-term lets
• Revenue: Tax treatment of income arising from the letting of property (Tax and Duty Manual 04-01-20)
• The Irish Times, 6 October 2026: New mandatory register for Airbnb and other short-term lettings to open in December
• Short-term Letting and Tourism Bill 2026 (No. 101 of 2026), as initiated, Houses of the Oireachtas