Holiday Home Permit

A holiday home permit is the licence required in Dubai to rent out a residential property for short-term stays — the legal foundation under every Airbnb-style listing. The regime is administered by Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism (DET): the property must be registered as a holiday home, meet furnishing and safety standards, and the operator — whether the owner directly or a licensed holiday home operator managing it — must comply with guest registration and tourism dirham obligations. Renting short-term without a permit exposes the host to fines, and tenants face an extra layer: subletting a rented apartment as a holiday home requires the landlord's consent on top of the permit, and many communities' rules restrict short-term letting entirely. The permit question arises for investors modelling short-let yields, for tenants tempted to list spare rooms, and for buyers checking whether a building's owners association allows holiday homes before purchasing for that purpose.