The EU registration number for short-term rentals: what actually applies since May 2026
EU Regulation 2024/1028 has applied since 20 May 2026 — but introduces no Europe-wide registration requirement. Here is what genuinely applies to you.
EU Regulation 2024/1028 on short-term rentals has applied since 20 May 2026. Few topics have produced as many half-right claims in the run-up, and the most common one is that every holiday let in Europe now needs a registration number. That is not what happened.
What the regulation actually does
The regulation entered into force on 20 May 2024 and has applied across all member states since 20 May 2026. Its subject is the collection and sharing of data about short-term rentals: it harmonises what registration schemes must look like, which details may be collected, and how platforms pass that data to authorities.
What it explicitly does not do is create a Europe-wide duty to register every holiday let. Whether a property has to be registered at all is still decided by the country, the region, or the municipality. The regulation prescribes how such a scheme must work — not that one has to exist.
In practice: the duty to state a registration number in your listings applies where your municipality operates such a scheme. Where there is none locally, nothing changes for you yet.
First step: find out who is responsible
Before applying for anything, settle the only question that matters: does your municipality run a registration scheme?
That is more tedious than it should be, because responsibility sits in different places depending on the state — sometimes the town, sometimes the district, in some regions the tourism office. Asking the municipality where the property is located is the most direct route. If you have properties across several municipalities, you unfortunately have to ask each one.
Once you have a number, it belongs in every listing: on the portals and on your own booking site alike. It is one of those details that has to stay current — on a change of ownership or of use, check whether it still holds.
Germany: the KVDG and the Bundesnetzagentur
Germany accompanied the regulation with the Kurzzeitvermietung-Datenaustausch-Gesetz (KVDG), the short-term rental data exchange act. It mainly settles the role of the Bundesnetzagentur as the single digital entry point: data exchange between online platforms and the competent authorities runs through it.
For you as a host that is background infrastructure at first. What matters is the consequence: details from your listings and booking data will reach authorities along a regulated path. Anyone who has been relying on a letting simply not being noticed should drop that assumption.
For the avoidance of doubt: local restrictions on change of use, permit requirements, and city tax are all untouched. The EU regulation replaces no local law — it layers on top of it.
The point managers and agencies should check
This is where it gets uncomfortable for some of our readers. The regulation addresses short-term rental platforms — services that intermediate between hosts and guests.
Running a booking site purely for your own properties is normally not what is meant. But if you let other hosts list under your brand — the classic case of an agency, a host network, or a region — you should have it checked whether you fall within scope yourself. This is not hair-splitting: verification and reporting duties hang on it that simply do not exist for someone letting only their own places.
We deliberately say “have it checked” rather than telling you the answer. It depends on the specific arrangement and belongs in front of a lawyer, not in a blog post.
What makes sense now
- Ask the responsible municipality, per property, whether a scheme exists.
- Enter any numbers you have in every channel — portals and your own site.
- Decide on one place where those numbers are maintained, so they do not go stale in a spreadsheet when something changes.
- If others let under your brand, get the platform question reviewed legally.
In Reynt the registration number is one of the details held on the property itself and carried from there into the guest-facing page, rather than being maintained separately in each channel.
This article is an orientation, not legal advice. What applies to your property depends on your municipality and your specific arrangement — when in doubt, ask the competent authority or a specialist lawyer.
