Every legal short-term rental in Dubai — every Airbnb listing, every furnished monthly let to visitors — stands on one document.
Quick answer: A Dubai holiday home licence is a per-unit permit from the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), applied for through the official Holiday Homes portal at hhpermits.det.gov.ae. Owners can apply directly, long-lease tenants can apply with their landlord's no-objection certificate, and licensed operators can hold permits for the units they manage. Operating requires the permit plus ongoing obligations: guest registration, the tourism dirham (AED 10–15 per bedroom per night) remitted monthly, and safety standards — with enforcement noticeably tighter since the 2026 rule updates.
The three paths to a permit
| You are... | Your route |
|---|---|
| The unit's owner | Apply directly on the DET portal — the standard path |
| A long-lease tenant | Apply with the landlord's written NOC — subletting as a holiday home without it breaches both your lease and the permit rules |
| A licensed holiday home operator | Hold permits across the units you manage — the route for owners who want the operator model without the admin |
One constraint sits above all three: your building's own rules. Some towers and communities restrict short-letting regardless of DET's willingness to permit it — confirm the building's position before spending a dirham on furniture.
Applying: the steps
- Gather the file: title deed (or tenancy contract plus landlord NOC), owner's ID, a recent DEWA bill for the unit, and the building/community NOC where required.
- Register on the portal at hhpermits.det.gov.ae and submit the unit's details — classification (standard or deluxe) follows the unit's specification.
- Meet the standards: baseline safety (alarms, extinguisher, clear escape information) and alignment with DET's sustainability requirements on energy, water and waste.
- Pay the permit fee — fees vary by unit size and duration and are revised periodically; treat any figure you've seen quoted as a starting estimate and confirm the current schedule in the portal at application.
- Receive the permit — typically processed quickly for complete files — and display/reference it as required in your listings.
What operating actually costs
Beyond the permit fee, budget the recurring layer: the tourism dirham at AED 10 per occupied bedroom per night for standard units and AED 15 for deluxe, collected from guests and remitted to DET by the 15th of each month; furnishing and turnover costs (cleaning, linen); channel commissions; and — the one operators discover late — VAT: short-term rental income is taxable, and crossing AED 375,000 of taxable turnover makes registration with the FTA mandatory, a threshold a couple of well-performing units can reach. The accounting treatment differs sharply from long-let income, so set the books up for it from the first booking.
The obligations that keep the permit
The licence is a living compliance status, not a one-off stamp: register guests as required, remit the dirham on schedule, maintain the safety standards, renew the permit before expiry, and operate within the listing and conduct rules. The 2026 updates tightened this layer — more active enforcement, less tolerance for unpermitted listings and lapsed renewals — which is genuinely good news for compliant operators: every delisted unpermitted unit is your competitor removed. Track permit expiries the way long-let landlords track renewal notices: on a calendar that fires early, not a memory that fires late.
Conclusion: the permit is the easy part — the discipline is the business
Getting a Dubai holiday home licence is genuinely accessible: one portal, a modest file, clear standards. What separates real operators from short-lived experiments is everything after — the monthly dirham discipline, the safety upkeep, the renewal never missed. Dubai has built one of the world's most orderly short-let regimes; inside it, compliant operators enjoy a market visitors trust. Start with the building's permission, file properly, and run the obligations like the business they are.
Frequently asked questions
Q1. Do I need a licence to Airbnb my apartment in Dubai?
Yes — every short-term rental unit needs a DET holiday home permit, whether let through Airbnb, Booking.com or directly. Listing without one risks fines and removal, and enforcement has tightened since 2026.
Q2. Can tenants get a holiday home permit in Dubai?
Long-lease tenants can, with the landlord's written no-objection certificate — without it, holiday-letting a rented unit breaches the lease and the permit rules simultaneously.
Q3. How much is the tourism dirham for holiday homes?
AED 10 per occupied bedroom per night for standard units, AED 15 for deluxe, collected from guests and remitted to DET monthly by the 15th. It's separate from VAT, which applies to the rental income itself.
This guide is for general information. Holiday home permits are administered by the Department of Economy and Tourism via hhpermits.det.gov.ae — requirements and fees change; confirm current rules at application. VAT per Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 via the FTA.
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