Before you start: two checks that save real headaches
First, your municipality: each town hall can designate saturated zones, set quotas or add technical requirements of its own, and what's fine in Finestrat may not be fine in Benidorm. Second, your community of owners: since the reform of Spain's Ley de Propiedad Horizontal (the horizontal property law governing shared buildings), the community can restrict or attach conditions to new tourist rentals with a three-fifths majority. Checking these two things before spending a single euro on getting the property ready is step zero of any serious project.
It's exactly the first thing we check when an owner brings us a property: municipality, planning rules and the community's statutes. If there's an obstacle, better to know on day one — and there's almost always an alternative, such as a seasonal let.
The 5 steps, in order
The order matters, because each document feeds into the next:
- 1. The urban planning compatibility report: issued by your town hall, it confirms the property can be used for tourist purposes. It's the document that takes longest — request it first.
- 2. Technical preparation: the property must meet the requirements of Decreto 9/2024 (the Valencian holiday rental decree) and any municipal rules (habitability, equipment, climate control, complaint forms, mandatory signage).
- 3. Registration in the Registro de Turismo de la Comunitat Valenciana (the regional tourism registry), via a sworn declaration with the compatibility report in hand. Note: the registration expires and must be renewed every five years.
- 4. A registration number from the Ventanilla Única Digital de Arrendamientos (Spain's single digital rental registry): mandatory since July 2025 in order to advertise. Without it, Airbnb and Booking won't publish your listing — or will take it down.
- 5. Advertise compliantly: the registration number must appear on every listing, and the property must keep meeting the requirements for as long as it's in operation.
How long it takes and what it costs
The bottleneck is the urban planning compatibility report, which depending on the town hall can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a month or more. The rest — the sworn declaration, the registry and the Ventanilla Única — moves faster if the paperwork is complete first time. All in all, a straightforward case is resolved in weeks; one with planning complications can drag on.
As for cost: the official fees are moderate and vary by municipality. Our part — assessing the case, preparing the paperwork and handling the entire process — is free for properties that come under our management. You only pay the official fees.
The mistakes we see most often
After processing dozens of licences, the same stumbles keep coming up:
- Renovating first and asking questions later — then discovering the zone is saturated or the community has blocked it.
- Advertising the property "while the paperwork comes through": the platforms remove the listing, and the fine can be steep.
- Letting the tourism registry entry lapse by not renewing it after five years.
- Confusing the regional licence with the Ventanilla Única registration number: they're separate procedures and you need both.
- Starting the paperwork in spring and missing the summer: high season doesn't wait for the administration.