Short-term rental rules in Utrecht

What this means in practice

• Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 has applied since 20 May 2026. Where this member state operates a registration scheme, the unit needs a registration number and it must appear on every listing.
• Booking platforms are required to check declared registration numbers against the national Single Digital Entry Point and to report invalid or misused numbers to the authority and to you. A wrong number risks the listing being removed.
• Local rules on night caps, guest registers and tourist tax sit on top of this and vary by city. They are not covered by the EU baseline.
• VAT on overnight accommodation rose from 9% to 21% on 1 January 2026 and applies to holiday lets, holiday parks and platform rentals. It also applies to bookings and prepayments taken before that date. Campsites where the guest brings their own tent, camper or caravan remain at 9%.
• Tourist tax is set by the municipality and is charged on top of VAT. Cuvanti does not hold the rate for Dutch municipalities, so no amount is shown here. In Amsterdam it is among the highest in Europe, so check the current figure before pricing.
• The nachtregister, a guest register, must be kept for every stay.
• Where a permit is required, it must be held BEFORE the first booking, alongside the national registration number. Applying afterwards does not cure the breach.
• Utrecht allows 60 nights of particuliere vakantieverhuur per calendar year. That is letting the whole dwelling you live in, incidentally, to tourists or other visitors.
• You must be registered at the address as hoofdbewoner, the principal occupant, in the Basisregistratie Personen. Utrecht holiday letting is for letting the home you actually live in.
• Occupancy is capped at six people for a dwelling under 200 square metres gross floor area, and eight above it.
• A registration number is required, and it must be quoted in EVERY offer or publication of the property for tourist letting. The duty covers all tourist letting of all housing in Utrecht, not only holiday letting.
• You must notify the city of EVERY SINGLE letting, and the number of nights it runs, BEFORE it begins. This is a per-booking duty, not an annual return, and Cuvanti does not file it for you. Once the city tells a platform your 60 nights are used, the platform is barred from showing your listing for the rest of that year.
• The 60-night cap and the notification duty apply to holiday letting of your own home. Other forms of tourist letting carry the registration number duty but not the night limit. That is not permission: they are regulated through the omgevingsplan and the building rules instead, so check those before letting a property you do not live in.
• After two administrative fines in five years for breaching the tourist-letting rules, the city may ban you from tourist letting for up to a year and order platforms to block your listings for that period.
• When the notification duty began, the city published fines from EUR 150 for a first breach to a maximum of EUR 21,750 for repeated ones. Those figures were published in 2022 and Cuvanti has not confirmed the current tariff.

Common questions about short-term rentals in Utrecht

Do I need to register a short-term rental in Utrecht?

Yes. A registration or licence must be in place in Utrecht before the property is let.

How many nights a year can I let a short-term rental in Utrecht?

60 nights per year in Utrecht. Letting beyond that limit is not permitted without separate approval.

Does a short-term rental in Utrecht have to be my main home?

Yes. Utrecht requires the property to be the operator's principal or primary residence.

Do I have to keep a guest register in Utrecht?

Yes. Utrecht requires a register of guests to be kept for every stay.

Is there an accommodation tax on short-term rentals in Utrecht?

Yes. Toeristenbelasting, Utrecht at 10% of the booking.

Are local council rules for Utrecht included here?

Yes. The rules shown for Utrecht are the ones that bind an operator at this level, last checked 2026-08-30.