Airbnb and Booking.com could receive fines worth millions of euro under new letting rules

Eva Osborne

Platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com could be hit with fines worth millions of euro under new short-term letting rules.

The rules are due to kick in in May 2026, and a new register will be set up for all short-term lets in Ireland.

It will be managed by Fáilte Ireland, allowing the body to monitor online platforms to ensure property owners are complying and councils to check if there are valid planning permissions.

This will effectively ban short-term lets in cities and urban areas because planning permission applications will be refused for those in areas with populations above 10,000, The Irish Times reported.

Anyone offering accommodation for periods of up to and including 21 nights will have to be registered.

Online platforms, such as Airbnb, will could face hefty fines for listing properties that do not have a valid registration number - with penalties of up to two per cent of their annual income.

The new legislation, the General Scheme of the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill, was published on Thursday and outlines plans for a new register for all short-term lets (SLTs) in Ireland.

The Irish Times reported that it is hoped these rules could help release 10,000 homes back on to the long-term letting market. According to Fáilte Ireland, there are 32,000 short-term lets advertised online.