We are often asked questions like “What legal documentation and permits are required for property owners in Croatia who list their apartments on your platform?”
The short answer, for Croatia and for every other country: please consult your local legal and accounting advisors to understand your obligations.
Why We Can’t Give You a List
The rules for renting out accommodation are set locally. They differ from country to country, and often between regions, cities and even individual buildings. They also depend on your own situation, such as whether you operate as an individual or a company, the type of property, how long your guests stay, and where you are tax resident. And they change over time.
Nomad Stays lists Stays in many countries and cannot provide legal or tax advice for any of them. Only a qualified advisor who knows your location and your circumstances can tell you exactly what applies to you.
Your Responsibility as a Stay Partner
As the operator of your Stay, you are responsible for making sure it is run in line with the laws and regulations that apply where it is located, and for holding any licences, permits or registrations that are required there.
Questions to Ask Your Advisors
Requirements vary, so treat this as a starting point for the conversation and not as a list of what applies to you:
- Licences and registration – do I need a licence, permit, registration number or property categorisation to rent to guests?
- Length of stay – are the rules different for the longer stays of a month or more that Nomad Stays guests typically book, compared with short tourist stays?
- Tax – how is my rental income taxed, do I need to register for or charge VAT/GST, and is there a tourist or city tax to collect?
- Guest registration – do I have to register my guests with the local authorities or police?
- Property rules – do zoning rules, my building or owners’ association, my lease or my mortgage allow this kind of rental?
- Safety and insurance – what safety standards apply, and does my insurance cover paying guests?
- Record keeping – what invoices and records must I issue and keep?
Your local tourist board, municipality or tax office can often point you to the official requirements too.
Tip: Check How Each Law Counts the Length of a Stay
Many rental rules switch on or off depending on how long a guest stays, for example whether a booking counts as a short tourist stay or a longer-term rental. Because Nomad Stays bookings are typically around a month or longer, your Stay may sit right on one of these boundaries, so the exact definition matters.
Do not assume that every law measures a stay the same way. Within the same country, the licensing rules, the tax rules and the tenancy rules can each use a different threshold and a different way of counting. Ask your advisors about each one separately:
- “One month” is not a fixed number of nights. Some laws say “one month”, which can be as short as 28 nights in February. Others set a fixed number such as 30 or 31 nights. A 28-night booking can be a month under one rule and fall short under another.
- Nights or days? A 30-night stay covers 31 calendar days. Check which one the law counts, and whether the arrival and departure days are included.
- Per booking or in total? Some rules look at the length of each individual booking. Others count the total number of nights the property is rented in a year, whoever the guests are.
- Which year? Where there is an annual limit, check whether it runs over the calendar year, the tax year or a rolling 12 months.
- “More than” or “at least”? A rule that applies to stays of “more than 30 nights” treats a 30-night booking differently from one that applies to stays of “30 nights or more”.
- Extensions and back-to-back bookings. Ask whether a guest extending their stay, or booking twice in a row, is treated as one long stay or as separate short ones.
Once you know the thresholds that apply to you, compare them with the package lengths you offer. If a rule depends on stays of 30 nights or more, for example, a 28-night package may be treated differently from a 30-night one.
What Nomad Stays Can Help With
We can tell you what we need from you to list on Nomad Stays, and what we are required to report to governments about transactions on the platform: