Decree 31/2024 is nineteen pages in Spanish relating to changes in the control and administration of tourism, which is booming as never before, specifically to regulate the accommodation of tourists heading to registered and new hosts. It was published on 22nd January 2024, and comes into full effect on 22nd January 2025. My usual readers can skip this blog entirely.

The Decree, unlike earlier ones, does take a sharp look at rural hosts – rural being defined (elsewhere online, hopefully accurately) as municipalities with fewer than ten thousand people.

Some of us hosts in small towns or out in the campo missed the news and have missed the six month deadline for some options, which was on 22nd August. Although the decree also covers non-resident owners renting out holiday properties I couldn’t find an English translation, so I put it through an online translator with – we’ve all been there – erratic results. This is therefore certainly not guaranteed to be fully accurate or even comprehensive – more than once numbers skipped, or were out of sequence, and I too skipped over bits which quite obviously referred to hotels or agents handling multiple properties – but if you too are a host and suddenly hearing rumours of having to upgrade to a five star standard or lose your licence, I picked out twenty points of potential interest. Some were the source of the rumours, a couple are new, a few modified, others are common sense and reiterated. I do appreciate this is quite a niche blog.

Bottom line, if your municipality doesn’t want you around you could be in trouble. For the rest – not quite as scary as I thought. Unless Google Translate missed something really terrifying.   

1.     The main change, and covered in exhaustive detail – control, or more control, is now given to the local municipalities, to ensure tourist accommodation is compatible or complementary to the municipality.

2.     A major change – agents operating the property on behalf of the owner(s) must, regardless of the title enabling them to do so, appear as owners of the operation in the responsible declaration referred to in article 9 of this decree. Anyone handling more than two separate properties is affected.

3.     In brief, private properties let out in their entirety cannot offer more than 15 places. There must be 2 bathrooms if more than 5 guests, and 3 bathrooms if more than 8 guests. However if your villa sleeps up to 15 people this article is not going to be of much use and you need to read the decree itself. (Niche. Yup.)   

4.     This blog is primarily for the smaller-scale host, registered, paying their taxes, advertising through the holiday websites, and offering rooms or suites on their property. If you notice a vital omission please add it to the comments! We are in a sub-section all our own, sink or swim together . . .

5.     Those renting parts of their own premises cannot offer more than 6 rooms (without entering a different category) and each room cannot sleep more than four people. Two must be in beds that are not bunk beds. Two convertible beds will be allowed in the living room, counting towards the maximum capacity of the dwelling. The owner of the property must be resident on the property.

6.     The minimum space which can be offered to tourists is 25 m² with a minimum of 14 m² per guest. My understanding is this does not require bedrooms larger than the average master bedroom, rather can be calculated on the total space dedicated to the guest(s).

7.     Bedrooms and living rooms – this is not a new requirement – must have direct ventilation to the outside or to ventilated patios and some kind of window darkening system (unless the building is protected and can be exempt for architectural or historical reasons). Equally, cave-type constructions are allowed but must comply with territorial and urban planning regulations, for both this and the next point.

8.     Kitchens and bathrooms must have direct or forced ventilation for air renewal.

9.     That airconditioning issue – the decree specifies it must be provided from May to August, but can be fixed or portable units. Equally, “centralized or non-centralized heating by fixed or portable elements in the bedrooms and living rooms, if the period of operation includes the months of December, January, February and March, without incandescent elements or combustion of flammable liquids or gases being admissible under any circumstances”.  Fires out, gas heaters out, radiators or electric heaters in.  

10.  Hosts must provide users with a 24-hour telephone number to immediately answer and resolve any queries or incidents relating to the home. There were rumours a phone must be supplied in each room. Yes if you are a hotel and guests need to reach Reception. Otherwise nope. Just keep your mobile phone with you 24/7.

11.  Clean the room(s) when guests move in and out. Well, duh. Have official Complaint and Claim Forms from the Andalusian Government available to users and a sign announcing them in a visible place inside the home. Well, that’s not new either, I had to get them in a hurry after my 2019 inspection. They can be ordered online even from Amazon.es – the correct forms, specific to Turismo requirements.

12.  Notifications should be clear re the rules of coexistence, restricted areas, and shared facilities. Not sure if this is new but common sense anyway. Factors such as the admission (and / or existence) of pets in the dwelling, restrictions re smoking, garbage disposal, guidelines re noise, vibrations, etc., required environmentally and municipally should be clearly established. In an apartment block any evacuation plan must be posted on the door of the dwelling. The decree confirms, further on, these regulations should be in at least Spanish and English, other languages optional.   

13.  Check-in is from 15h00, check-out up to 11h00, unless specifically agreed otherwise. Keys should not be left out in public roads for the guests to collect (is that new? Would you, anyway?) and guests are not to be kept waiting to check in, even at peak times, for more than an absolute maximum of an hour.

14.  Article 9 covers the requirements for new registration and I have not covered that here. One of the requirements was providing a plan of the property, and a certificate stating it will be suitable for hosting, and acceptable to the municipality, ideally from an architect. As best I can tell an existing host has already provided the necessary information, has been inspected in the past, and should not need to re-register. If in doubt whether you have provided all the necessary, check that section – it is mainly identification, contact details, and suitability of the property. If I am wrong – please say! I will update this blog if I hear anything suggesting re-registering is obligatory.

15.  That said, the registering of guests does change from the Guardia Civil in October. Registering guests is covered in Article 9 – you do have to – and the Guardia Civil website is giving details of the change.   

16.  Section 13 is very specific about requirements. Some are obvious. Furnishings and fittings should be ready for immediate use, electricity and hot / cold running water supplied. The kitchen needs 2 ways of heating food, a refrigerator, the necessary cooking and serving utensils, cutlery, crockery, bottle opener, scissors, can opener, and wringer. Appliances such as blender, toaster, etc., should have instruction manuals. Bathrooms – hand soap, gel, shampoo, one hand towel and bath towel per person, non-slip flooring, washable floor rug(s), additional loo paper, loo brush, waste bin, power socket by the mirror, hairdryer, and shelf, are all jumbled together. It is specified there should be a door on, at the very least, the lavatory, unless it is part of the bathroom and that has a door. The bedroom(s) require a replacement set of bed linen be available. Bed size is minimum 80 x 190 if single, minimum 135 x 190 if double. There must be cupboard space and adequate hangers, and a light point close to the bed. The mattresses need to be a minimum thickness of 18 centimetres, protected, and stain resistant.

17.  This section was surprisingly short – first aid kit, smoke detector near the kitchen, fire extinguisher. Some of the hosting websites require more health and safety arrangements, this is the legal requirement.

18.  I think this is new – a map of the town showing leisure areas, restaurants, cafés, shops, parking, medical services and urban transport. It can be printed or electronic.

19.  One squawk I had seen said there had to be dedicated parking for guests. The requirement is in fact that dedicated parking must be available to one tenth of the number of guests, and is therefore aimed at larger establishments.

20. Added in to the notes and general conditions at the end of the decree are recommendations like a cradle provided on request, and a few other items not mentioned earlier. The availability of a second key on request, for one. Parking is mentioned again – either on site or arranged nearby, which does not need to be covered or secure, simply specific and available. There should be a safe in each room, and a full-length mirror. Daily or weekly cleaning must be included in the price. A dishwasher is required if the house has more than two bedrooms. Bunk beds may not be installed in the dining room. Because they are basically in the summary and not detailed in the very comprehensive decree as most points have been, they are, although peremptory in tone, presumably not requirements. They do explain why readers of the decree got nervous. This blog, I said earlier, is for smaller / rural operators. I have assumed those with very large elaborate set-ups would have a support team, including legal advisors, who have been on the job since this all came out in February 2024. Still, potential hefty fines are being waved about and anyone who falls foul of the powers that be could be in trouble, so I am not assuming I have no need to research any further, neither should you. Ears and eyes open and remember the deadline for any upgrades / necessary changes is 22 February 2025.

Nineteen pages of legalese boiled down into one blog, fingers crossed it helped.