Is your holiday rental legal? How to check in the Canary Islands
You have found the perfect apartment: a balcony with a sea view, a good price, a friendly host. Before you book, there is one simple step that can save you a lot of trouble: check that the property is listed in the Canary Islands tourism register.
The short answer: under Canary Islands law, every holiday rental (vivienda vacacional) must show its registration number in its listing, wherever it is advertised. You can look that number up yourself, because the Government of the Canary Islands publishes the list of registered holiday rentals as open data, in a downloadable spreadsheet.
If the number is missing from the listing, or you cannot find it in the list, that does not necessarily mean fraud, but it is always a reason to ask. Below we go through what to check before you book, what you should see when you arrive, and where to turn if something goes wrong. If you are interested in the subject as a buyer rather than a guest, we cover that in our article on buying property.
What counts as a holiday rental
Under the Canary Islands law that came into force in December 2025 (Ley 6/2025, on the tourist use of homes), tourist use means providing tourist accommodation in a home, temporarily, regularly or now and then, in exchange for money. The law also states that renting out individual rooms is a tourist accommodation service too.
The text as amended in August 2026 also introduced an important presumption. Unless proven otherwise, a short stay offered in a home counts as a tourist rental if:
it is advertised through a tourist channel, including online booking and intermediary platforms,
or the stay lasts 31 days or less in a row, even if it happens several times a year.
In other words, if a home is offered to you on a booking site for a week or two, the law presumes it is a tourist rental, and the registration number has to be in the listing.
Two further points. On El Hierro, La Gomera and La Palma, a separate law, the tourism law for the western islands, takes precedence where the two conflict. And holiday rentals that were properly registered before the law can carry on under the previous conditions for five years, so an older registration is not suspicious in itself.
The number to look for in the listing
This is how the system works. Anyone who wants to let a holiday rental submits a declaration of responsibility (declaración responsable) to the island council (cabildo), which enters the property in the Canary Islands General Tourism Register (Registro General Turístico). The entry is given a registration number, and by law that number must appear in every listing, whether on a booking platform or through any other channel.
And this is not a formality:
A listing without the number is a very serious offence under the Canary Islands tourism law, the most serious category.
Under the EU rule, booking platforms must ask for the number before they allow the listing, and the number must be clearly visible in the listing. Platforms also have to check the numbers on a random basis. The regulation has applied since 20 May 2026.
In December 2025, Spain's Ministry of Consumer Affairs fined Airbnb, in a decision that is final through administrative channels, partly over listings without a number, and it classed as misleading advertising those listings whose number does not match the register's numbering.
What does the number look like? In the government's public list, the vast majority of holiday rental identifiers start with the letters VV, followed by groups of digits, for example VV-35-1- and then seven digits. On Tenerife, identifiers starting with the letter A also appear in the list. If you see a completely different format in a listing, ask about it.
And the national registration number?
You may have read about a single national rental register (Registro Único de Arrendamientos) as well. Spain's Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) annulled its registration procedure and number in a ruling of 19 May 2026, and said the same on 21 May and 1 June. The rulings are only partial: the national system based on data supplied by the platforms remains. So as a guest, look for the number from the Canary Islands tourism register.
How to check the number in the official list
The Government of the Canary Islands publishes the list of holiday rentals registered in the Registro General Turístico on its open data portal. We could not find a convenient dedicated search page for it, but the list can be downloaded as a spreadsheet (CSV or XLSX) and opened in any spreadsheet program.
Download it and search for the number you saw in the listing. If it is not there, ask the host, and do not pay until you get a sensible answer.
If you find it, check the rest of the row too. The list includes the address, the island, the municipality, and the number of bedrooms and of bed places (plazas). It should match the listing: the same municipality, the same street, and no more guests offered than the list allows.
Booking a rural house or apartment? Those are not in this list but in another open list, together with tourist apartments, casa rural country guesthouses and the other non-hotel accommodation.
There is one thing not to expect from the list: the law states explicitly that registration does not mean the authorities have checked and approved everything. The number shows that the property has been declared and that there is someone to turn to if there is a problem. That is worth a lot, but it is not a guarantee of everything.
If you are still looking for somewhere to stay, our article on microclimates helps you decide which side of an island suits you, and if you have not picked an island yet, this guide will help. On islas24 you will also find accommodation, including tourist apartments and rural guesthouses.
Signs of an illegal or fake offer
An illegal rental and an invented listing are two different things, but the warning signs are often the same. From the official sources, these are the ones worth remembering:
There is no registration number in the listing, or the host is evasive when you ask.
The number is not in the public list, or according to the list the property is in a different municipality, at a different address.
They would take more people than there are bed places. In its provision on closures, the law treats it as a serious risk when a tourist home, legal or not, houses one and a half times its capacity or more. Accommodation let on a rooftop, in a garage, in commercial premises or on a building site is a serious risk too.
You are asked to pay outside the platform. According to the advice of Spain's National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE), this is when you should be suspicious: the booking sites' own payment systems protect the transaction, and paying outside the platform can easily end in fraud.
Too good to be true. INCIBE says not to trust blindly a strikingly attractive, suspiciously cheap listing. Look up the address in street view, and use a reverse image search to see whether the photos appear in other listings.
We have described the same logic for tours: in our article on spotting legal excursions, the registration number is the key in the same way, and also in our island-by-island checking guide.
What you should see when you arrive
The 2015 Canary Islands decree on holiday rentals requires several things you can check for yourself when you book and when you arrive:
A plaque at the entrance with the registration number, in a visible place, unless the rules of the building forbid it.
An information notice inside the home, in a visible place, at least in Spanish and English: a customer number you can call about problems, and contact details for the emergency and health services.
Information before you book about access, arrival and departure times, pets, booking conditions and prices.
A signed summary, if you have not signed a written contract beforehand: before you move in, both parties sign a document in at least Spanish and English, showing the dates, the maximum number of guests and the prices, including IGIC.
An official complaint form (hoja de reclamaciones), which must always be available.
If something goes wrong: where to turn
Ask for the complaint form on the spot. Under the Canary Islands decree on tourism complaints, the government issues the official complaint form and its QR code to operators registered in the Registro General Turístico, and the operator must provide the QR code or the printed form on request. You can attach any evidence to the complaint, and for a complaint about price the invoice is required. The tourism inspectorate passes the complaint on to the operator, who may reply within fifteen days, and if there are signs of a breach of the law, an investigation is opened.
You can also complain online, on the Canary Islands Government's e-services site, through the page for complaints about tourist accommodation. There are no prerequisites and no fee, it can be submitted all year round, and the tourism inspectorate (Servicio de Inspección y Sanciones) handles it. According to the decree, you can file not only a complaint but also a report about a tourism activity or accommodation, which is useful if the home does not even have an official complaint form.
In a consumer dispute, you can also use the Canary Islands Government's consumer complaints page. It is for complaints arising from a commercial transaction, and the Directorate General for Trade and Consumer Affairs (Dirección General de Comercio y Consumo) decides on them.
Tell the platform too. If you found the listing on a booking site, report it there. According to Airbnb's help centre, for example, the "Report this listing" option is on the listing page, below the price details: you choose the reason, give the details and send it. For other platforms, check their own help pages for how it works.
If you have been the victim of fraud, INCIBE advises you to report the listing to the platform, gather all the evidence, and report the case to the authorities, for example the Policía Nacional. What travel insurance is and is not good for, we explain in this article.
Under the 2015 decree, the owner or operator of the home is responsible for breaches of tourism rules.
Longer stays: temporary let or holiday rental
If you come for a month or two, you will often be offered not a holiday rental but a temporary let (alquiler temporal), without a registration number. That can be perfectly legal, but the Canary Islands law draws a line here too.
If the let lasts 31 days or less, or is advertised on a tourist platform, the law presumes it is a tourist rental. For a home let of 31 days or less, that presumption only falls if the landlord can show that the contract is one under the tenancy law and that the purpose is not tourism.
The landlord must ask you in advance why you need temporary accommodation, and must write it into the contract. If the reason is not in the contract for such a short let, under the Canary Islands law the let is tourist in nature.
Signing a home rental contract of 31 days or less without a reason has been an offence under the Canary Islands tourism law since August 2026.
In practice: if there is no registration number, ask for a written contract, and check that it says why and for how long you are renting. The rules of the national tenancy law (Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos) on temporary lets are in flux in autumn 2026, so before you sign, check the text in force in the BOE. If you are staying longer and working too, our guide for digital nomads will help, and if you are moving here, see our guide to the NIE and the padrón.
In short
Look for the Canary Islands registration number in the listing: it has to be there.
Download the government's public list and check that the number, the address and the number of bed places match.
The Supreme Court annulled the national registration number: the Canary Islands number is what counts.
Do not pay outside the platform, and be careful with offers that are too cheap.
On arrival, a plaque, an information notice, a complaint form: if anything is missing, ask about it.
If something goes wrong: the complaint form on the spot, an online complaint to the Canary Islands Government, a report on the platform.
For a longer let, ask for a written contract that states the reason.
Sources: Ley 6/2025 de Ordenación Sostenible del Uso Turístico de Viviendas (BOE, consolidated text) and its amendment, Ley 7/2026 (Boletín Oficial de Canarias, 14 August 2026); Ley 7/1995 de Ordenación del Turismo de Canarias (BOE); Decreto 113/2015 on holiday rentals and Decreto 77/2022 on tourism complaints (Boletín Oficial de Canarias); the Government of the Canary Islands open data portal (datos.canarias.es) and e-services site (sede.gobiernodecanarias.org); Real Decreto 1312/2024 (BOE) and the Tribunal Supremo rulings of 19 May, 21 May and 1 June 2026 (BOE); Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 on data on short-term accommodation rentals; Ley 29/1994 de Arrendamientos Urbanos and Real Decreto-ley 29/2026 (BOE); Spain's Ministry of Consumer Affairs, press release of 15 December 2025; INCIBE; Airbnb help centre.
Cover photo (cropped): a row of houses with colourful trim, balconies and bougainvillea in Puerto de Mogán, Gran Canaria. dronepicr, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.