Local rules for short stays
Here is what to check, and why it is genuinely worth doing. Most of it is more straightforward than it sounds, and a good chunk of it will not apply to you at all.
First, the bit most people get wrong
A swap and a paid stay are not the same thing, and almost none of what follows applies to a swap.
Swapping homes with another member is reciprocal. Nobody pays anybody for accommodation. The short-stay rules on this page are triggered by a commercial arrangement, so a straight swap sits outside them. That is worth knowing before you read on and start worrying about registers and levies you will never touch.
A paid stay, where someone pays you to stay in your home, is a different matter and is what the rest of this page is about.
Right now swapping is the only thing live on Bolya. Hosting and staying are coming, and we are getting the payments and protections right first. None of this is anything you need to act on today, it is here so you know what is ahead if you think you might want to host later.
Ireland
Two separate things to keep an eye on in the Republic, plus a genuinely different regime in the North.
The Republic of Ireland
The national short-term letting register opens on 1 December 2026, with registration required by 31 December 2026. For a whole property let for under 90 days, the indicative annual fee is around 65 euro. That is separate from the planning rules below, and you may need to deal with both.
Rent Pressure Zones, which already apply today
This one is in force now, not in 2026, and it catches people out. If your home is in a Rent Pressure Zone and you let the whole place short-term, you are capped at 90 days per year without planning permission. The important word is cumulative: it is 90 days added up across every stay in the year, not 90 days per booking. Several stays through Bolya could take you past it without you noticing, so it is worth keeping a running total. Unlike the New South Wales cap, there is no exemption here for longer stays. Every night counts.
Northern Ireland
A separate jurisdiction from the Republic, and the strictest place in either country. All visitor accommodation, self-catering included, needs a Tourism NI certificate. That means a statutory inspection of the property every four years, the certificate displayed at the entrance, and a visitor register kept. Fees are 40 pounds per unit, with a minimum of 40 and a maximum of 350. Providing tourist accommodation without a certificate, or advertising it as certified when it is not, is an offence carrying a fine of up to 2,500 pounds, up to six months in prison, or both. There is no exemption for letting occasionally, for a small number of nights, or as part of a home swap arrangement.
Australia
Set state by state, so what applies depends entirely on where the home is rather than where you live.
New South Wales
Short-stay properties have to be registered before they can be advertised, and there is a registration fee. Registration also means meeting fire and safety requirements and agreeing to the mandatory code of conduct. If your home is in Greater Sydney and you are not staying there during the let, there is a cap of 180 days per registration year, counted as twelve months from the date you first registered rather than from January. Bookings of 21 consecutive days or more do not count towards that 180. Byron Shire has its own, lower cap of 60 days.
Western Australia
The same shape as New South Wales: short-stay properties have to be registered before they can be advertised, and there is a registration fee.
Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory
No registration to sort out before you list. Both charge a short-stay levy on paid stays of under 28 days, so if you are letting your home for a fee for less than four weeks at a time, expect the levy to apply.
Tasmania
There is no state-wide register. Instead you tell the platform your planning permit status before your home is listed, and the platform displays it. If you are letting your own home only while you are away on holiday or temporarily absent, you are exempt from needing a permit at all, which covers most people. Otherwise you hold a planning permit and share the number.
Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory
No state-level scheme. It is council by council here, so the thing to check is your own local council rather than a state register. Some have rules, plenty do not.
Why registering is worth it for you, not just on paper
The one that catches people out is insurance. Most home and contents policies only cover a property being used lawfully, so being unregistered somewhere that requires it could affect your own claim if something goes wrong, entirely separately from anything to do with Bolya. That is the part worth five minutes of anyone's time.
Registering also gets you onto the state exclusion register, so you can check a guest before you say yes, and it puts a basic fire safety check in place. Both are useful whether or not anybody is ever going to ask you for a number.
One thing we should say plainly: this is not legal advice, and we are not qualified to give it. It is a starting point to help you know what to look into. If you let your home for a fee, keeping to the rules where your home is remains your responsibility, and rules change. If anything here matters to your situation, check it with the relevant authority or your own adviser rather than taking our word for it.
If something on this page is unclear or looks out of date, tell us and we will look into it.