Holiday apartments
Several buildings, no front desk, one screen
A holiday apartment operation has the logistics of a hotel scattered across a city: arrivals at any hour with nobody there to meet them, cleaning squeezed between one departure and the next arrival, and a different registration number depending on where each flat sits.
Scan document
Line the document up inside the frame
- SurnameBAREA MARTÍNEZ
- First nameJAN
- Document no.·······4R
- NationalityES
- Date of birth14 / 03 / 1988
What your licence is called, region by region
Spain has no single acronym. Each autonomous community has its own name, its own register and its own code format — and that code has to appear in every listing you publish. These are the main ones.
| Acronym and official name | Where it is registered | |
|---|---|---|
| Andalusia | VUT · vivienda de uso turístico. Formerly VFT; Decree 31/2024 renamed it and existing codes migrate automatically | Registro de Turismo de Andalucía |
| Catalonia | HUT · habitatge d’ús turístic, with a territorial suffix: HUTB, HUTG, HUTL, HUTT, HUTTE, HUTCC or HUTVA | Registre de Turisme de Catalunya |
| Canary Islands | VV · vivienda vacacional | Registro General Turístico |
| Balearic Islands | ETV · estancias turísticas en viviendas, allowed only in the zones each island’s PIAT marks as eligible | Island tourism register |
| Valencia | Vivienda de uso turístico, with the red VT plaque that must be displayed at the entrance | Registro de Turismo de la Comunitat Valenciana |
| Madrid | VUT · vivienda de uso turístico, which additionally requires the CIVUT suitability certificate | Registro de Empresas Turísticas |
| Galicia | VUT · vivenda de uso turístico. Note: renting by the room is not allowed; that requires registering as a pensión | REAT |
| Basque Country | Vivienda para uso turístico. The decree requires the number to appear in all advertising | REAT of Euskadi |
| Murcia | VUT · vivienda de uso turístico. The provisional signature already allows you to operate | REAT of the Region of Murcia |
The national number can no longer be demanded
In December 2024 Spain created a single national short-term rental register with its own number, and a great many owners went through the paperwork. The Supreme Court struck it down in three rulings in May and June 2026: the articles governing the register and the number fall, because the State has no competence to sit on top of the regional registers.
What has never changed is that your listings must carry the number issued by your autonomous community. That is the one you can be asked for, and the one the platforms check.
And there is a twist depending on where you are. In Catalonia the decree obliges the platforms themselves — Booking, Airbnb and any intermediary, wherever it is established — to verify that you have a number before publishing your listing, and not to publish it if you do not.
One detail that bites in Barcelona: the tourist tax on a habitatge d’ús turístic is €9.50 per person per night, municipal surcharge included. A four-star hotel pays €8.40. You pay more than a four-star for every guest who walks in.
Sound familiar?
- Arrivals happen at any hour, with nobody there to meet them
- Between an eleven o’clock departure and a four o’clock arrival, three flats on different streets have to be cleaned
- Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo each keep their own calendar, and one lag is enough to sell the same week twice
- Every unit has its own registration number and plaque, and they are not always where they should be
- Traveller registration applies to you too, and nobody makes it easy without a front desk
What changes
Check-in without a desk
Guests fill in the record and photograph their ID from their phone days before arriving. By the time they turn up, it is already done.
All your inventory together
Every unit with its building, floor, capacity and equipment, on one calendar — even when they sit on four different streets.
Housekeeping on the phone
The day’s departures and arrivals with each unit’s status one tap away, so nobody has to ask on WhatsApp whether the third floor is ready.
One calendar for every channel
Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo, Expedia and Google Vacation Rentals take availability and rates from the same screen.
Frequently asked questions
Do you produce owner statements for each flat?
No. Hostelum has no owner-settlement module and no owner portal. It fits when you operate the apartments yourself; if you manage a portfolio belonging to different owners and need to settle with each of them monthly, we are not your tool today.
Do you integrate smart locks?
No. Online check-in does work, and arrives complete before the guest turns up, but handing over the key or the code is still something you solve your own way.
Can I have units in several cities?
Yes, each with its building and address, all on the same planner. What there is not is separation by legal entity inside the same account: if each group of flats invoices on its own, it is worth talking before you sign up.
Does the traveller registration file work for my region?
Hostelum produces the SES.HOSPEDAJES XML, which is the general one, and the Mossos d’Esquadra TXT if the unit is in Catalonia. Uploading it to the portal is done by you, since you hold the credentials.
What about the registration number in listings?
You set it on each unit and it travels to the channels with the rest of the content. The one that counts is your autonomous community’s: the national register number was annulled by the Supreme Court in 2026.
Get it running this week
We migrate your rates, connect your channels and open you for sale. No setup fee and no lock-in.