Frequently Asked Questions About Housing for Tourist Purposes

LICENCES

Mar 29

Written By Francisco Javier Muñoz Fuentes

1. WHAT ARE TOURIST APARTMENTS?

Tourist apartments are establishments intended to provide the tourist accommodation service, made up of a set of accommodation units that have furniture and adequate facilities for their purpose. These units can be both apartments themselves and villas, chalets, bungalows...

It is important to point out the difference between an establishment of tourist apartments and houses for tourist purposes, since the complexes formed by less than three houses or apartments of the same owner (located in the same property or in a group of properties within a of a kilometer) are considered homes for tourist purposes and their requirements are different. If this is your case and you have doubts about the procedure to follow to start this activity, we recommend that you read our post Housing for tourism purposes - Things you should know

2. SHOULD THESE ESTABLISHMENTS ALWAYS OCCUPY A COMPLETE BUILDING?

No, it is not required. However, this depends on the classification we want to obtain: tourist apartment establishments are classified into two groups:

Buildings / complexes: Establishments made up of three or more accommodation units that occupy all or an independent part of a building, having their own entrance and communication hubs for exclusive use.
Complexes: Establishments made up of three or more accommodation units located in the same building, occupying only a part of them, in which the tourist accommodation service is provided under an operating unit.

3. I WANT TO BUILD A TOURIST APARTMENT BUILDING IN WHICH THERE ARE ALSO COMMERCIAL PREMISES, IS IT POSSIBLE?

If it's posible. However, access to tourist apartments must be independent of access to commercial premises. If these premises are located on the ground floor, they must be accessed directly from the outside, but if they are located both on the ground floor and on the upper floors, there must be an access and a communication nucleus for the commercial premises and another independent access and communication nucleus for the tourist apartments.

4. WHAT REQUIREMENTS MUST MY PLOT MEET IN ORDER TO BUILD A TOURIST APARTMENT ESTABLISHMENT?

Tourist apartment establishments are built on land classified by the urban planning instrument as "residential" or similar. However, it is not always possible to build an establishment of tourist apartments on these soils, since it depends on the particular conditions imposed by each municipality. That is why the first step before carrying out the project will be to request from the City Council an urban viability report, which is nothing more than a document issued by the city council in which it is certified that the use to which a land will be destined ( in this case, tourist apartments) is admitted for a certain location.

In addition, depending on the modality to which the establishment is assigned, it must meet some requirements or others. There are four modalities: beach, city, rural, road. In the event that an establishment meets the requirements to be assigned to more than one modality, the company will be able to choose which of them it wants to take advantage of, and thus indicate it in the responsible declaration.

If you have a plot and are interested in building an establishment of tourist apartments, we recommend that you contact a technician who will review your specific case, since depending on where you are, you must use one or another modality and, therefore, you must comply with a series of different requirements in each case.

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5. WHAT REQUIREMENTS MUST THE TOURIST APARTMENTS THEMSELVES MEET?

There are four categories of tourist apartments. These are: one, two, three or four keys (comparable to stars in hotel establishments). Depending on the category to which we want to assign our establishment, it must have some services or others, and the apartments must have minimum dimensions or others.

In general, these requirements will refer to the minimum number of accesses, dimensions of the lobby and the requirement that there be a reception, minimum dimensions that bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens must meet ... the requirement of other spaces such as luggage rooms, laundries, areas common, etcetera. All these aspects will be resolved by the architect in charge of drafting the project.

6. WHAT IS THE PROCEDURE TO REGISTER MY ACTIVITY IN THE TOURISM REGISTRY?

Those interested in building, expanding or reforming a tourist accommodation establishment must submit an application to the corresponding Territorial Delegation of the Ministry of Tourism and, together with it, the mandatory documentation must be attached to carry out the prior qualification of the project, ect according to the group, category, modality ... of the establishment that they intend to register.

This documentation will be presented after presenting the basic project to the City Council and, therefore, prior to the construction, extension or reform of the establishment. A technical report will be included accompanied by plans where it is justified that the project meets all the requirements of the corresponding regulations. For this, it will be essential to have an Architect, who will be in charge of advising you on the best options for your specific case, preparing the project and carrying out all the procedures with the Administration. At Munoz Barcia we have extensive experience in tourist apartment projects, we will be happy to advise you without obligation!

7. IS REGISTRATION IN THE ANDALUSIAN TOURISM REGISTRY MANDATORY?

Yes. All tourist apartment establishments must register in the Andalusian Tourism Registry, and it is also mandatory to include the registration number assigned by said Registry in all advertising they make about the apartments. From the moment they are registered in the Andalusian Tourism Registry, it will be forbidden to use the apartments for a different use, such as residential and, expressly, for housing rental.

In the event that the tourist apartment rental activity begins without the registration in the Tourism Registry having been made, this activity will be classified as clandestine, giving rise to the initiation of the sanctioning procedure (in addition to the precise actions so that causes the cessation of the clandestine provision of the tourist service).

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