# Renting rooms to tourists in Andalusia: requirements, limits and when it stops being a tourist home

> Yes, if you live in the home and are registered as resident there, with a maximum of six places. A whole building of rooms is not a tourist home: it is a hostel or guesthouse, with different rules.
>
> Topic: Licence and registration · Reviewed: 2026-09-22 · URL: https://mipisoturistico.app/en/guides/renting-rooms-to-tourists-in-andalusia-requirements-and-limits
> Published by Mi Piso Turístico (Torremolinos Gestión Vacacional), a holiday-rental management company on the Costa del Sol.

**Short answer:** you can register your home **by rooms** if **you live in it and are registered as resident there** (*empadronado*), with a maximum of **6 places** in total and **4 per room**. If you do not live there, it is not possible: the home is registered as a whole or not at all. And a building or a large flat operated entirely by rooms does not fit as a tourist home: it is a hotel-type establishment (hostel, guesthouse or lodge), with different requirements and municipal licences.

## What conditions does the by-rooms modality have?

- The holder (an individual) **lives in the home** and proves it with the **residence registration certificate** (*certificado de empadronamiento*), attached to the responsible declaration.
- **Maximum 6 places** across all the rooms rented; **maximum 4 per room**, and only 2 if there are no bunk beds.
- **14 built m² per place** and the rest of the requirements of any tourist home: climate control, first-aid kit, extinguisher, complaint forms, traveller registration.
- One home = one cadastral reference. Two flats cannot be added together.

## What is the difference from renting the whole home?

| | Whole home | By rooms |
|---|---|---|
| Do you have to live there? | No | Yes, registered as resident |
| Maximum places | 15 | 6 |
| Who can be the holder | Owner or manager | Only whoever lives in the home |
| Typical use | Second homes, investment | Earning an income from your own home |

## Can I have a manager if I rent by rooms?

They can help you with listings and pricing, but the **holder of the operation must be whoever lives in the home**. It is not the modality designed for delegating.

## I have a big empty flat: do I rent it by rooms?

Not as a tourist home: if you do not live in it, it cannot be registered by rooms. You have two routes:

1. Register it **as a whole**, up to 15 places (with two bathrooms if you exceed 5 places and three if you exceed 8), and rent it entire to families and groups.
2. Turn it into a **hotel-type establishment** (guesthouse or hostel), which is hotel use, not residential: it depends on the municipality's urban plan, on an activity licence from the town hall and on meeting minimum areas per room, reception and daily cleaning. It is a project of another scale.

## And a whole building of rooms?

The same: it is not a tourist home. The Andalusian rules expressly exclude units that form part of an establishment occupying the whole or an independent part of the building. Moreover, **three or more accommodation units in the same building** operated by the same holder cease to be individual homes and become *tourist apartments in a group*, with their own rules. Before buying or renting a building for this, check with the town hall's Urban Planning department and an architect: the expensive part (fire safety, accessibility) is the part you do not see.

## Is renting rooms worth it?

For someone who lives in the home and has one or two free rooms near the beach, yes: it is an income without an activity licence and without building work. As an investment, no: the limits on places and the obligation to live there make it unviable. If your case is the second, see [Which flats work best?](/guias/que-piso-funciona-mejor).

## Sources

- [Junta de Andalucía: tourist dwelling by rooms and residence registration (FAQ, in Spanish)](https://www.juntadeandalucia.es/organismos/turismojusticiadesregulacionyadministracionlocal/areas/turismo/registro-turismo/establecimientos-servicios/paginas/faq-viviendas-turismo.html)
- [Decree 31/2024 (BOJA): limits of the by-rooms modality (in Spanish)](https://www.juntadeandalucia.es/boja/2024/24/50)