Short-term renting is no longer a free-for-all. Between the registration number for furnished tourist accommodation, the 120-day rule, taxation and, in Belgium, procedures that differ by Region, many hosts are operating in the dark. This article walks through the broad strokes, deliberately staying cautious on the numbers, and points you at every step to the official source that is authoritative for your case.
Registering: the furnished tourist accommodation number (France)
In France, the registration number has become a required step for many short-term listings. The idea is simple: before renting out your property as furnished tourist accommodation, you declare it, the administration assigns you a registration number (a thirteen-digit identifier), and that number must then appear in your listing on Airbnb, Booking or Abritel. It is used to identify the property and to let municipalities track rental activity in their area.
The process depends on your municipality. In many municipalities, it goes through an online procedure; elsewhere, it may still be done directly at the town hall. The national rule is moving toward a general rollout of registration, driven by the law of 19 November 2024 often called the Le Meur law, which tightens the framework around furnished tourist accommodation. The timeline and the exact terms of this rollout keep evolving, so the right reflex is still to check on service-public.gouv.fr and with your town hall what applies to you today, rather than relying on a date you heard somewhere else.
Why include this number in your listing, beyond the obligation? Because a listing without a number where the municipality requires one can be removed by the platform, and because a filled-in number is also a signal of seriousness for the traveler as well as for the algorithm: it is one more field completed, a more complete listing. We come back to this at the end of the article.
Main residence: the 120-day rule (France)
If the property you rent on a short-term basis is your main residence, meaning the one you occupy most of the year, a limit applies to the number of nights you can rent. The national reference limit is 120 days per year. Beyond that, you step outside the framework of a simple main-residence rental and other obligations come into play.
Important point: this cap is not set at the same level everywhere. The regulations allow a municipality, especially in areas where housing is in short supply, to lower this threshold below 120 days. In other words, the number that applies to you depends on your municipality, not just on the national law. A second home does not fall under the same regime as a main residence and follows different rules.
So before planning your season, check two things with your town hall: the day threshold that actually applies where you are, and any change-of-use obligations that may exist in large cities and high-demand areas. That is the kind of local detail no general article can settle for you.
Declaring your income: the broad strokes (France)
On the tax side, income from a furnished rental is declared as industrial and commercial profits (BIC), not as property income. Most individual hosts fall under the status of non-professional furnished rental provider, the well-known LMNP. From there, two tax regimes coexist.
The first is the micro-BIC. It is the simplest regime: you declare your revenue and the administration applies a flat-rate allowance meant to cover your expenses, without you having to itemize them. It is aimed at activities whose revenue does not exceed a certain threshold. The second is the actual-cost regime: you deduct your actual expenses and you can depreciate the property and the furniture, at the cost of more demanding bookkeeping. Depending on your level of expenses, one can be far more advantageous than the other.
We deliberately do not give an allowance percentage or a numerical threshold here, because these values have moved recently and keep being adjusted from one year to the next, notably depending on whether the rental is classified or not. Quoting an outdated figure would be misleading. For the exact scale that applies to your income, and to know which regime to choose, refer to the current scale on impots.gouv.fr or check in with an accountant. It is one of the few topics where professional advice often pays for itself.
Belgium: registration by Region
In Belgium, there is no single national rule for short-term rentals. Tourist accommodation is a regional matter, which means Brussels, Wallonia and Flanders each have their own framework, their own procedure and their own registration number. So the first thing to do is to identify the Region where your property is located, then follow the corresponding official portal. What is true in Brussels is not necessarily true in Flanders.
In Brussels, operating tourist accommodation is subject to prior registration with the regional administration, with conditions to meet before you can host travelers. The procedures and supporting documents are described on the regional economy and employment portal of the Brussels-Capital Region.
In Flanders, the framework rests on the decree on tourist accommodation (the Logiesdecreet). Every accommodation must be declared to Toerisme Vlaanderen, which issues a registration number to be displayed on the listing. The terms and the declaration portal are available on the Toerisme Vlaanderen website.
In Wallonia, the framework was overhauled with the new Walloon Tourism Code, and registering the accommodation is now done with Tourisme Wallonie. Here too, conditions apply (notably regarding fire safety) and the exact procedure is described on the official regional portal. We deliberately stay general and do not give a precise fine amount for Belgium: the sources diverge by Region and by period, and a wrong figure would be worse than no figure at all. Refer to the regional portal that concerns you for the applicable penalties.
What this changes for your listing
Beyond compliance, these rules have a direct effect on the perceived quality of your listing. A filled-in registration number, a complete page, up-to-date information: these are more completed fields, and a complete listing is treated better by the algorithm and more reassuring for the traveler. Conversely, a listing missing the number the municipality requires risks, in the worst case, being removed by the platform. Compliance and performance do not work against each other, they pull in the same direction.
That is the angle where we can help you, and only that one. The BnBoost audit is not a legal service and does not tell you whether you are compliant: for that, there are the official sources above and, if needed, a professional. What the audit does is measure the completeness and quality of your listing. The free score takes a minute, needs only the public URL of your listing, and gives you an overall score plus three concrete previews: your cover photo scored, one title rewrite and one rewrite of your first paragraph. The full audit, for its part, scores the twenty dimensions of the listing, including field completeness, and shows you exactly where your room for improvement lies.
If your listing is not booking the way it used to, regulation is rarely the only cause. To tell apart a visibility problem from a conversion problem, see our 5-minute diagnosis.
Check how complete your listing is
The BnBoost audit is not a legal service, but it measures the quality and completeness of your listing. A score out of 100 in one minute, with your cover photo scored, a title rewrite and a rewrite of your first paragraph. The full audit adds the twenty dimensions, including field completeness.
Start my free audit