Is Airbnb legal in Thailand? Short-term rental law in 2026, explained for property managers

What the Hotel Act actually says

Section 4 of the Hotel Act B.E. 2547 (2004) defines a hotel as accommodation set up as a business to provide temporary lodging to travellers or anyone else for payment. Section 15 says no one may run a hotel without a licence. The definition is about the activity, not the building: a villa, townhouse or condo unit rented by the night to tourists falls inside it just as a resort does.

The Act excludes three things: temporary lodging run by the state or for charity or education; residential accommodation charged monthly or longer; and other accommodation exempted by ministerial regulation. That last exclusion is what makes non-hotel accommodation possible for small properties.

The “30-day rule” is not in the Act

Almost every guide says stays under 30 days need a hotel licence. The Act itself never mentions 30 days. Its wording is accommodation charged monthly or longer. The 30-day figure comes from the 2018 Hua Hin Provincial Court cases against owners at the Wan Vayla condominium, reported at the time as meaning only rentals of 30 days or more would be legal, and from commentary since.

Why condominium units are the hard case

Most of the risk in a Thai rental portfolio sits in condos, for three separate reasons:

1. The Hotel Act: a unit let nightly is a hotel business, and a condo unit cannot get a hotel licence or a non-hotel certificate.
2. Land Department policy: a circular of 6 November 2023 states that commercial use of condominium units excludes hotel business, even with the consent of the co-owners. The only route to hotel use is cancelling the building's condominium registration.
3. The building's own rules: many juristic persons have passed regulations banning daily rentals. Breaches of juristic person rules are reported to carry fines of up to 50,000 THB plus 5,000 THB a day under the Condominium Act, and the Department of Provincial Administration has warned that a juristic person that knowingly allows hotel-style letting may itself be committing an offence.

Courts have acted on this. In January 2018 the Hua Hin Provincial Court fined an owner at the Wan Vayla condominium in Hua Hin for daily rentals; the case was brought by local officials, not the building. Buildings that hold a hotel or serviced-apartment licence for the whole project are a different matter: there the operator holds the licence, not the unit owner.

Enforcement in 2026: what has happened

The Chiang Mai case is the one to note. Officials found the units the way a guest would, by booking them on the platforms. Listings are public evidence.

The law is changing: where the bills stand

1. Hotel Act amendment bills: in committee

On 8 July 2026 the House of Representatives accepted two Hotel Act amendment bills in principle, one from the Cabinet and one from an MP, and sent them to a 25-member ad hoc committee. The Cabinet bill would move guest registration online, require guest data to be sent to the registrar every 24 hours (with foreign guests passed to Immigration), and add an administrative fine of 20,000–100,000 THB. The committee was still sitting in August. A companion Immigration Act bill passed its third House reading on 30 September 2026 by 403 votes to 0. We have found no record of the Hotel Act bills passing second or third reading.

2. A new Accommodation Establishments Act: drafted

On 29 September 2026 the government set out a draft Accommodation Establishments Act (ร่าง พ.ร.บ.สถานที่พักแรม), 98 sections long, that would repeal the Hotel Act and sort every property into three tiers. Thansettakij reported on 23 October that the Cabinet had approved it in principle and that it was heading to the House.

What property managers should do now

Until a new law is enacted and published in the Royal Gazette, the current Hotel Act applies. A practical review of a portfolio looks like this:

1. 1

   Sort every unit by its legal route

   Villas and houses with up to 8 rooms and 30 guests: non-hotel certificate. Larger properties: hotel licence. Condo units without a building-wide hotel licence: monthly residential letting only.

2. 2

   Record the licence or certificate for each unit

   Keep the number, the type and the expiry date with the unit, and put the number on listings where channels ask for it. Non-hotel certificates last 5 years.

3. 3

   Fix condo listings

   For condo units, stop nightly listings and move to genuine monthly leases charged monthly. A minimum-stay setting alone is not a defence.

4. 4

   Report foreign guests

   Whatever the property type, anyone housing a foreign national must file TM30 with Immigration within 24 hours. The pending bills would add 24-hour guest data reporting for every guest.

5. 5

   Tell owners in writing

   Owners carry the legal risk on their unit. Put the legal route for each property in the management agreement and in your onboarding notes.

In Propool, each unit carries its licence or certificate number, and minimum-stay rules sit on the same calendar that sends rates and availability to Airbnb, Booking.com and Agoda, so a change made once reaches every channel. See how the channel manager works.

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