Step by step · Dubai

Letting your place as a holiday home

12 of 13 steps confirmed with the regulator

Short stays are licensed separately from long lets. This is what that licence involves.

Finding it7 steps

Checks3 steps

Agreeing1 step

After2 steps

Every step, and what proves it happened

Nobody can call a step done without the paper

13 steps

1. Landlord's no-objection to sub-letOnly when the operator is not the owner — and it is the document most often missing. It goes IN the permit application, so it has to exist before the permit is applied for, not alongside it.Goes through RERA · DLD.

The landlord

Confirmed

2. Holiday-home operator trade licenceNeeded to operate units for OTHER owners, one or a hundred. An owner running their own units may self-apply on the DET portal without one, currently up to eight. Which side of that line the operator sits on decides whether this step exists at all.Goes through RERA · DLD.

The landlord

Confirmed

3. DET holiday-home permitThe permit that makes the listing legal. It expires, the renewal window is set by the issuing authority and differs between emirates, and an expired permit is a live listing that has quietly become an offence — so the expiry is tracked rather than remembered.Goes through RERA · DLD.

The landlord

Confirmed

4. Record the grade you were licensed atThe Tourism Dirham is charged per occupied unit per night at a rate set by your grade. Until it is recorded here we cannot show a guest what the stay totals - the listing shows a nightly rate and says the rest is settled at the property, which loses you the booking to whoever could show a total.

The landlord

Confirmed

5. Check whether you need a TRNYou charge the 5% and you issue the tax invoice for the stay, not us - so the registration is yours, not ours. We have not confirmed where the threshold sits or how short-stay income counts toward it, so ask the Federal Tax Authority before you assume you are under it. PropDirect charges VAT on its subscription only, never on your room.

The landlord

Not confirmed

6. Set up how you get paidGuests pay you directly through Stripe — PropDirect never holds the money, and you issue the tax invoice for the stay. Your bank details go to Stripe, not to us.

The landlord

Confirmed

7. Price the nights, weeks and monthsA nightly rate alone prices a month at thirty times a night, which is not an offer anyone takes — hotel apartments here quote monthly. Set a weekly or monthly rate and long enquiries are quoted against it.

The landlord

Confirmed

8. Listing livePhotographs, the nightly rate, and the permit number displayed on the listing itself.

Your agent

Confirmed

9. Booking confirmedDates, rate and the deposit. Tourism Dirham is charged per occupied unit per night and is collected from the guest, not absorbed.

The tenant

Confirmed

10. Guest registration with ICAEvery guest's passport details within 24 hours of check-in. Federal and non-negotiable, and it repeats on every single booking rather than once per listing.Goes through RERA · DLD.

The landlord

Confirmed

11. Return the Tourism Dirham you collectedCollected per occupied unit per night from the guest, and remitted monthly - by the 15th, for the month before. Dubai issues payment orders on the 11th. We show what is outstanding and keep your reference; the return itself is filed with the authority by you.

The landlord

Confirmed

12. Review the stayOnly the guest who stayed can write one, once, and only after checkout. That is what makes the rating on a listing worth reading.

The tenant

Confirmed

13. Checkout and turnaroundThe stay ends, the unit is cleaned and the next booking begins. The permit and the guest registration are what carry forward — everything else resets.

The landlord

Confirmed

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