Registering a tourist rental in Nice: the process

Yes, with no exceptions: in Nice, any furnished property let to short-stay guests must be registered with the city, including a main residence let for a few nights a year. The city issues a registration number that must appear on every listing, on Airbnb and Booking alike. It is free, it is declarative, and it takes about twenty minutes.

This article is the how-to: what to gather, the steps in order, where to enter the number on each platform, and the mistakes that get a listing suspended. The underlying rules — the 90-night cap, change of use, co-ownership, penalties — are covered in our guide to short-term rental rules in Nice.

Updated 23 August 2026.

First, two minutes to qualify your situation

Registration itself is the same for everyone; what surrounds it is not. Answer these three questions first:

• Is it your main residence? That is, do you live there at least eight months a year? If so, registration is enough and you are capped at 90 nights a year. If not, a change-of-use authorisation is required as well — a separate, heavier process, subject to quotas in four districts.
• Are you the owner or a tenant? A tenant needs written consent from the landlord. Without it, furnished subletting is grounds for terminating the lease.
• What do your co-ownership rules say? An exclusive residential-use clause bars the activity, and no city registration makes lawful what the building forbids.

If the answer to the first question is "second home", read the regulatory guide before registering: in Vieux-Nice, the Port, Jean-Médecin and the Musiciens area, authorisations are subject to quotas, which we track in a dedicated news article.

Step 1 — Gather the information

Registration is a form, not a file. Have to hand:

• Your identity and contact details, and the capacity in which you are declaring (owner, tenant, agent).
• The exact address, including floor and flat number — that level of detail is what lets the city match a listing to a registration.
• The property details: number of main rooms, number of beds, maximum capacity.
• The status: main or second home.
• The letting periods planned for the year.
• Your property tax reference, which appears on your local property tax notice. It is the one item owners hunt for: dig out the notice before you start.

Step 2 — File the declaration

Registration is filed with the City of Nice, through the online service set up by the municipality, reachable from the city website under tourist rentals and tourist tax. Where online filing is unavailable, form Cerfa no. 14004 for registering a tourist rental remains the fallback.

• The declaration includes a sworn statement covering the property's compliance and, for a main residence, the annual cap. A false declaration carries penalties of up to €20,000: it is not a rubber stamp.
• The law of 19 November 2024 introduced energy performance requirements for tourist rentals, phased in over several years. If your property has a poor energy rating, check where you stand before spending on furnishing.

Step 3 — Collect and keep the registration number

The city issues a receipt carrying your registration number. Keep it: platforms will ask for it, the city will ask for it in an inspection, and a buyer will ask for it if you sell the property as a going concern.

Do not confuse the two numbers everyone mixes up: the city registration number, required to publish a listing, and the change-of-use authorisation number, which applies only to second homes. Platforms ask for the first; the city checks both.

Step 4 — Put the number on your listings

This is the step people treat as clerical, and it causes the most suspensions. The number must appear on every listing, on every platform, including the ones you forgot about.

• On Airbnb: in listing management, under regulations, in the registration number field. Airbnb validates the format and, in regulated cities, removes listings without one.
• On Booking: in the property's legal information.
• On your own site or social channels: if you take direct bookings, the number belongs there too.

We check this on every listing we take over, and it is the failure we correct most often: the owner did register, but the number is sitting in an email from the city instead of on the listing.

Step 5 — Tourist tax

Registering also means entering the tourist tax system, levied by the Nice Côte d'Azur metropolitan authority per night and per adult guest.

• On Airbnb and Booking, the platform collects the tax from the guest and remits it: nothing to advance, but you must be able to evidence the nights.
• On direct bookings, you collect it, keep a record of the nights and remit it on the schedule set by the metropolitan authority.

This tax is not income: it passes through you. Counting it as turnover is a classic error we see every year in self-managed owners' accounts.

Step 6 — Keep the registration current

Registration is not a one-off. It must be amended whenever a declared element changes: capacity, number of beds, status of the property and, of course, a change of owner. A property sold as a going concern requires a fresh registration in the new owner's name — the number does not transfer like a utility meter.

Keep a year-by-year record of nights let, too. The city can request it at any time, and failing to provide it is penalised just as exceeding the cap is.

The five costly mistakes

• Publishing the listing before you have the number. Platforms report letting data to municipalities: an unregistered listing flags itself.
• One registration for two separate flats. Each property has its own number, even in the same building under the same name.
• Forgetting a secondary platform. The number belongs everywhere, not only where the bookings come in.
• Confusing registration with change-of-use authorisation. Being compliant on one says nothing about the other, and the second carries fines of up to €50,000 per property.
• Not telling the building. It is not a filing requirement, but a managing agent presented with a fait accompli is the starting point of most disputes we see.

Frequently asked questions

Does registering a tourist rental in Nice cost anything?

No, city registration is free. It is the change-of-use authorisation, which applies only to second homes, that is the heavy process.

How long does it take to get the registration number?

The online service normally issues a receipt immediately after filing. Even so, register before publishing your listing, not the other way round.

Where do you enter the registration number on Airbnb?

In listing management, under regulations, in the dedicated registration number field. It must then appear on every other platform you use, including for direct bookings.

What is the penalty for letting without registering in Nice?

Up to €10,000 for failing to register and up to €20,000 for a false declaration or a false number, on top of the platform suspending the listing.

What Yellow handles

We replace neither the city nor a lawyer, but we have guided enough owners in Nice to know the route and its potholes. At onboarding we check your situation, point you to the right process, verify the number is in the right place on every listing, and keep watch on local changes — there are many. It is part of our listing optimisation service and of the groundwork in full short-term rental management in Nice.

Wondering what your property could earn once compliant and well managed? Our income estimator gives you a range in two minutes.