Airbnb rules in Utrecht 2026: 60 nights, six guests and the registration number

Airbnb rules in Utrecht let you rent out the home you live in while you are away for at most 60 nights a year, to at most six guests, or eight in a home of 200 m² or more. There is no permit, but you need a registration number in every advertisement and must notify every stay before guests arrive.¹² Airbnb does not collect Utrecht’s 10% tourist tax, so you file it yourself.⁴⁶ For a co-host, that is a seasonal job with more tax paperwork than in Rotterdam, where Airbnb collects.

In this guide

1. Vakantieverhuur in Utrecht: the number and the notification
2. Who may let, and how many guests
3. The 60-night cap
4. B&B rules versus holiday letting
5. Fines from the Huisvestingsverordening
6. Tourist tax in Utrecht
7. What this means for a co-host
8. Co-host checklist before you sign
9. Questions people ask
10. Sources

The wider Dutch picture is in Airbnb rules in Belgium and the Netherlands, and the tax side in tourist tax in Utrecht.

Vakantieverhuur in Utrecht: the number and the notification

Utrecht’s rules sit in paragraph 3.3 of the Huisvestingsverordening gemeente Utrecht, the city’s housing ordinance.¹ The ordinance calls holiday letting particuliere vakantieverhuur (private holiday letting): the main resident lets the home they live in, according to the BRP, occasionally, for short periods and while away.¹

• A registration number. Since 1 July 2021 it is required for every form of tourist letting of every home in Utrecht.¹² You request it at toeristischeverhuur.nl and put it in every advertisement, online or not.² It is free, has no conditions and arrives straight away by email, and each separately lettable unit needs its own number.¹
• The number is not permission. The city says receiving a number gives you no permission to let; the other conditions still apply.²
• A notification before every stay. Since 1 July 2022 you notify in advance, through toeristischeverhuur.nl, when you let, for how many nights and to how many people. You cannot notify afterwards, and you are responsible for doing it on time.²

The ordinance says the notification is made by the person who makes the home available for holiday letting.¹

Who may let, and how many guests

The conditions on the city’s page, and in the 2018 policy rules it links to, are:²³

• You live there. You are the owner or main tenant (hoofdhuurder) and live at the address, registered there as main resident in the BRP.
• You are away. You let the home temporarily and are not present yourself.
• Six or eight guests. At most six people in a home under 200 m² of living area, at most eight from 200 m².
• No nuisance. The owner or main tenant is liable for the guests’ behaviour, and serious or lasting nuisance can bring a fine.
• Fire safety. The home must meet the Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving, with smoke detectors on every floor since 1 July 2022; the city also advises carbon monoxide detectors and an escape plan you go through with guests.

The ordinance’s notes add that tourist letting always needs a main resident, and that rooms in a shared house (onzelfstandige woonruimte), garden houses and spaces without a residential designation may not be let to tourists.¹ The 2018 policy rules state that a home with no main resident registered, used for holiday letting, has in fact been withdrawn from the housing stock and is used illegally as a hotel.³

For a B&B the city requires a main tenant to have the owner’s permission.² For holiday letting its page says nothing about consent; check the lease and, in an apartment building, the VvE rules anyway.

Is there a permit-free area?

Utrecht has no zones for holiday letting. The registration duty covers all homes in the city, and the 60-night cap and the notification duty apply wherever holiday letting happens.¹ The ordinance’s notes say a permit requirement is not yet needed: the city wants to see first how the registration and notification duties work.¹

The 60-night cap

The ordinance forbids letting a home for more than 60 nights per calendar year as private holiday letting.¹ The 2018 policy rules explain the choice: an average holiday of 25 days, some weekends and public holidays.³ This night cap applies only to holiday letting, not to a B&B.¹

Once the city has told a platform that a home has used its nights for the year, that platform may not show offers for the home for the rest of the year.¹

B&B rules versus holiday letting

Source for the table: Gemeente Utrecht and the ordinance.¹² The exact B&B percentage is in the omgevingsplan (zoning plan) for your address.²

Fines from the Huisvestingsverordening

Article 74 and its fine table set the amounts. A later offence counts as a repeat when the same ban is broken again within three years after the earlier one was found.¹

The withdrawal (onttrekken) row is the general fine for taking a home out of residential use without a permit.¹ Read it next to the policy rule quoted above on homes with no main resident.³

Two more measures sit behind the fines. After two fines for tourist letting within five years, a third offence lets the city ban the host from tourist letting for up to a year, and order platforms to block the host’s listings for that period.¹ Platforms are fined €8,700 for publishing without a number or after being told the cap is reached.¹

Tourist tax in Utrecht

Utrecht’s tourist tax in 2026 is 10% of the price charged for the overnight stay, excluding the tourist tax itself and, where VAT is due, on the amount subject to VAT. It applies to guests not registered as residents of Utrecht.⁴ On 2 November 2026 the city’s letting page still gave 8.5%; the 2026 regulation, which is the legal text, says 10%.²⁴

• Airbnb does not collect. Airbnb’s page for the Netherlands covers Amsterdam, Haarlem, The Hague and Rotterdam, not Utrecht.⁶ You may pass the tax on to guests.⁴⁵
• Register first. You must report to the tax office before you offer a stay for the first time.⁴ BghU, which collects for Utrecht, asks you to do this through its contact form and says the tax applies to Airbnb lets, even of part of your home.⁵
• File yearly. The tax period is the calendar year. BghU sends an invitation to file each year, with a provisional assessment based on the year before.⁴⁵
• Pay in instalments. An assessment is paid in two instalments, or in ten by direct debit; assessments under €10 are not sent.⁴

What this means for a co-host

Can you manage holiday rentals in Utrecht as a co-host? Yes, as a seasonal job. The 60 nights match Rotterdam, but Utrecht adds a guest cap and leaves the tourist tax to the host.¹²⁶

• What you can do. Run the listing, messages, check-in, cleaning, pricing, the night count and the guest count.
• The notification. It must name nights and guests and cannot be made afterwards.² If you submit it for the client, agree that in writing and keep the confirmations.
• The tax. Set up a process for charging 10% and keeping records for the yearly return, because no platform does it for you.⁴⁶
• Your exposure. The bans are worded impersonally, not addressed only to the resident. Our reading is that whoever publishes the listing could also be fined, so get legal advice before you sign.¹
• Longer stays are no way out: short stay of two weeks to six months needs a location designated for it, an environmental permit and a hospitality licence.² See mid-term rentals.

The figures are an illustration, not a forecast; use the revenue calculator for your own numbers.

Co-host checklist before you sign

1. Residence. Does the client live at the address and appear there in the BRP as main resident?²³
2. Status. Is the client the owner or main tenant, and does the lease or VvE allow letting?²
3. Number. Is the registration number in every listing, on every platform?¹²
4. Guests. Is the listing set to at most six guests, or eight from 200 m²?²
5. Nights left. How many nights have been notified this year, and who keeps the count?¹
6. Notifications. Who submits each one in advance with nights and guests, and where is the proof kept?²
7. Fire safety. Is there a smoke detector on every floor?²
8. Tax. Is the client registered with BghU, who charges the 10% and who files the yearly return?⁴⁵
9. In writing. Who pays a fine, and can you stop work if the rules are broken? See the management agreement.

Questions people ask

Sources

All sources checked 2 November 2026.

1. Gemeente Utrecht, “Huisvestingsverordening gemeente Utrecht”, Version in force from 11 July 2024, articles 62 to 64 and 74 with the fine table, in Dutch
2. Gemeente Utrecht, “Woning (onder)verhuren”, In Dutch
3. Gemeente Utrecht, “Beleidsregels Particuliere Vakantieverhuur gemeente Utrecht”, Adopted 8 May 2018, in Dutch
4. Gemeente Utrecht, “Verordening toeristenbelasting gemeente Utrecht 2026”, In force 1 January 2026, in Dutch
5. BghU, “Toeristenbelasting”, Tax office for Utrecht and other municipalities, in Dutch
6. Airbnb Help Centre, “Occupancy tax collection and remittance by Airbnb in Netherlands”
7. Airbnb Help Centre, “Airbnb service fees”

We check every figure against the sources above. Spotted something out of date? Email systemen@hostproacademy.com with the guide title.