Thailand short-term rental rules 2026: Hotel Act, condos and TM30
Thailand short-term rental rules as of October 2026: the under-a-month line, the 8-room non-hotel notice, condo limits, TM30 reports, tax and the reform bill.
Tai Pham
Thailand has no separate "Airbnb law". Short-term rental rules in Thailand come from the Hotel Act of 2004, a 2023 ministerial regulation that sets a small-property exemption, the Condominium Act, and the immigration rule on reporting foreign guests. Put together, they decide whether your house, villa or condo can legally take guests by the night, and what paperwork comes with each booking.
This guide covers Thailand short-term rental rules as of October 2026: the "under a month" line, the 8-room and 30-guest non-hotel notice, why condos are the hardest case, TM30 guest reports, the basic tax position, and the reform bill now in Parliament. Each rule links to the gazette text or to a major law firm's summary of it.
It is a checklist, not legal advice. Practice differs between districts and provinces, and the law is being rewritten. Confirm each step with your district office (or, in Bangkok, the Department of Provincial Administration), the local immigration office and the Revenue Department, and with a Thai lawyer if you are a foreign owner.
The core of Thailand short-term rental rules: "temporary" lodging
The Hotel Act B.E. 2547 (2004) treats as a hotel any place set up as a business to give travellers or other people temporary lodging for payment, and it leaves out accommodation let by the month. As law firm Tilleke & Gibbins puts it, providing temporary accommodation or short-term rent for less than one month is treated as carrying on a hotel business. That is where the familiar "under 30 days" rule comes from.
Running a hotel without a licence is a criminal offence. Tilleke & Gibbins summarises the penalty as up to one year in prison, a fine of up to THB 20,000, or both, plus a daily fine of up to THB 10,000 while the offence continues.
So the first question for any property is simple: are your stays shorter than a month? If yes, you either need a hotel licence or you must fit inside the small-property exemption below.
The 8-room, 30-guest non-hotel exemption
The limit many hosts remember (four rooms, 20 guests) is out of date. Ministerial Regulation No. 2 B.E. 2566, published in the Royal Gazette on 30 August 2023 and in force 60 days later, raised the limits. Under it, a place with no more than eight rooms in total, in one building or several together, taking no more than 30 guests, is not a hotel, but only once an official has inspected it and issued a notice of acknowledgement.
How it works, according to the regulation text:
Step 1
Notify the registrar
You notify the hotel registrar in the form the Interior Minister sets. The regulation says this is done electronically; where that is not possible, in Bangkok you go to the Bureau of Investigation and Legal Affairs at the Department of Provincial Administration, and elsewhere to the district office where the property is.
Step 2
Inspection
An official assigned by the registrar inspects the property. If it meets the conditions, the registrar issues the notice of acknowledgement within 40 days of your notification.
Step 3
Keep the notice valid
The notice is valid for five years from the date of notification. If you stop renting, you must tell the registrar.
Step 4
Stay inside the limits
Eight rooms and 30 guests are totals across the whole place. A ninth room or a 31st guest puts you back under the full hotel licence rules.
Without the notice, the exemption does not apply, even if you are under both limits. Law firm Formichella & Sritawat adds that the office will look at basic safety (extinguishers, smoke detectors, emergency lighting, marked exits) and that the route mostly suits standalone houses and villas.
Condos: the hardest case
A condo unit usually cannot use the exemption in practice. Formichella & Sritawat points to Section 17/1 of the Condominium Act B.E. 2522 (1979), which limits business use to the areas set aside for it. On 6 November 2023 the Land Department wrote to every provincial governor that a condominium wanting to operate as a hotel must first be dissolved under Section 51 of the Act, as Bangkok Biz News reported. In other words, the department's position is that individual units cannot be turned into hotel rooms.
Enforcement has followed. In March 2025, InfoQuest reported a Department of Provincial Administration legal officer saying that owners renting condo rooms like a hotel commit an offence, and that the ministry planned strict enforcement with district offices, police and immigration police, requests to platforms to stop advertising daily condo rentals, and notices to every condo juristic person. Formichella & Sritawat reports raids on almost 200 units in three Bangkok condominiums in Huai Khwang and Sutthisan that month.
The building itself is a second gate. Many condo juristic persons have adopted rules that ban daily rentals, and the juristic person can be pressed by the authorities to inform owners. Read your building's registered regulations before you plan anything, including monthly lets.
TM30: reporting foreign guests within 24 hours
Under Section 38 of the Immigration Act B.E. 2522, the house master, owner or possessor of the residence, or the hotel manager, where a foreigner on a temporary stay is staying must notify immigration within 24 hours of the guest's arrival. In Bangkok the report goes to the Immigration Division; elsewhere to the local immigration office. This is the TM30 notification.
It applies to your guests whether or not you hold a hotel licence or a non-hotel notice. Law firm RWT says it can be filed in person or online and that late filing can bring a fine. Make it part of the check-in routine, done by whoever meets the guest, with the passport and arrival details in hand.
Tax basics
The Revenue Department's personal income tax page lists income from letting property as one of eight categories of assessable income, with a standard deduction of 30% for buildings, and progressive rates that start with the first THB 150,000 exempt and reach 35%. Whether a serviced short stay is taxed as letting income or as business income is a question for your tax adviser, and companies pay corporate income tax instead.
A business must register for VAT once annual turnover passes THB 1.8 million, according to Grant Thornton. Check the current VAT rate with the Revenue Department, since the reduced rate has been extended year by year.
Foreign owners face extra layers. Formichella & Sritawat notes that accommodation can be a restricted business under the Foreign Business Act and that actively running bookings may count as work needing a work permit.
The reform bill: not law yet
Parliament is working on a replacement. According to SILQ Law, the House accepted Hotel Act amendments in principle in July 2026 and sent them to an extraordinary committee, and on 29 September 2026 the Government set out a draft Accommodation Establishment Act with tiers by size. Drafts reported by different firms do not match on room and guest limits, and SILQ Law says the draft does not change the Land Department's position on condo units. Until a new act is published in the Royal Gazette, the Hotel Act and the 2023 regulation apply as they stand.
Quick checklist
| Question | If yes | Source |
| Are stays shorter than a month? | Hotel Act applies | Hotel Act 2004 |
| 8 rooms or fewer, 30 guests or fewer? | Notify and get inspected | Ministerial Regulation No. 2 (2023) |
| Is it a condo unit? | Assume daily rental is not allowed | Condominium Act; Land Department 2023 |
| Any foreign guest? | TM30 within 24 hours | Immigration Act, Section 38 |
| Earning rent? | Declare it; check VAT threshold | Revenue Department |
If you are moving a condo to monthly stays, our low season playbook covers pricing longer stays, and the glossary explains terms like minimum stay.
How Santara AI fits around Thailand's rules
Santara AI does not handle hotel licences, non-hotel notices, TM30 reports or tax filing, and it keeps no compliance records. It does not create OTA listings or push listing content.
It runs the daily side. Each room or unit has one calendar, and connected channels are fed from it. Bookings, changes and cancellations from every connected channel land on that calendar, and a booking on one channel lowers availability on the others. If you move a unit to monthly stays, you set the minimum stay once and it is pushed to connected channels such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Agoda and Trip.com, out of 54 channels in total (see the integrations page). The Daily Brief email lists each morning's arrivals, which is a useful prompt for the TM30 report you file yourself.
Know the limits
Santara AI cannot tell you whether a property qualifies for the non-hotel notice or whether your building allows rentals. Treat its calendar as your booking record, not your legal record.
FAQ
Is Airbnb legal in Thailand?
Stays of under a month count as hotel business under the Hotel Act unless you hold a hotel licence or a non-hotel notice for a place with up to eight rooms and 30 guests. As of October 2026, condo daily rentals remain the riskiest case. Confirm with your district office.
What is the 30-day rule in Thailand?
The Hotel Act covers temporary lodging and leaves out monthly lets. Law firms read this as: renting for less than a month is hotel business. Stays of a month or more are generally treated as leases, subject to your building's rules.
Do I need to file TM30 for Airbnb guests?
Yes. Section 38 of the Immigration Act requires the owner, possessor or hotel manager to report a foreign guest within 24 hours of arrival, whatever platform the booking came from.
Can I rent my Bangkok condo daily?
The Land Department's 2023 position is that condo units cannot be used as hotels without dissolving the condominium, and the Interior Ministry has said daily condo rentals are an offence. Many buildings also ban them in their own rules.
Keep reading
- Guest registration in Vietnam and Indonesia
- Airbnb vs Booking.com fees for hosts
- Bali villa licence guide
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