An ordinary flat is to be let to guests by the week in future. Before you prepare photos and booking texts, the intended use must be clarified for the specific location. A technically possible listing on a platform is not an official authorisation.
Describe the project without promotional language
Our editorial recommendation: Record which flat or which part of it is to be offered, how you yourself use it and what occupancy is intended. An occasional room offer in your own flat is not automatically the same situation as a unit kept fully available for holiday guests. Use the same factual description with the authority that you intend to work with later.
Then seek the competent authority for that exact location. A guide for another municipality or a previous case can provide a research lead, but does not replace a local check. This article illustrates the procedure using Berlin and does not claim uniform rules for all of Germany.
Read Berlin as a concrete example
The Berlin Service Portal describes repeated remunerated holiday use measured in days or weeks as a case requiring authorisation. It also explains separate notification and registration constellations as well as the responsibility of the district office in whose district the flat is located. [FERIEN] Which variant your project falls under must be reconciled with its actual use.
Do not adopt from it any blanket nationwide number of permissible letting days. Nor should a registration number be taken, without verification, as indicating an unrestricted authorisation. Read the content and conditions of the information or decision that apply to you. Your own check may already be required before advertising; the Berlin portal expressly points to the requirements when offering. [FERIEN]
Separate official and private-law levels
Clarify, in addition to local residential use, also the tenancy agreement or ownership documents and other professionally required questions. The consent of a private contracting party does not automatically resolve the public-law side. Conversely, an administrative decision does not necessarily govern every claim arising from the tenancy relationship or the owners' association.
Describe outstanding points with a clear addressee. The competent authority explains the intended procedure; contract advice assesses the concrete agreement. Tax and insurance-contract questions may belong in separate checks. This article does not provide a blanket classification of every short-term letting.
Example: A neighbour’s listing is not sufficient evidence
An owner sees a holiday listing in the neighbouring building and wants to offer her flat similarly. However, she does not know on what basis the other listing is operated. Rather than copying its details, she enquires at the competent district office for her own unit and compiles the existing documents. Until the relevant situation is clarified, she treats the planned use as unresolved.
Limit the later listing to the confirmed scope
Keep the authoritative reply with date and property reference. Before publication, check whether the offer, the scope of use and the required information correspond. A later material change to the project should not be hidden under an old reply. That way the letting begins with a comprehensible local basis instead of assuming that online booking functions would confirm permissibility.