Reader question: Does a standard subletting permission also cover tourists who change daily?
You have permission to sublet your German rental flat. Now, during your own absence, you want to accommodate holiday guests who change day by day. Before an advert or a booking is created, it must be clarified which use the existing permission actually covers.
Read the original request together with the permission
Secure the original request and the full response with any conditions. Which person, duration and type of use were described at that time? Was a longer-staying person expected or were changing tourist stays expressly the subject of the declaration?
Also read later amendments and objections. A general heading or a conversation remark remembered over the years is not a reliable summary of the entire process. A change of ownership does not make the actual earlier content of the permission unimportant.
Do not automatically extend ordinary subletting
§ 540 BGB contains the fundamental question of permission when use is granted to third parties. [BGB540] In judgement VIII ZR 210/13 of 8 January 2014 the BGH explained that an ordinary subletting permission, without special indications, cannot be understood as permission for day-by-day letting to tourists. [BGH21013]
The change from a residential use intended for a certain duration to changing daily guests therefore affects the actual scope of the consent. An asserted mere cost coverage does not by itself answer this question of interpretation. [BGH21013] A general permission is not extended by an independent economic motive.
Ask concretely before offering
Describe the procedure you really intend: changing persons, duration of stay, rooms affected and your own absences. Ask specifically whether this tourist form of use is to be permitted. An answer only about ordinary residential subletting should not be filed as confirmation of the deviating request.
Also clarify separately which public-law and other contractual prerequisites apply at the specific location. This article does not contain a regional permit decision. A private consent does not automatically resolve such additional questions; a platform activation likewise does not confirm the scope of permission under the tenancy agreement.
If an objection already exists, secure the current status
If an advert, bookings or a warning (Abmahnung) are already present, disclose that actual status. Document which offers are still visible, which stays have been agreed and which measures have actually been taken. A requested deletion and the confirmed removal of an advert are different statuses.
In the BGH case at the time the further course after a warning was also disputed; the matter was referred back for a new decision. [BGH21013] No general predetermined eviction consequence for every individual case is derived herefrom.
Fictitious decision before the first booking
In the invented case a tenant has permission for a subtenant who stays for a longer period. Before the planned holiday advert they have the scope examined and specifically ask about the deviating use. Only a clarified actual status can form the basis for their further decision.
The practical conclusion is not a generally “permitted subletting” on a private note, but a comprehensible answer as to exactly the intended type of use. If this remains open, the tourist project is likewise not yet secured.