Getting the DET permit is the part most owners plan for. The obligations that start the day it is approved are the part that catches people out, and they matter more now that DET checks listings electronically rather than waiting for a complaint. Here is what stays on your plate after approval.
What the permit covers, and what it does not
A Dubai holiday home permit is issued per unit. It lets you advertise that unit and let it for short stays, and nothing more. Everything below sits on top of it for as long as the unit is listed.
Permits run for a fixed term: between three and twelve months, most commonly twelve. Registration is Dh1,520 in total: Dh1,500 plus a Dh10 knowledge fee and a Dh10 innovation fee, with an annual permit fee calculated per bedroom on top, in the region of Dh370 for a studio or one-bedroom and Dh970 for a three-bedroom. Those are the figures as of October 2026; confirm them on the DET portal before you budget.
If you have not applied yet, our owner's checklist for the permit itself covers the documents and the sequence.
Every guest gets registered, every booking
All guests must be registered through DET's system, with passport or Emirates ID details, for every booking. Not only the lead guest, and not only the long stays. It is the obligation owners most often discover late.
The deadline after check-in is short. Published guidance disagrees on the exact number of hours, and there is a separate federal submission in play, so treat registration as something that happens at check-in, not at the end of the week, and confirm the current window on the DET portal. The guest's side of that process is in what happens at check-in.
The QR code at your main entrance
DET requires holiday home owners to display a QR code at the main entrance of the property. It gives guests and neighbours the operator's details and a direct route to DET. The Dubai Media Office announcement setting it up is explicit that non-compliance brings warnings first and penalties if it recurs.
Check yours is there and still scans. Stickers lift in a Dubai summer, and a missing code is easy to spot from the corridor.
Tourism Dirham is a monthly job
The Tourism Dirham is charged per room per night and collected from the guest, at Dh15 for a Deluxe classified home and Dh10 for a Standard one as of October 2026, again worth confirming on the portal. You collect it and remit it monthly, and a month with no bookings still needs a return filed rather than silence. We set out the mechanics in the Tourism Dirham explainer.
This is the part owners most often hand over, and it is work Luxe Signature does as standard: we handle the DET permit and the monthly Tourism Dirham filing for the owners we manage, so the deadline is not sitting in your calendar.
Renew before it expires
Permits do not roll over on their own. You apply to renew, and you do it before the expiry date. Failing the requirements at renewal can mean suspension or a fine rather than a reminder, so renewal is also when your compliance record gets looked at.
Put the expiry date somewhere you will see it a month ahead, with the DEWA account and building NOC filed next to it.
The unit is let whole, to one party
Holiday home units must be let in their entirety. You cannot share the unit with the guest, and you cannot let two unconnected parties into it at once, which rules out letting the spare room while you live in the other. DET also expects a long list of items to be present and working, running past fifty, from smoke detectors and fire extinguishers down to inventory.
Shared accommodation is a separate regime with its own permit, introduced by Law No. 4 of 2026, and it is not a workaround for a holiday home that is not filling. We covered it in the shared housing law post.
DET does not need to visit to find a problem
The practical change for owners is in enforcement rather than the rules. Listings are now monitored electronically and cross-referenced against the permit register, and non-compliant listings are removed from booking platforms. The risk is no longer an inspector knocking on your door in JVC. It is a listing that quietly stops appearing, in the middle of a season you were counting on.
None of these obligations is difficult. They are simply relentless, and they run on someone else's calendar.
Letting us carry the compliance
If you would rather own the apartment than administer it, this is the job we do. Luxe Signature Holiday Homes is the top-rated holiday-home operator in Jumeirah Village Circle, with more than 1,500 listings on Bayut including 400 Signature listings, and our agents are Bayut TruBroker-verified. We furnish the unit, licence it with DET, photograph it, list it across platforms, register and manage the guests, handle housekeeping and maintenance, file the Tourism Dirham every month, and pay you monthly.
You can see how the handover works in the owner walkthrough, or look through the apartments we run in JVC.
