What you need to start: documents, safety, equipment

Letting a home to tourists takes four things, in this order: the property documents (land registry extract and cadastral details, title of use, certificate of fitness for use, energy performance certificate, a look at the condominium rules), the filings (CIN through the Ministry of Tourism portal, regional registration where required, registration with the council portal for the tourist tax and with the police Alloggiati portal), the safety devices required by short-let legislation (gas and carbon monoxide detectors, extinguishers, compliant systems) and the equipment for the guest. Photography and the listing come last.

The order is not a detail: it is the difference between a house that starts clean and one that starts with a confirmed booking and half its obligations uncovered. Here is the list, in the sequence we follow on a new house.

1. The property documents

Before thinking about the market, you need to know what you are holding. Five documents, and they can be pulled together in a week:

• an up-to-date land registry extract and cadastral details, with the actual layout matching the filed floor plan;
• a title of use: ownership, usufruct, or a loan-for-use arrangement with the owner's written consent;
• the certificate of fitness for use;
• a valid energy performance certificate (APE);
• the condominium regulations, where they exist: read them first, because some contractual sets of rules place limits on how units may be used.

The delicate point is the title of use. Anyone letting a house that is not theirs, typically on loan from a parent, needs written consent: it is not a formality, it is the document they will be asked for when opening the filings.

2. The filings to open

This is the part that puts people off, and it is four steps across four different portals:

• the CIN, the National Identification Code: applied for on the Ministry of Tourism portal with SPID or CIE, and displayed in listings, on printed material and on the outside of the building. Timings and penalties are in the dedicated CIN guide;
• registration with the regional system for non-hotel accommodation, where the region requires it: the CIN often hooks onto the regional code, so this comes first;
• registration with the council portal for the tourist tax, with the periodic returns and payments: how it works is explained in the guide on the tourist tax;
• registration with the Alloggiati portal run by the police headquarters, to report every guest to the State Police: within 24 hours of arrival, or within 6 hours when the stay is no longer than 24 hours, as established by the Ministerial Decree of 16 September 2021.

Almost all of them require the digital identity of the registered person. If you hand the house to a manager, the authority needs to be in writing: who logs in, to which portals, for which obligations.

3. Safety: detectors and extinguishers

Short-let legislation requires devices for the detection of combustible gas and carbon monoxide and portable fire extinguishers. They are inexpensive, they go in inside half a day, and they are the first thing a guest photographs when something is wrong.

Around them sits the dullest and most important chapter of all: compliant systems, electrical and heating, with their declarations of conformity and maintenance logs. If the wiring is thirty years old and nobody has ever seen a declaration, it is time to have an engineer look at it. It is not a cost that shows up in the photos, and it is the first piece of paper you will be asked for if something happens.

4. Insurance

The home policy you already hold is often not enough, and it is worth knowing that in advance. Many home policies are written for residential use and may exclude or limit cover when the property is given over to paying guests. That is not true of all of them: it depends on how your contract is written.

I am not naming insurers and I am not promising you cover. I am giving you the questions to put to your insurer, in writing if possible: is tourist use covered or excluded; how is public liability towards guests treated; is damage caused by guests covered; what are the limits, excesses and exclusions. A written answer counts, a phone call does not.

5. The equipment guests actually notice

Once the formal part is done, you move on to what decides the reviews. You do not need to furnish like a magazine: what you promise simply has to exist in the house.

• real bed spaces, honestly described: a sofa bed that opens with a struggle is not a double bed;
• enough linen for the changeovers: several sets of sheets and towels per bed space, otherwise the first same-day turnaround leaves you stuck;
• a complete kitchen: pans, knives that actually cut, a moka pot and a kettle, crockery in greater numbers than the bed spaces;
• wifi that genuinely holds up, measured in the furthest room and not next to the router;
• working air conditioning and proper blackout in the bedrooms: shutters, blinds or heavy curtains, the detail that separates a good night from a lukewarm review;
• clear parking: where to leave the car, whether it is reserved, what it costs, how far it is on foot;
• a house guide: appliances, waste and collection days, useful numbers, the places nearby where you eat well.

6. Photography and the listing, at the end

Photos are taken when the house is finished, clean, with the linen made up and the equipment in place. Not before. Photos shot mid-works describe a house the guest will not find, and the gap comes back as a review, a refund request or a guest who leaves on day one.

The same goes for the text: describe what is there, with real distances from the sea and from the shops. Anyone who writes "a stone's throw from the beach" when it is twenty minutes by car loses more than they gain.

7. The mistake I see most often

It is always the same one: publishing before the filings are in order. The season is closing in, the listing goes live and the first bookings come straight in. Then you realise the CIN is missing, that registering with the police portal takes its own time, and that the council wants the tourist tax return.

At that point you are in the worst position: confirmed bookings to honour and obligations uncovered. Cancelling costs money and ranking on the portals, staying open exposes you to penalties. Two weeks of lead time and no shortcuts avoid the whole thing.

8. What we do in your place

When we take on a new house, we work through this list ourselves: we gather the documents, open the CIN and the regional filings, register with the council portal and the Alloggiati portal, check the safety devices and the systems, and draw up the list of missing equipment before a single photo is taken. Then we build the listing and distribute it.

Our fee is a percentage of revenue, with no fixed fees, monthly subscriptions or hidden costs. The detail of how it works is on the owners page.

Last updated in August 2026. We review figures, rules and references periodically; before making tax or operational decisions, check the linked sources and your circumstances with a qualified adviser.

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