Abu Dhabi Opens Holiday Home Licensing to Tenants in Major Tourism Shake-Up
Abu Dhabi has significantly widened who can legally operate a holiday home in the emirate, expanding eligibility beyond property owners to include tenants and other authorised individuals — a move that could reshape the short-term rental landscape across the capital.
The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) unveiled the updated regulations at Arabian Travel Market 2026, held in Dubai, positioning the change as part of a broader effort to professionalise and diversify the emirate’s accommodation offerings ahead of its Tourism Strategy 2030 targets.
Who Can Now List a Holiday Home
Under the revised framework, eligible operators now include individual and joint owners, legal entities, tenants, and people specifically authorised by property owners — provided they meet conditions set by DCT Abu Dhabi. Previously, the ability to legally list a property as a holiday home was largely confined to owners and companies, effectively locking out long-term renters who might want to sublet a spare room or an entire unit while they travel.
That distinction matters in a city like Abu Dhabi, where a large share of residents rent rather than own. Opening the door to tenants — under proper licensing, at least — could meaningfully expand the pool of available short-term accommodation without requiring new construction.
Tighter Rules for Online Listings
The expansion comes paired with stricter transparency requirements. Under the new rules, no holiday home can be advertised on any website or digital platform — whether a global giant like Airbnb or Booking.com, or a smaller local site — without a valid DCT Abu Dhabi licence. Crucially, the licence number itself must now be visibly displayed on the listing page.
That single change is designed to close a loophole that has allowed unlicensed or non-compliant properties to slip through undetected, blending in among properly registered ones. For guests, it offers a simple way to verify legitimacy before booking; for the department, it creates an easier enforcement mechanism across dozens of platforms simultaneously.
Hamad Mohammed Sudain, executive director of support services at DCT Abu Dhabi, described the sector as an increasingly central part of the emirate’s tourism identity.
“The holiday home sector is an increasingly important part of Abu Dhabi’s evolving tourism landscape, responding to changing traveller preferences while broadening the emirate’s accommodation offering,” Sudain said.
A Sector Growing Fast
The numbers behind the policy shift help explain the urgency. Abu Dhabi’s holiday home supply expanded by 77 per cent in 2025, reaching 4,771 eligible units — more than 2,000 additional properties added in a single year. Guest numbers climbed at almost exactly the same rate, surpassing 335,000 visitors.
Domestic demand has been a particularly strong driver, with local guest numbers rising 114 per cent to nearly 83,000, while international visitors increased 68 per cent to more than 252,000. Average daily revenue per property also climbed 28 per cent, reaching roughly AED 1,887 — equivalent to around $514.
Those figures suggest holiday homes are no longer a niche alternative to hotels in Abu Dhabi but a fast-growing pillar of the accommodation mix in their own right, catering to travellers seeking longer stays, more space, or a more residential feel than a traditional hotel room offers.
Fitting Into the Bigger Tourism Picture
The regulatory update is being framed explicitly around Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Strategy 2030, which aims to diversify the emirate’s accommodation base well beyond hotels as visitor numbers continue climbing. By formalising tenant-operated units and tightening digital transparency simultaneously, DCT Abu Dhabi appears to be threading a careful needle: growing supply quickly while trying to avoid the kind of unregulated sprawl that has drawn criticism of short-term rental markets in cities elsewhere in the world.
DCT Abu Dhabi first introduced holiday home regulations back in 2020 and has periodically revised the framework as the sector has matured — adding requirements around tourism fees, safety inspections and information disclosure along the way. This latest update represents one of the more significant expansions to date, both in terms of who can participate and how listings are policed.
For property owners currently renting out units informally, or for tenants weighing whether subletting a room while travelling is even permissible, the message from Abu Dhabi is now considerably clearer: get licensed, display the number, or risk being pulled from every major booking platform.
