Is renting a condo on a daily basis illegal?

The Sharing Economy is currently a trending phenomenon across all sectors. Popular and hot topics in society today include ride-hailing and accommodation services. These services provide opportunities for individuals with cars or apartments to offer their services for rent, generating income through intermediaries such as Grab for cars and Airbnb for apartments.

This article will, of course, discuss the real estate aspect: renting out condominiums on a daily basis through intermediaries like Airbnb or other service providers, and the legal aspects involved.

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Laws Relating to Daily Room Rentals

Daily room rentals are regulated by the Hotel Act B.E. 2547 (2004). Section 4 of this Act defines "hotel" as "an accommodation establishment set up for the business purpose of providing temporary accommodation for travelers or other persons for a fee..."

In addition to this Act, there is also the Ministerial Regulation (updated March 19, 2025) specifying the types and criteria for operating a hotel business (No. 2) B.E. 2566 (2023), which amends the definition to "an accommodation establishment with a total of no more than eight rooms in the same building or multiple buildings combined, and accommodating no more than thirty guests." Established to provide temporary accommodation for travelers or other individuals for a fee, and having been inspected and notified by authorized officials, it is not considered a hotel. This changes the number of total rooms and guests to be higher, giving homestay businesses more flexibility.

Under this ministerial regulation, it seems that daily condo rentals might be permitted, especially for small-scale rentals. However, this is actually not true. Renting out condos on a daily basis remains illegal because a condo building already has more than eight rooms and more than thirty occupants, and therefore does not fall under the exemption from requiring a hotel license under this ministerial regulation.

This ministerial regulation is intended to promote homestay accommodations, which boost income for rural communities where owners have limited condo units and other primary occupations.

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What happens if a condo unit is rented out daily?

The responsible party for overseeing daily rentals in a condo is the condominium management company, acting on behalf of all unit owners. Oversight can include issuing building regulations to create obstacles to daily rentals (because directly prohibiting unit owners from using their units in specific ways is impermissible,

due to conflicts with ownership rights). For example, issuing access cards for elevators that only allow access to specific floors. There are also limited access cards, prohibiting anyone other than co-owners or those not accompanied by co-owners from using the common property.

Following the issuance of regulations, the juristic person can also file a complaint with the police to initiate criminal proceedings under Section 59 of the Hotel Act for operating a hotel without a license, which carries a penalty of imprisonment for up to one year, a fine of up to 20,000 baht, or both, and a daily fine of up to 10,000 baht for the duration of the violation.

The condominium juristic person can also take additional action in cases where daily room renters are foreigners. According to Section 38 of the Immigration Act B.E. 2522 (1979), the owner of the premises must notify the Immigration Office within 24 hours of a foreigner checking in.

The condominium juristic person can strictly enforce this regulation to prevent the daily rental of rooms. If constant notification within 24 hours or inspections by officials are required, it will be inconvenient for room owners and will eventually lead them to stop renting out rooms on a daily basis.

If the landlord fails to report, they will be subject to penalties under Section 77 of this Act, which is a fine of 2,000-10,000 baht.

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In the past year, there have been landmark cases where landlords rented out rooms on a daily basis. The courts of first instance have already ruled on these cases: Hua Hin Provincial Court (Criminal Case No. 50/2561, Red Case No. 59/2561, Hua Hin area, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province) and Phetchaburi Provincial Court (Criminal Case No. 277/2561, Red Case No. 900/2561, Cha-am area).

Both courts sentenced the landlords to imprisonment, but suspended the sentence, imposed fines, and daily fines. This sets a precedent for co-owners considering daily rentals, deterring them from doing so.

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Thank you for the valuable information from DD-Property.