Short-term rentals in Morocco: the law, taxes and formalities

Renting out a home by the night in Morocco, on Airbnb, on Booking.com or directly, is not prohibited. But there is no “Airbnb law”: the rules are spread across law 80-14 on tourist accommodation, the Code of Obligations and Contracts, tax law, the co-ownership statute and the instructions of local authorities.

It all depends first on what you rent out. A riad or a guesthouse clearly falls under law 80-14: authorisation, insurance, guest declaration. A whole apartment rented by a private individual does not clearly fit any of its categories, which does not exempt you from declaring your income, respecting the co-ownership rules or following local instructions.

This guide separates, topic by topic, what is written down from what is not, and points you to our detailed guides.

Information checked in October 2026 against the official texts: law 80-14 on tourist establishments and other forms of tourist accommodation, its implementing decrees 2-23-441 and 2-15-865, law 47-06 as amended by law 07-20, the Code of Obligations and Contracts, and laws 67-12, 43-20 and 18-00.

What “short-term rental” means in Morocco

Moroccan law does not define “short-term rental”: we found no text that makes it a legal category. The term refers to renting out a furnished home, by the night or by the week, to travellers passing through. Two markers decide almost everything:

• Duration. Up to 30 days, the rental falls under the general rules of the Code of Obligations and Contracts; beyond that, under law 67-12 on residential leases, furnished or not.
• The type of accommodation. The establishments and “other forms of tourist accommodation” of law 80-14 have a specific regime; anything that fits none of these categories remains in a grey zone.

Three situations come up again and again:

• a riad or guesthouse run commercially: tourist accommodation establishments to which law 80-14 applies in full;
• one or more rooms let in the home where you live, in other words a homestay, provided for by the same law;
• a whole apartment or villa that is not the host's residence, a common case on Airbnb, and the one the texts cover least clearly.

Owner, tenant subletting or management company: the obligations follow the property. Our guide to starting an Airbnb management company in Marrakech shows how to share them out in the management agreement.

The legal framework: what law 80-14 covers

Law 80-14 (Bulletin officiel no. 6404 of 15 October 2015) defines a tourist accommodation establishment as an establishment “of a commercial nature” that provides guests passing through or staying with accommodation and, in whole or in part, catering and entertainment (article 2). It lists nine types: hotel, hotel club, tourist residence, guesthouse, riad, kasbah, gîte, pension and campsite (article 3). Its article 29 adds three “other forms”: bivouac, homestay and alternative accommodation.

Opening an establishment requires an operating authorisation, granted after provisional classification and once insurance has been taken out (article 5). Decree 2-23-441 of 13 July 2023, whose French translation appeared in the Bulletin officiel of 4 December 2025, sets out the process:

1. the application is filed electronically with the Regional Investment Centre (CRI);
2. the Ministry of Tourism's representative inspects the premises: the property must meet 100% of the category's mandatory standards and at least 70% of the points of the supplementary standards;
3. after a favourable opinion from the unified regional investment commission, provisional classification is granted, and the governor issues the authorisation once a copy of the insurance contract has been filed;
4. the operator gives notice of the opening within the sixty days that follow it (article 6 of the law), then a regional commission inspects the establishment for its operating classification, valid for seven years and renewable for five-year periods.

Opening an establishment or operating another form of tourist accommodation without authorisation is punishable by a fine of 50,000 to 500,000 dirhams (article 43).

Riads, guesthouses and homestays

Riads and guesthouses. A riad is a house of traditional Moroccan architecture and decoration that provides accommodation and, on an ancillary basis, catering and entertainment; a guesthouse is a commercial establishment in the form of a villa or a house, with a regulated room capacity. Both follow the CRI, classification and authorisation process above; the decree classifies riads from 3 stars to luxury and guesthouses from 1 to 5 stars.

Homestay. A private individual hosts tourists “in the dwelling where they make their home”, up to a number of rooms set by regulation (article 29). The 2023 decree organises its authorisation (articles 60 to 65):

• the application is filed, against a receipt, with the local authority;
• the file includes, among other things, the electronic national ID card of the person in charge, the insurance contract, photos of the rooms and common areas, the occupancy permit or an engineer's certificate on the building's safety, and the signed specifications (“cahier des charges”);
• after a visit from the Tourism representative, the local authority replies within 30 days of filing;
• the authorisation is valid for five years, renewable, and inspections may take place while it is valid.

The maximum number of rooms and the template specifications are left to joint orders of the Ministries of the Interior and Tourism, which we have not found published: ask the local authority for them.

What about an apartment rented by a private individual?

No text settles this case, common as it is. A whole apartment that is not its owner's residence is neither an establishment under article 3 nor a homestay, which assumes the host lives on site. That is our reading of articles 3 and 29; according to the press, in April 2024 the authorities themselves acknowledged that most of these rentals escaped the tourism framework. Nor does decree 2-23-441 contain any rule specific to apartments: no “furnished tourist rental” category, and no cap of 120 nights a year, contrary to what several websites claim.

Being outside law 80-14 does not mean being outside every rule. A legal expert quoted in the press in July 2026 considers that these furnished lets fall under the dahir of 11 January 1932 on furnished lets, which would require declaring the activity and registering tenants; we have not been able to read that text. Local authorities also give their own instructions, as in Marrakech since January 2025.

And the framework is moving. In July 2025 the Ministry of Tourism announced an order supplementing law 80-14 and covering undeclared accommodation, including Airbnb-type rentals; in January 2026 the Housing Secretary of State mentioned decrees being prepared to limit short-term rentals outside tourist zones. As far as we know, none of these texts had been published on the date we checked.

The prudent position: collect and archive guests' identities as an authorised accommodation would, ask the local authority (the caïdat or local administrative office) in writing what it expects, and have your case confirmed by a lawyer.

Declaring your guests: fiche de police and online declaration

In law 80-14, the “fiche de police” is the individual accommodation form (“bulletin individuel d'hébergement”). For establishments and other forms of tourist accommodation, each guest shows an ID document and fills in and signs a form on arrival (article 37); the operator declares their details online on the day of arrival (article 36) and archives the forms for one year, available to the national police or the Royal Gendarmerie (article 38).

Decree 2-15-865 of 9 June 2016 specifies that the online declaration is made every day before 8 am, “following their arrival and their departure”, to the DGSN or the Royal Gendarmerie, once the operator has registered with the system. Its annex sets the template of the form. Mandatory information: surname, first name, sex, nationality, date of birth, country of residence, number of children under 18, date of arrival and planned date of departure, type and number of the ID document (CNIE national ID card, passport, residence permit or other). Place of birth, home address, socio-professional category and purpose of stay are supplementary. Check with the authority that this template is still in force.

Failing to meet these obligations is punishable by one to six months in prison and a fine of 50,000 to 100,000 dirhams, or one of the two (article 48), doubled for a repeat offence. The STDN platform is aimed at accommodation professionals; nothing we have verified confirms that a private individual without an authorisation can or must register on it. For an apartment, follow the local authority's procedure.

Article 36 also refers to personal data protection (law 09-08, overseen by the CNDP): ask only for what you need, and keep ID documents in one secure place.

RentDari's online check-in collects, before arrival, the identity and contact details of each guest and their companions, attached to the booking. It sends nothing to the police or the commune: the declaration stays your job. Our guide to the fiche de police in Morocco explains who must declare, and how.

The contract: the DOC up to 30 nights, law 67-12 beyond

No law requires a written contract for a few nights: under article 628 of the Code of Obligations and Contracts (DOC, for Dahir des obligations et contrats), the lease is complete as soon as the parties agree on the thing, the price and the other terms. But only a written document easily proves what the platform does not say: deposit, number of occupants, house rules, condition of the property. Three rules to remember:

• Duration. For 30 days or less, the DOC applies and your contract sets the deposit, times and cancellation terms. Beyond that, the rental falls within the scope of law 67-12 (article 1) and calls for a suitable lease.
• Electronic signature. It is governed by law 43-20 on trust services; article 417-1 of the DOC accepts an electronic document if its author is identified and its integrity guaranteed.
• Subletting. A tenant may not sublet without the landlord's written, dated consent, unless the lease allows it (article 39 of law 67-12).

The full framework is in our article on short-term rental contracts in Morocco, the drafting in our annotated holiday rental contract template. The free contract generator produces a PDF with no sign-up, and the RentDari contracts module fills in your template from each booking, has it signed online from the guest's phone and keeps the signed PDF attached to the stay.

Tourist tax

The tourist tax is a municipal tax due per person per night, governed by articles 70 to 76 of law 47-06 on local authority taxation, as amended by law 07-20. The essentials:

• it covers accommodation governed by law 80-14, and children under 12 are exempt;
• the law sets a range per category, for example 15 to 30 MAD for a guesthouse, 10 to 25 MAD for riads and houses rented to tourists, 2 to 5 MAD for other forms of accommodation; the commune sets its rate by order within these limits;
• the operator adds it to the price, shows it on the invoice, pays it over every quarter and declares guests and nights before 1 April;
• Airbnb does not collect it in Morocco.

For a whole apartment rented by a private individual, the question remains open, since the scope of the tax refers back to law 80-14: ask your commune's assessment department, in writing if possible. Our guide to tourist tax in Morocco gives the full table of ranges and a worked calculation.

Tax on rental income

Tax on your income is separate from the tourist tax. Four principles:

1. Rents are taxable in Morocco, including when the owner lives abroad (article 23 of the General Tax Code, CGI).
2. The income category is still to be settled. The CGI does not say explicitly whether short-term furnished rentals are property income or professional income, and that choice changes the tax regime and the returns.
3. Everything must be declared, whatever the payment channel. According to the press, in April 2024 the Foreign Exchange Office (Office des changes) had passed data on Airbnb-related transfers to the Ministry of the Interior.
4. A professional settles your case before your first return, especially if you manage several properties.

Our guide to short-term rental taxation in Morocco details these options. For an order of magnitude of what your property could earn, try the revenue simulator.

Co-ownership, house rules and insurance

Co-ownership. Most apartments rented on Airbnb are in buildings governed by law 18-00 on co-ownership, as amended by law 106-12. It says nothing about short-term rentals, but three rules matter:

• the co-ownership regulations must set the intended use of the private and common parts and the conditions for using them (article 9): read them before publishing your listing;
• each co-owner uses their unit “in line with its designated use”, the occupant uses the common parts without harming the others or the building's purpose, and a co-owner who rents out gives the tenant a copy of the regulations (article 31);
• amending the regulations on the use of the common parts requires three quarters of the votes (article 21), and the general meeting cannot force a co-owner to change the intended use or the conditions of use of their unit (article 23).

The law does not say whether a clause in the regulations can prohibit short-term rentals: if yours contains one, have a legal professional read it, and let the syndic, the building's managing agent, know.

House rules. They spell out for the guest the rules of the building and the property: occupants, visitors, noise, pool, smoking, pets. The house rules generator prepares a set in a few minutes; attach it to the contract.

Insurance. For accommodation under law 80-14, it is mandatory: fire, theft of guests' belongings and civil liability (articles 16 and 34). Failing to take it out or renew it means a fine of 50,000 to 500,000 dirhams, or 10,000 to 100,000 dirhams for a homestay, with possible closure for up to six months (article 44).

For an apartment, we found no text requiring specific insurance, but a comprehensive home insurance policy does not necessarily cover a paid nightly rental: ask your insurer for written confirmation. Platform guarantees do not replace that policy: Airbnb states that its host damage protection is not an insurance policy, and recommends personal insurance (Airbnb help centre).

What is specific to the big cities

The rules are national; what changes is the type of property and local practice:

• Marrakech: many riads in the medina, so law 80-14 and its authorisation. For furnished apartments, according to the local press, a joint commission asked their owners in January 2025 to have occupants fill in a form and to send this data to the security services or the territorial administration.
• Casablanca: mostly apartments in residential complexes, where co-ownership and the syndic carry the most weight. In February 2024, the press reported, citing an anonymous source, a plan by the Urban Agency to cap serviced apartments at 20% in new buildings in the city centre; no published rule as far as we know.
• Fez: riads and guesthouses in the medina, with authorisation applied for through the CRI.
• Agadir: winter visitors sometimes stay more than 30 days, and law 67-12 then applies. To declare guests, ask the local authority.
• Tangier: the summer return of Moroccans living abroad brings many family stays; collect the identity of every occupant.
• Rabat: the same framework as Casablanca for apartments; if you sublet, the landlord's written, dated consent is essential.
• Essaouira: riads and houses in the medina, often rented whole: check their category first.

Checklist before your first booking

1. Identify your type of property: riad or guesthouse, a room in your home, or a whole apartment.
2. Apply for authorisation if your category requires it, before opening: through the CRI for a riad or guesthouse, from the local authority for a homestay.
3. Check your right to rent out: title deed, or the landlord's written, dated consent if you are a tenant.
4. Read the co-ownership regulations and inform the syndic.
5. Get your insurance confirmed in writing for a paid nightly rental.
6. Ask the local authority how to declare your guests, and set up an online check-in that collects the identity of every occupant.
7. Ask your commune about the tourist tax and, if it is due, tell guests about it and show it on the invoice.
8. Consult an accountant on your income category and your returns.
9. Prepare the contract and house rules, signed online before arrival, and a suitable lease for any stay over 30 days.
10. Organise your archive: forms and ID documents for at least one year, contracts and invoices, findable stay by stay.

What is still unclear

Still without a written answer today:

• the status of a whole apartment rented by a private individual, which no published text settles;
• the 1932 dahir on furnished lets, which one legal expert believes applies to these properties, and which we have not been able to read;
• declaring guests outside authorised accommodation: registration of private individuals on STDN unconfirmed, procedures varying from one local authority to another;
• the tourist tax for an unauthorised apartment;
• the tax category of short-term furnished rentals, property income or professional income;
• the room cap for homestays and their specifications, left to orders we have not found;
• co-ownership clauses targeting short-term rentals, on which law 18-00 says nothing;
• the texts announced in July 2025 and January 2026, not published as far as we know.

Also be wary of rules that circulate without a source: a cap of 120 nights a year, a fine of 10,000 to 50,000 dirhams “under article 42” or a tourist tax collected by Airbnb appear in none of the texts we have read. Article 42 actually provides, for certain breaches, a warning, then a reprimand, then a fine of 50,000 to 100,000 dirhams if the breach continues.

Frequently asked questions

Is it legal to rent out my apartment on Airbnb in Morocco?

No text prohibits it, but none clearly organises it for a whole apartment. Follow the rules that apply in every case (income, co-ownership, the landlord's consent) and ask the local authority what it expects.

Do I need an authorisation for short-term rentals?

Yes for a riad, a guesthouse or another establishment under law 80-14 (authorisation from the governor, applied for through the CRI) and for a homestay (authorisation from the local authority, valid for five years). For a whole apartment, the 2023 decree provides no procedure, and we have found no other published one.

Is there a limit of 120 nights a year?

Not in the texts we have read: neither law 80-14 nor decree 2-23-441, often cited on this point, sets a cap on nights. Restrictions outside tourist zones were mentioned in 2026, with no text published as far as we know.

Can the syndic ban short-term rentals?

The syndic carries out the co-ownership regulations (article 26 of law 18-00); it does not set the rules on its own. Everything depends on what the regulations say about the intended use of the units. The general meeting cannot force you to change that use (article 23), but the scope of an existing clause on renting is something to discuss with a legal professional.

I live abroad: do I have to declare my income in Morocco?

Yes: income from a property located in Morocco is taxable there, including for a non-resident (article 23 of the CGI). A tax adviser will also check your obligations in your country of residence.

Does Airbnb handle the tourist tax or the guest declaration?

No. Airbnb does not collect the tourist tax in Morocco, and a booking is not a declaration: these obligations remain the operator's.

This article is general information on Moroccan law, current at the date stated; it is not legal or tax advice. For your situation, contact the local authority, your commune or a legal and tax professional.