Short answer: yes, with a permit. Short-term letting is fully legal and regulated in Dubai. The emirate was one of the first in the region to license it properly: you run your apartment as a registered "holiday home" under the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET, the authority that absorbed the former DTCM), and once permitted you can list it on Airbnb, Booking.com, or take direct bookings. What is not legal is operating without that permit.
The rules in 2026, in brief
- You need a DET holiday home permit for any home let for fewer than six months. No permit, no legal listing.
- Whole unit only. You let the entire property to one guest group at a time. Renting out individual rooms while you live there is not permitted.
- One night to 90 days per booking is the allowed short-stay range.
- Individual owners can self-register their own units (up to eight) through the DET portal. A company managing units on behalf of owners must hold a holiday home operator licence.
- The building has to allow it. You need a building NOC confirming short-term rentals are permitted; not every tower or community allows them.
- Tourism Dirham is collected per night and filed to DET monthly.
The documents and step-by-step process are in our DET permit guide; this post focuses on the legality and the rules themselves.
Can I Airbnb my apartment if I rent it?
Only with the landlord's written permission. A tenant subletting on Airbnb without a landlord NOC is breaching both the tenancy and the DET rules. If you own the unit, you are clear to register it yourself, subject to the building NOC.
What happens if you operate without a permit
Dubai enforces this, and the penalties are real. A first offence typically means a fine and immediate removal of the listing, and repeated or serious unlicensed operation escalates sharply, into five-figure and, for persistent violations, six-figure fines plus blacklisting. Reported figures range from around AED 5,000 for a first offence up to AED 100,000 at the severe end. The saved paperwork is never worth that exposure.
So, should you do it?
For most owners in a short-let-friendly building, yes: it is legal, well-regulated, and frequently out-earns a long-term lease (we compare the two in Airbnb vs long-term rental in Dubai). The compliance is the part owners dread, and it is exactly what a licensed operator handles for you. CORE runs your unit as a fully permitted holiday home, with the DET registration and monthly Tourism Dirham filing handled. See Airbnb management in Dubai.
This is general information for 2026, not legal advice. Rules and penalties change; confirm the current position with the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism before listing.