Lexikon

Short-term letting

Short-term letting means granting paid use of a dwelling, house or other accommodation to changing guests for short stays. It describes a type of use, but is not a single uniform statutory category.

Kurz erklärt

In short-term letting, accommodation is typically made available to guests by the day or week. The legal assessment does not depend on whether a platform is used, but on how the use is actually organised.

The relevant factors include the business model, additional services offered, zoning and building-law use, contractual arrangements, and any trade-law or provincial requirements. Section 111 of the Austrian Trade, Commerce and Industry Regulation Act refers to the accommodation of guests as a hospitality trade activity. Section 1(2) of the Austrian Rent Act contains exclusions and distinctions that depend on the specific model.

Short-term letting is not automatically a holiday home under provincial law. The term Freizeitwohnsitz comes from the applicable provincial rules and must be assessed separately from tourist letting. The overview of holiday homes and letting and the glossary entry on holiday homes explain this distinction.