Do I need an RNT to rent my apartment short term?

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Do I need an RNT to rent my apartment short term in Colombia?

Yes. If we commercially rent an apartment in Colombia to guests for stays under 30 days, we should assume an active Registro Nacional de Turismo, or RNT, is mandatory.

Colombia's tourism law puts these short stays inside the tourist-accommodation system. Law 2068 defines paid accommodation for periods shorter than 30 days as hospedaje and specifically covers people who rent or sublet real estate under that threshold. MinCIT's current guidance is equally direct: urban or rural tourist housing offered commercially for less than 30 days needs an RNT.

The rule covers more than owners renting their own apartments. It can also catch tenants who legally sublet, professional property managers and intermediaries arranging the stays.

Where people get caught is assuming that the RNT settles everything. It only covers the national tourism-registration layer. A building's propiedad horizontal rules, local land-use restrictions, guest-reporting duties and other operating requirements can still stop an apartment from being legal.

Situation	RNT normally required?	Why	What still needs checking
Apartment rented for 3 nights	Yes	Tourist stay under 30 days	Building and local rules
Apartment rented for 2 weeks	Yes	Tourist stay under 30 days	Building and local rules
Apartment repeatedly rented for 29 nights	Yes	Each stay stays below the threshold	Full tourism compliance
Genuine rental for 30+ days	Generally outside this tourist-housing rule	The sub-30-day trigger disappears	Ordinary rental rules
Apartment listed on Airbnb for short stays	Yes	The platform does not replace registration	RNT plus other permissions

Is 30 days really the cutoff for short-term rentals in Colombia?

Yes. For Colombia's tourist-accommodation rules, stays under 30 days are the key legal threshold.

Law 2068 defines the hospedaje contract around paid accommodation for less than 30 days. The same threshold appears in the definition of vivienda turística. A 3-night stay, a 14-night stay and a 29-night stay therefore sit in the same basic category.

That makes the difference between 29 and 30 days unusually important. An owner who repeatedly accepts 29-night bookings is still operating below the tourist-housing threshold every time.

Calling the agreement a "lease" does not change much if the actual business is paid short-stay accommodation. Authorities can look at what the apartment is really being used for rather than the label placed on the contract.

A genuine 30-day-or-longer model deserves separate analysis because the specific short-stay definition no longer fits in the same way. That does not make every 30-day contract automatically problem-free, but the RNT question changes materially once the actual stays cross that line.

What if I only rent my Colombian apartment occasionally?

Occasional short-term renting creates more ambiguity, but we would still get an RNT before publicly offering an apartment for recurring paid stays under 30 days.

MinCIT currently says the requirement applies when tourist accommodation is provided "permanently," which it explains as commercially. Older rules also used language around habitual activity.

The law nevertheless casts a wide net. Colombian rules cover people whose activity involves renting or subletting property for less than 30 days, and they presume someone offering more than one property under that threshold to be a tourism-service provider.

So frequency alone is a poor test. Renting an apartment once to a relative and receiving some money is very different from publishing an Airbnb listing, setting nightly prices, opening a booking calendar and taking reservations from strangers.

Once we deliberately put the apartment into the short-stay market, "I only rent it occasionally" becomes a pretty weak compliance strategy.

Does Airbnb make the RNT mandatory in Colombia?

Airbnb itself does not create the RNT requirement, but a Colombian Airbnb listing for short stays normally falls straight into the activity the law regulates.

Law 2068 brought digital tourism platforms into the regulatory framework and requires mechanisms for providers to display their RNT information. Airbnb's Colombia guidance also tells hosts that the registration is required before offering qualifying tourist accommodation.

This has made informal operation harder. The RNT number now sits much closer to the booking process instead of existing only in a government database that guests rarely see.

Switching platforms does not change the underlying rule. A short-term apartment advertised through Booking.com, Instagram, WhatsApp or a personal website can still qualify as tourist accommodation.

The relevant question is what we are selling and for how long, not which app produced the reservation.

Can I avoid the RNT by setting a 30-day minimum stay?

Yes, a genuine 30-day-or-longer rental model can move the apartment outside the usual short-term tourist-housing definition.

The word "genuine" matters here. If every guest actually contracts for 30 days or more, the strongest statutory trigger behind vivienda turística is absent.

We would be much less comfortable with arrangements designed only to imitate a 30-day tenancy while the real product remains nightly tourist accommodation. Splitting stays artificially or writing contracts that do not match what is actually sold adds risk rather than solving it.

The commercial model also changes. Monthly furnished rentals usually mean fewer turnovers, fewer cleaning cycles and less dependence on weekend pricing, but they can also produce a lower effective nightly rate.

For some Colombian apartments, that trade-off can still be attractive because it removes a large part of the short-term-tourism compliance problem.

Rental model	Typical stay	Short-term RNT issue	Practical reading
Weekend Airbnb	2–4 nights	Clearly present	Tourist accommodation
Vacation rental	7–14 nights	Clearly present	Tourist accommodation
29-night stay	29 nights	Clearly present	Still below the cutoff
Genuine monthly stay	30+ days	Much weaker	Different rental framework
Three-month furnished rental	90 days	Generally outside the short-stay definition	Focus shifts to rental law

Can my building ban Airbnb even if I have an RNT?

Yes. A Colombian condominium can block tourist rentals even when the owner has an RNT.

This is one of the most important rules for apartment owners. Decree 1836 requires anyone registering tourist housing inside a propiedad horizontal regime to declare that the unit is authorized by the building's regulations for tourist accommodation.

Colombian law also puts responsibility on condominium administrators. Law 1558 requires them to report tourist accommodation that either lacks the required RNT or operates contrary to the property's registered rules.

Ownership gives us control over the apartment, but it does not give us unlimited freedom to turn a residential unit into tourist accommodation inside a condominium.

Before buying furniture, paying a property manager or projecting Airbnb revenue, we would read the registered propiedad horizontal regulations. For an apartment, those documents can matter more than the fact that neighboring units already appear online.

What if my building rules say nothing about Airbnb or tourist rentals?

Silence in the building rules is risky. For Colombian tourist housing inside a condominium, we would look for explicit authorization rather than assume that anything unprohibited is allowed.

Decree 1836 requires the RNT applicant to declare that the relevant private unit is authorized under the property's regulations for tourist accommodation.

Medellín's current short-rental guidance pushes the point further in practical terms. Where the propiedad horizontal rules do not already authorize tourist accommodation, the city says the issue has to go through the co-owners' assembly and be reflected formally.

That makes a vague building rule a poor foundation for an Airbnb business. The fact that other owners have been renting for years may simply mean enforcement has not reached them yet.

For anyone buying specifically for short-term rental, we would want the permission visible in the legal documents rather than inferred from what happens in the hallways.

Is an RNT enough to run a legal Airbnb in Colombia?

No. An RNT gets the apartment into Colombia's tourism registry, while several other rules can still decide whether the short-term rental may actually operate.

The extra requirements vary by location, so national answers can become misleading quickly. Medellín currently gives us one of the clearest examples. Its official guidance tells tourist-housing operators to check the RNT, propiedad horizontal authorization, land-use compatibility, building or use permissions, tax registration, guest reporting and other operating requirements.

Local planning rules are becoming more important too. During Medellín's ongoing POT revision, the district has proposed explicitly treating tourist housing as hospitality activity, restricting it to certain mixed-use areas and requiring adaptation licenses when a change of use is involved.

So the apartment can fail even with an active RNT. A unit in the wrong building or with the wrong authorized use may still face suspension.

Compliance layer	What we need to know	Who controls it	Does an RNT settle it?
RNT	Is the tourism provider registered?	National tourism framework / chambers of commerce	Yes, for this layer only
Propiedad horizontal	Does the building permit tourist stays?	Building regulations	No
Land use	Is this activity allowed here?	Municipality or district	No
Building/use authorization	Is the property approved for that use?	Local planning authorities	No
Tax registration	Is the activity correctly registered?	DIAN / local tax authorities	No
Guest reporting	Are guests being reported correctly?	Tourism and migration systems	No

Can I get an RNT if my building prohibits short-term rentals?

We should not treat an RNT application as a way around a building ban, because the registration process asks us to confirm that tourist accommodation is allowed in the unit.

For properties under a horizontal-property regime, Decree 1836 requires a declaration that the private units are authorized by the building regulations for tourist accommodation.

If the regulations expressly prohibit short stays, that declaration becomes the problem. Obtaining an RNT cannot rewrite the condominium documents.

The safer order is straightforward: inspect the building rules first, confirm the local use of the property, and register the tourist activity only once those pieces fit.

This is particularly important in Medellín these days because city enforcement is looking beyond registration. Authorities have been checking land use and building permissions alongside tourism compliance, so an RNT number offers limited protection when the underlying property use is wrong.

What do I need to get an RNT for a Colombian apartment?

For a normal tourist apartment, we need to identify the provider correctly, register the relevant economic activity and show that the specific property can legally be used for tourist accommodation.

Decree 1836 requires information about the tourism provider, the applicable commercial or tax registration, the property's operating details and adherence to the tourism-sector code of conduct protecting children and adolescents.

A condominium apartment adds the declaration that the unit is authorized for tourist accommodation under the propiedad horizontal rules.

Each property also matters individually. The RNT framework requires providers to identify the properties where the tourism service is supplied, so one generic registration should not be assumed to cover a portfolio of unrelated apartments automatically.

Professional managers do not make that property-level check disappear. If someone else operates the Airbnb for us, we would verify which entity holds the registration, which unit the registration covers and whether the building itself authorizes the activity.

Item	Usually relevant?	Why we care
RUT / economic activity	Yes	Identifies the provider and activity
Commercial registration	Depends on the provider	Relevant where the operator qualifies as a merchant
Property details	Yes	Connects the tourism activity to the accommodation
PH authorization	Yes for applicable condominiums	Confirms the building allows tourist use
Tourism code of conduct	Yes	Required sector compliance
Separate property identification	Yes	A portfolio cannot be treated as one anonymous operation

Is getting an RNT expensive?

The RNT registration itself is free, so the paperwork is rarely the expensive part of legalizing a Colombian short-term rental.

MinCIT currently states that registering and renewing the RNT costs nothing.

Expenses tend to appear around the registration. Depending on the property and the operator, we may have accounting costs, commercial-registration expenses, insurance, local compliance work, property-management fees or even building-related costs if the current authorized use needs to change.

That difference explains why owners give very different answers when asked what it costs to "legalize an Airbnb."

Getting the RNT number can cost zero. Getting the apartment into a position where it can lawfully operate may cost considerably more.

Do I have to renew the Colombian RNT every year?

Yes. Tourism providers have to renew the RNT every year during the official renewal period to keep operating legally.

The renewal runs during the first three months of the year. Missing it suspends the registration.

Reactivation is much less forgiving than renewal. MinCIT currently explains that a suspended provider must complete the reactivation process and make the payment required by the tourism rules before operating again.

For someone managing several units, this deserves to be treated as a fixed annual compliance task. A registration obtained years ago tells us very little unless it is active now.

Bogotá's tourism authority recently made the scale of this annual process visible: more than 14,400 tourism providers were being reminded to renew, with tourist housing representing the largest category.

Can I keep renting my apartment if the RNT is suspended?

No. A suspended RNT leaves a Colombian tourist apartment without the active registration required to operate legally.

The registration is a condition for operating as a tourism-service provider. Once it becomes suspended, continuing to accept qualifying short-term guests exposes the owner or operator to enforcement.

An old registration number can create false reassurance. We need to check status, rather than simply confirm that an RNT once existed.

For buyers looking at an existing Airbnb business, an active registration is much more useful than a screenshot of the original certificate.

What can actually happen if I rent without an RNT?

Operating a qualifying short-term rental without an active RNT can lead to suspension, closure and other sanctions, and recent enforcement shows that authorities are actively looking for non-compliant tourist apartments.

Medellín gives us unusually good evidence. The district reported inspecting 135 tourist homes during 2025 and finding non-compliance in 51 of them. That is almost 38% of the homes inspected.

Enforcement has continued. During 2026, Medellín reported dozens of new control procedures covering hotels, hostels, tourist homes and other tourism businesses. Another territorial-control campaign produced 93 technical reports and identified 34 short-rental properties operating without the required license.

Authorities are also using better ways to find properties. In El Poblado, the city says it is cross-checking information with Migración Colombia to identify apartments hosting foreigners and detect potentially non-compliant stays under 30 days.

An illegal rental no longer needs an angry neighbor to become visible; platform activity, foreign-guest records, planning data and on-site inspections can all create a trail.

Recent Medellín enforcement evidence	Result	What it tells us
Tourist homes inspected in 2025	135	Apartments are being inspected directly
Homes with non-compliance	51	About 38% of inspected units had problems
Technical property reports in a 2026 control campaign	93	Authorities are checking the physical/legal status of properties
Properties identified without the required license	34	RNT is only part of the enforcement picture
Current El Poblado approach	Migration-data cross-checking	Detection is becoming more data-driven

Do I have to register Airbnb guests after getting an RNT?

Yes. A registered Colombian tourist apartment also has guest-reporting obligations.

Tourist-accommodation providers have to record guests through Colombia's accommodation-registration system. The reporting covers information about the guest and the stay, including identification and check-in and check-out details.

Foreign visitors add another layer. Migración Colombia uses SIRE to collect information from people and businesses providing accommodation to foreigners.

So an Airbnb host who has completed the RNT process still has recurring operational work after each booking.

This is one of the clearest differences between a normal long-term landlord and a tourist-accommodation operator. Short-term renting pulls the apartment into a reporting system much closer to hospitality.

Do I need insurance for an Airbnb in Colombia?

Yes. Colombian tourist-accommodation providers are required to carry liability insurance covering guests and third parties.

MinCIT's current formalization guidance confirms that the insurance obligation applies to tourist accommodation and has been mandatory since 2022.

The policy is meant to cover risks linked to providing accommodation, including personal injury, medical expenses and damage affecting third parties.

For an owner calculating Airbnb profitability, this belongs in the operating-cost model alongside management, cleaning, platform fees and taxes. It should not be left until after the listing goes live.

Does the RNT also take care of my Airbnb taxes in Colombia?

No. Registering a Colombian tourist apartment in the RNT leaves the tax side to be handled separately.

The operator may need the correct RUT activity with DIAN, and rental or accommodation income still has to be treated correctly for tax purposes. Local ICA obligations can also depend on where and how the business operates.

Tourism businesses can additionally fall under FONTUR's parafiscal contribution regime. The exact base and treatment depend on the provider and its activity, so we would avoid using one generic percentage as a substitute for checking the actual tax position.

VAT can be even more fact-specific, particularly when foreign guests or special tourism treatments are involved.

For a small host, the practical lesson is simple: having an active RNT proves tourism registration, not tax compliance.

Are Colombia's short-term-rental rules actually getting stricter now?

In practice, yes. Colombia's core RNT rule has existed for years, but major cities are currently making short-term rentals easier to identify and harder to operate informally.

Medellín shows the clearest shift. The city now reports 8,951 tourist homes registered in the RNT, large enough for short-term housing to be treated as a major accommodation category rather than a niche Airbnb phenomenon.

The city's new 2026–2030 tourism-security plan puts stronger inspection, coordination and territorial control into a formal multi-year strategy. Current municipal guidance also brings RNT status, propiedad horizontal, land use, building authorization and guest-reporting requirements together in one compliance framework.

Planning policy is moving in the same direction. Medellín's POT revision proposes specific areas where tourist housing can operate and additional authorization when the activity changes the approved use of a property.

Bogotá offers another useful measure of scale. By April 2026, the capital had 14,264 active tourism providers, up 7.1% from a year earlier. Tourist housing alone added 689 registrations, accounting for roughly 73% of the net increase.

The bigger change is enforcement capacity. More units are formalizing while cities get better at locating and inspecting the ones that are not.

Current indicator	Evidence	What has changed
Registered tourist homes in Medellín	8,951	Short-term housing is now a large formal category
Medellín tourism-security plan	2026–2030	Stronger inspection is now part of a multi-year strategy
Bogotá active tourism providers	14,264	Formal tourism supply keeps growing
Bogotá annual growth	7.1%	Registrations are still rising quickly
Additional Bogotá tourist homes	689	Tourist housing drove most of the net growth

What should I check before buying an apartment for Airbnb in Colombia?

Before buying a Colombian apartment for Airbnb, we would verify that the unit can legally host tourists before spending much time on projected nightly rates.

Start with the registered propiedad horizontal rules. If tourist accommodation is forbidden or not properly authorized, the Airbnb business case may already be in trouble.

Then check the property's local land use and any building or use permissions. After that, confirm how the RNT would be structured for the specific unit and operator.

Nearby Airbnb listings are weak evidence. Some may have valid registrations, some may be operating under different circumstances, and others may simply be illegal.

The same caution applies when a seller markets a "turnkey Airbnb." Historical occupancy and revenue tell us what guests paid, while the building documents tell us whether that revenue model can lawfully continue.

Only after those checks would we model occupancy, average nightly rates, cleaning, management, insurance, taxes and platform fees.

So, do I need an RNT for a short-term apartment rental in Colombia?

Yes. If we commercially offer a Colombian apartment for stays under 30 days, we should currently treat an active RNT as mandatory.

A genuine 30-day-or-longer rental changes the analysis because it moves outside the main sub-30-day definition used for tourist housing. Truly isolated non-commercial situations can be less clear, although that is a fragile basis for anyone planning recurring Airbnb bookings.

For apartments, the RNT is only one of the checks that really count. The building must allow tourist accommodation, local rules have to support the property's use, and an operating host can face guest-reporting, insurance, tax and annual renewal obligations.

Enforcement is also becoming more practical. Medellín is already combining tourism controls with planning, licensing and migration information, while both Medellín and Bogotá now have thousands of formal tourist homes in their registries.

For now, the useful rule is straightforward: commercially rent for less than 30 days and assume an RNT is required. For a condominium apartment, verify the building rules before assuming the RNT will be enough.

Fact-checked and reviewed by our local expert

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Franca Berta

Marketing Specialist, KasaFinder

Through her work with KasaFinder, Franca Berta has developed a strong understanding of Uruguay’s real estate market and the opportunities it offers international buyers. From Montevideo to Punta del Este and other coastal markets, she helps bring clarity to a market known for its stability, lifestyle appeal, and growing interest from foreign investors.

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