EU Regulation 2024/1028: the new European short-term rental rules now apply to your property
Since 20 May 2026, platforms send your booking data to the authorities every month. What the EU regulation changes — and doesn't change — for Alojamento Local hosts in Portugal.
It slipped by relatively unnoticed amid Portugal's own regulatory noise, but since 20 May 2026 a regulation designed specifically for short-term rentals — and therefore for your Alojamento Local — applies across the entire European Union. Don't panic: if your registration is in order, the immediate change is small. But one important thing does change — how much information about your activity now flows between platforms and authorities.
What Regulation 2024/1028 is (in host language, not lawyer language)
Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 deals with the collection and sharing of data relating to short-term accommodation rental services. It does essentially three things:
- Harmonises registration procedures — where national, regional or local registration schemes exist (like RNAL in Portugal), those procedures must now follow common rules: online registration, registration numbers issued automatically and immediately, host self-declaration.
- Requires platforms to share activity data — Airbnb, Booking and the rest must transmit data about each listed property to the authorities, every month.
- Creates one single digital entry point per Member State — the technical channel through which that data flows.
One clarification worth making, because the phrase is doing the rounds: there is no "single European register". The regulation creates no central EU register and no European database of rentals — registration remains national. In Portugal, it's still called RNAL.
The dates that matter
- 11 April 2024 — the regulation is adopted in Brussels;
- 19 May 2024 — it enters into force (the twentieth day after publication in the Official Journal);
- 20 May 2026 — it becomes applicable (article 19). The 24-month deferral was deliberate, to give Member States time to adapt existing registration schemes and build the digital entry points.
In other words: this is no longer the future. Since May, it's the framework in force.
What changes for you: the registration number and the data that starts to flow
On the host side, the regulation's obligations will sound familiar to anyone operating in Portugal: complete the self-declaration when registering, give the platform your registration number and display it on your listing. None of this is new here — displaying your RNAL number on listings was already mandatory under Portuguese law.
The real change is on the platform side. Under article 9, platforms must collect and transmit monthly, to the single digital entry point of the country where the property is located, for each unit:
- the number of nights rented;
- the number of guests per night;
- the country of residence of each guest;
- together with the registration number, the unit's address and the listing URL.
Read that list again with a host's eyes: authorities now see your activity at a granularity they never had before. Consistency between what's on your listing, what you report via SIBA and what you declare for IRS stops being a matter of inspection luck — it becomes verifiable by cross-referencing data.
How it meets RNAL — do you need to do anything now?
A note that clears up a lot of confusion: this is an EU regulation, not a directive. In the words of the instrument's own closing formula, it is "binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States" — no Portuguese transposition act exists, or is needed.
What the Portuguese State does have to do are execution measures: set up the single digital entry point, designate the competent authorities and define penalties. As of this writing, we found no public designation of the Portuguese entry point — when it happens, it's exactly the kind of news ALerta's Radar catches first.
And you? If your RNAL registration is valid, your details are up to date, and your number appears on all your listings, there is no new immediate step for you to take. The new obligations fall on the State and on the platforms — not on you.
What changes for Airbnb and Booking (and why it still affects you)
Platforms get concrete duties:
- Design their interface so you can declare your registration number and it is displayed clearly on the listing;
- Make random checks on declarations and the validity of registration numbers — the law requires "reasonable efforts", not systematic pre-publication verification (contrary to what some press reports claimed);
- Remove or block illegal listings when a competent authority orders it — not on their own initiative, and with the host's right to be heard;
- Transmit activity data monthly (very small platforms may do it quarterly).
The indirect effect on you is clear: a listing without a valid registration number becomes a liability. Even before any authority acts, expect platforms to push harder for your number — because their own responsibility just got bigger.
Compliance checklist
To sleep soundly under the new framework, confirm:
| ✔ | What to check |
|---|---|
| ☐ | Is your RNAL registration valid, with holder, address and capacity up to date? |
| ☐ | Does your registration number appear on all listings, on every platform? |
| ☐ | Does the address on your listings match the registered address? |
| ☐ | Is SIBA up to date for every stay? |
| ☐ | Is your declared income consistent with your listings' real activity? |
While you're at it: the national rules changed too over the last year and a half — see what Decree-Law 76/2024 actually changed for AL.
This is where ALerta comes in
New regulation without surprises — that is literally what ALerta exists for. We track what comes out in the Diário da República, in municipal regulations and now in the European framework, and we translate it into concrete alerts: what changed, whether it affects you, and what you need to do. When Portugal designates its single entry point or sets the penalties, you'll hear it from us — not from the news. Join the waitlist.