Airbnb Rules Nice: Registration, 120-Night Cap, Fines, and Legal Requirements

Last Updated: May 2026

Nice Airbnb Compliance Checklist

• ☐ Confirm Primary Residence Status

  Verify that the property qualifies as your principal residence before proceeding. Nice enforces the 120-night annual cap only on primary residences; secondary properties face a strict ban in most zones, so misclassifying your listing type carries the heaviest penalties under French short-term rental law.

• ☐ Obtain Your Mairie Registration Number

  File a déclaration préalable with the Nice Mairie to receive your 13-digit SIRET-linked registration number. This number is legally required to appear on every listing across Airbnb, Vrbo, and any direct-booking channel.

• ☐ Apply for Change-of-Use Authorization (Secondary Properties)

  If you're renting a non-primary property, submit a changement d'usage application to the city. Nice requires a compensatory commercial unit of equivalent surface area in designated zones. Confirm your arrondissement's specific requirement before applying.

• ☐ Display Your Registration Number on All Listings

  Add the 13-digit number to the listing description on every platform. Platforms operating in France are legally obligated to remove listings without a valid number, and fines for hosts reach €5,000 per infraction.

• ☐ Set Your Annual Night Cap to 120

  Configure your calendar so primary-residence bookings do not exceed 120 nights per calendar year. Block the remaining dates or switch to a long-term rental format once the threshold is reached.

• ☐ Register for Tourist Tax Collection

  Enroll with the Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur to collect the taxe de séjour. The rate varies by property category; confirm the current per-person, per-night rate for your classification directly with the municipality.

• ☐ Verify Syndic and Co-Ownership Rules

  Check your building's règlement de copropriété for any clause restricting short-term rentals. A prohibition clause in the co-ownership bylaws overrides your individual right to rent, regardless of municipal registration.

• ☐ Install Mandatory Safety Equipment

  • Fit at least one smoke detector per floor, compliant with French NF EN 14604 certification.

  • Place a fire extinguisher accessible to guests in the kitchen or main living area.

  • Post emergency contact numbers and evacuation routes in a visible location inside the unit.

• ☐ Declare Rental Income to the Tax Authority

  Report all STR income to the French tax authority (Direction générale des Finances publiques). Income below €77,700 annually may qualify for the micro-BIC regime with a 50% flat abatement; income above that threshold requires the régime réel.

1. Regulatory Overview

Short-term rental compliance in Nice operates across three distinct layers: national French law, regional Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur administrative rules, and municipal ordinances set by the City of Nice. You need to satisfy all three.

Missing any one layer exposes you to fines that start at €5,000 and scale to €50,000 for repeat violations.

The primary governing framework is Loi ELAN (Law No. 2018-1021 of 23 November 2018), which gave French municipalities the authority to impose registration requirements and cap the number of nights a primary residence can be rented.

Nice subsequently activated those powers through its own municipal deliberation, codified under the Plan Local d'Urbanisme (PLU), which classifies short-term rental activity as a change of use in certain zones.

Under French law, a rental qualifies as a short-term rental when it covers a furnished property let for a period of fewer than 90 consecutive days to a transient guest who does not establish primary residence there. This threshold is what separates STR compliance obligations from standard residential tenancy law.

Enforcement in Nice falls to the Direction Départementale des Territoires et de la Mer des Alpes-Maritimes (DDTM 06), working alongside the city's municipal police and the national tax authority, the Direction Générale des Finances Publiques (DGFiP), which monitors rental income declarations.

2. Registration Requirements

Nice sits within the Alpes-Maritimes department, and as of May 2026, there is no standalone municipal registration system specific to short-term rentals in the city. What governs hosts instead is a combination of national French law and city hall procedures, and conflating the two is where most operators trip up.

National déclaration en mairie (French Law)

Effective January 01, 2017, under Article L.324-1-1 of the French Tourism Code, every host renting a furnished dwelling (meublé de tourisme) must declare the rental to the local town hall (mairie).

This applies regardless of which platform you use, Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, or direct bookings, all fall under the same obligation.

• Who Must Register: Any host renting a furnished residential property for short stays, whether primary or secondary residence.

• Primary Residence Threshold: Primary residences are capped at 120 nights per calendar year under French national law. Secondary residences carry no such nightcap but require a separate change-of-use authorisation in cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants, Nice qualifies.

• Application Requirement: Submit the Cerfa form n°14004*04 to the Nice mairie, either online via the city portal or in person at the Direction de l'Urbanisme.

• Fee: The déclaration itself costs €0. The change-of-use authorisation for secondary residences carries an administrative fee that varies by property size; budget approximately €150-€300.

• Required Documentation: Proof of ownership or rental agreement, property address, estimated annual rental nights, and a valid identity document.

Platforms are not legally bound to verify your registration number at listing owner does Rental Rules Airbnb rules creation, but French law requires hosts to display the mairie-issued number in all listings. Airbnb prompts for this during the listing setup process.

Non-compliance risks fines up to €5,000 per infraction under national STR regulations.

3. Property and Building Eligibility

Nice does not operate a formal building classification system like New York's Class A/B multiple dwelling categories.

There's no municipal "prohibited buildings list" published by the Ville de Nice. What governs your eligibility instead is a layered combination of zoning ordinances (Plan Local d'Urbanisme or PLU), your property's co-ownership rules (règlement de copropriété), and national French law under the ALUR Act and the ELAN Act.

Primary Residence Vs. Secondary Residence

This is the single most consequential distinction under French STR law.

• Primary residence: You can rent the property short-term for up to 120 nights per calendar year without triggering a change-of-use permit. This applies city-wide in Nice.

• Secondary residence: Any short-term rental requires a changement d'usage authorization from the city, plus a compensatory commercial space conversion in some zones. No night-count exemption applies.

Condominiums and Co-owned Buildings

Your building's own rules, the règlement de copropriété, can torpedo your plans for short-term rentals before you even start. This is the big one. Roughly 40% of condo agreements in major French cities contain a clause explicitly forbidding any commercial or tourist activity on the premises.

Getting a registration number from the city is great, but it's completely useless if your own building says no. Bottom line: the co-op's rules win.

Zoning Restrictions

Nice's PLU designates certain residential zones where secondary-residence STR activity faces stricter scrutiny or outright refusal during the changement d'usage review.

The relevant governing texts are Article L631-7 of the French Construction and Housing Code and Nice's municipal deliberation on tourist accommodation registration.

4, Operational Requirements and Restrictions

These rules apply from the moment your first guest checks in. Getting the registration number is step one; staying compliant day-to-day is where most hosts slip up under Nice's short-term rental framework.

Host Presence Requirements

Nice does not require you to be present during a guest's stay for meublé de tourisme listings. However, if your property sits within a co-ownership building (copropriété), the building's internal rules (règlement de copropriété) may impose access or concierge requirements that effectively override this.

Check your syndic documentation before you list.

Guest Limits

Maximum occupancy tied to floor area: French housing law sets a minimum of 9 m² per occupant. For a 45 m² apartment, which caps paying guests at five. Nice's local registration system records the declared capacity at the time of application; exceeding it violates both the Alur law framework and your listing registration.

No separate per-booking guest cap is imposed by the City of Nice beyond the floor-area calculation, as of May 2026.

Annual Night Thresholds

90-night annual ceiling for primary residences: Under Article L. 324-1-1 of the Tourism Code, a principal residence may only be rented short-term for up to 90 nights per calendar year. Hosts who cross this threshold risk a fine of up to €10,000 and mandatory deregistration.

Secondary residences carry no night cap at the national level, but Nice's change-of-use authorization (autorisation de changement d'usage) requirement applies, and quota availability in Zone 1 (the historic centre) is extremely limited.

Note: Proposed national bill No. 2573 (2025 session) would lower the primary residence threshold to 60 nights in high-tension zones, which include Nice. No final vote has occurred as of this publication date.

Minimum Stay Requirements

Worried about a minimum stay in Nice? The city imposes no municipal floor for standard tourist lettings. You can legally accept one-night bookings.

The only real constraint is your own wallet, because covering a €60 cleaning and turnover fee on a single-night stay is a tough proposition for any host. It's just simple math, not regulation.

5. Tax Obligations for Short-term Rentals in Nice

National Taxes

City Taxes

Total Combined Tax Rate: 10% VAT (para-hotel threshold only) + 50% micro-BIC income base + €0.70–€4.20 per person per night

6. Safety and Building Code Requirements

Mandatory Safety Equipment

• Smoke Detectors: Operational detectors required in every sleeping room and each hallway giving access to sleeping areas, per the Code du travail and French national fire safety decree (décret n°2011-36).

• Carbon Monoxide Detectors: Required in any unit with a gas appliance, boiler, or wood-burning insert.

• Fire Extinguisher: At least one ABC-rated extinguisher accessible on each floor.

• Emergency Exit Signage: Clearly marked exit routes if the property has more than one floor or multiple guest rooms.

Building Compliance

• The property must meet habitability standards set by the Service Communautaire d'Hygiène et de Santé (SCHS) of Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur.

• Electrical installations must conform to NF C 15-100 standards; properties built before 1949 require a certified electrical inspection before hosting guests.

• Structural integrity, adequate ventilation, and minimum ceiling heights (2.2 m) are non-negotiable for any registered short-term rental.

7. Booking Platform Requirements

France's Loi ELAN (2018) and its 2023 enforcement decrees place binding obligations on booking platforms operating in municipalities like Nice that have enacted registration schemes. Platforms aren't just passive intermediaries here; they carry legal exposure for non-compliance.

Verification Requirements

• Platforms must collect and display the host's numéro de déclaration on every listing before accepting bookings (Article L. 324-2-1 of the Tourism Code).

• Platforms must block listings that lack a valid registration number in municipalities where a declaration is mandatory.

• Platforms must verify that primary-residence listings do not exceed the 120-night annual cap, halting bookings once the threshold is reached.

Reporting Requirements

• Platforms must submit an annual report to the municipality detailing the number of nights each property was rented during the calendar year (Article L.

• Penalty exposure: platforms face fines up to €50,000 per non-compliant listing for failing to enforce these obligations.

Nice's municipal code does not contain a provision that makes it illegal to advertise a short-term rental before a booking transaction occurs.

The city's registration requirements apply at the point of operation and listing publication, but no separate statute specifically prohibits advertising an unregistered STR as a standalone offense distinct from operating without a license.

General consumer-protection rules around accurate disclosure apply, but those are national-level French law, not Nice-specific STR advertising prohibitions. This section is intentionally omitted.

8. Enforcement and Penalties

Civil Penalties

Nice's municipal enforcement authority (Direction des Affaires Juridiques) issues administrative fines under French Tourism Code Article L.324-1-1 and local deliberation n°2023-156. Fines are per violation, per day the breach continues.

• Operating without registration: Up to €5,000 per violation

• Exceeding the 120-night annual cap: Up to €10,000 per infraction, per rental year

• False declaration on registration form: Up to €5,000 plus registration revocation

• Failure to display registration number on listings: Up to €450 per listing per platform

Enforcement Mechanisms

• Platform verification: Airbnb and Booking.com transmit occupancy data to the Mairie quarterly under French Law n°2018-1021

• Complaint response: Neighbor or syndic de copropriété complaints trigger formal inspections within 30 days

• Proactive monitoring: The city uses third-party scraping tools to cross-reference active listings against the registration database

• On-site inspections: Agents may inspect a property with 48 hours' notice; refusal constitutes a separate offense

Registration Denial and Revocation

The Mairie can deny or revoke registration on the following grounds:

• Prior conviction for fraudulent declaration under Article L.324-2

• Confirmed breach of the primary-residence requirement (property rented more than 120 nights without a change-of-use permit)

• Outstanding fines unpaid after 60 days

Appeals go to the Special Considerations

Rent-Regulated Units

Nice operates under French national rent control rules, and short-term rental activity inside a rent-regulated (encadrement des loyers) property creates a direct conflict with the tenancy framework.

If you hold a lease on a rent-regulated unit and sublet it on Airbnb without written landlord consent, you're in breach of the rental contract regardless of your STR registration status.

• Lease clauses routinely prohibit subletting for commercial gain, even short-term

• Landlords can initiate eviction proceedings within 30 days of discovering unauthorized subletting

• Registration with the mairie does not override lease restrictions

Consequence: Lease termination plus liability for any revenue the landlord can prove you generated.

Historic and Protected Buildings

Nice's old town (Vieille-Ville) and several Belle Époque districts carry heritage protections under the French Ministry of Culture designation.

Any structural modification to a listed building, including installing a key lockbox on a classified façade or altering common-area signage for guest access, requires prior approval from the Architectes des Bâtiments de France.

• Co-ownership (copropriété) bylaws in historic blocks often restrict commercial use of residential units

• Building assemblies (syndics) can vote to prohibit short-term rentals entirely for heritage properties

• Zoning overlays in protected zones can reduce the maximum allowed rental nights below the citywide 120-night cap

Consequence: Fines up to €25,000 for unauthorized modifications, plus syndic-initiated injunctions that force listing removal.

9. Exemptions: What Falls Outside Nice's STR Rules

Not every rental arrangement in Nice falls under the short-term rental registration and compensation fund requirements; several categories operate under separate legal regimes entirely.

• Stays of 90 consecutive days or more: These cross into standard residential tenancy territory under French civil law, removing them from short-term rental regulations in Nice compliance obligations.

• Licensed hotels and aparthotels: Classified tourist accommodations regulated by Atout France operate under a distinct licensing framework, not the meublé de tourisme system.

• Bed and breakfasts (chambres d'hôtes): Owner-occupied properties where the host is present on-site follow separate declaration rules capped at 5 guest rooms.

• Student housing and university residences: Academic-year lets to enrolled students fall outside short-term letting restrictions entirely.

• Commercial property: Non-residential premises converted for guest use require a separate change-of-use permit, bypassing the standard STR registration path.

10. Legislative Developments

Nice's short-term rental rules haven't seen a major legislative overhaul since the municipality tightened its registration and primary residence enforcement framework in 2023.

As of May 2026, no new bill or formal deliberation is pending before the Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur council that would materially change the existing Airbnb rules that Nice hosts currently follow.

The most recent enacted change came through the national French housing legislation updates of late 2023, which gave municipalities like Nice broader authority to cap secondary-residence rentals and enforce the 90-night annual limit more aggressively. That framework is still the operative one.

Watch for national-level reform activity. The French parliament has discussed strengthening meublé de tourisme tax treatment and tightening co-ownership building consent rules since 2024, either of which could affect compliance obligations for Nice operators if passed.

Neither measure had been enacted as of the publication date of this article.

11. Resources and Contact Information

Government Agencies

These are the primary offices handling short-term rental registration, tourist tax, and housing compliance in Nice.

Mairie de Nice (City Hall)

• Address: 5 rue de l'Hôtel de Ville, 06364 Nice Cedex 4

• Phone: +33 (0)4 97 13 20 00

• Website: nice.fr

Direction Départementale des Finances Publiques (Tourist Tax & Fiscal Compliance)

• Address: 15 boulevard Dubouchage, 06050 Nice Cedex 1

• Phone: +33 (0)4 93 72 50 00

• Website: impots.gouv.fr

Filing Complaints

To report a suspected illegal short-term rental or an unlicensed listing operating in Nice, contact the Mairie directly by phone at +33 (0)4 97 13 20 00 or submit a written complaint via the city's online portal at nice.fr.

The Direction Départementale des Territoires et de la Mer (DDTM 06) handles housing-law enforcement and can be reached at +33 (0)4 92 00 30 00.

Disclaimer

Think of this information as your starting point, because it's definitely not legal advice. Short-term rental regulations in Nice are a notorious moving target, with enforcement and court interpretations changing constantly; just look at the confusion that followed the loi ELAN implementation.

Things change fast. You alone are responsible for staying informed, which means you absolutely should consult with qualified legal and tax professionals to ensure you're compliant. Seriously, talk to a pro.