Dear guests: guest houses are preparing for large—scale legalization
Starting from January 1, 2026, the requirements for guest houses will be tightened throughout the country — those that have not been included in the profile register by that date will not be able to be hosted on aggregators and receive guests. A new regulation allowing such accommodation facilities to operate has so far been introduced in 18 subjects participating in the experiment. This means that in other regions they remain outside the legal field, the Ministry of Energy explained to Izvestia. In mid—December, it became known that the list of pilot regions would be expanded with four more - from September 1, 2026, the republics of Adygea and Buryatia, Nizhny Novgorod and Astrakhan regions would join it. How preparations are underway for an important date in the experiment area and how the innovations will affect tourists and market participants across the country — in the Izvestia article.
Two weeks left
Starting from January 1, 2026, travel agents and online booking services will promote only those facilities that are in the unified register, the Ministry of Economic Development recalled. It will be necessary to indicate the assigned identification number of the facility and a link to an entry in the register of the Federal Accreditation Service. Tour operators will also only work with guest houses from the registry. The rest will not be able to legally provide services.
At the time of writing, there are 3,698 guest houses in the Unified Register of Objects classified in the field of the tourism industry. According to the Ministry of Economic Development, the experiment may cover from 6 thousand to 10 thousand such facilities. The forecast is based on regional estimates and data from tourist accommodation booking sites.
At the same time, according to experts, it is necessary to expand the experiment to other regions of Russia. Several tour operators have reported that they are shutting down off-register guest houses from sale, regardless of where they are located. And aggregators will be forced to do it. The Ministry of Economic Development stressed that the provision of accommodation services in ordinary individual residential buildings does not meet the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation.
— The experiment allows the provision of guest house services in residential buildings. This is a fundamentally new regulation. Before the start of the experiment in the regions where it is not carried out, such activities are still illegal," the agency explained to Izvestia.
The Ministry of Energy added that the regions are doing a lot of work to inform their residents — owners of guest houses about the procedure for inclusion in the register, Rosaccreditation has issued detailed instructions on the procedure for classification, the hotlines of the regions and Rosaccreditation are operating 24/7.
"The experiment involves administrative units with the largest number of guest houses, in the process various nuances and difficulties are revealed, and regional authorities are involved in the process of collecting such problems and helping to solve them,— said Oksana Bulakh, commercial director of the Alean tour operator.
According to Alexander Bragin, director of the Association of Travel Aggregators (ATAG), aggregators are actively preparing to launch an experiment on the classification of guest houses.
— The technical aspects of system integration are being adjusted so that the data from the official registry and online booking platforms are synchronized correctly. Here we are guided by recent experience with the classification of hotels. Aggregators have also launched information campaigns for the owners of guest houses — they talk about the nuances of the new rules, provide guides and other useful materials," he added.
Currently, the experiment on the provision of guest house services includes 18 territories. This:
From square footage to accounting
The Ministry of Economic Development reminded that in order to include their home in the register, the owner of the facility must log in to the Hospitality service on the Rosaccreditation website and fill in the information about the facility. "Before proceeding with the procedure, we recommend rechecking and updating the data in the Unified State Register of Real Estate (USRN): it is from there that the basic information for self—assessment is taken, manual data entry is minimized," the department added.
The minimum requirements for guest houses are set out in the regulations on their classification developed by the Ministry of Economic Development. For example, a building should have no more than 15 rooms for guests, and at the same time it can accommodate no more than 45 people. The minimum area of a room for one person should be at least 9 square meters, a double room — at least 12 square meters. The guest house should be equipped with fire systems and ventilation. Clients should be provided with regular room cleaning, change of linen and towels, and Internet access.
Some issues are still being resolved. For example, guest houses will have to pay a tourist tax if it is introduced in the region where they are located.
Earlier, the Russian Union of Travel Industry reported that the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Internal Affairs are discussing the issue of transferring data on guest houses to law enforcement officers. Other accommodation facilities have this obligation.
"I see no reason why guest houses that are direct participants in the tourism industry should be exempt from this burden in the form of registration of residents," said Georgy Mokhov, Vice President of the PCT, General Director of Persona Grata Law Firm.
According to him, given the number and popularity of guest houses, it would be strange if they were outside the migration and registration system.
Who won't pass and where will they go
During the experiment, it turns out that many houses do not meet the requirements, Dmitry Bogdanov, head of the board of the AMOS hoteliers Association, told the publication.
— First of all, according to the documents on the land, on the legal side. Some owners have two or more houses, but only one can be entered into the registry. Someone needs to solve issues with fire safety, with software for submitting data to the Federal Migration Service and internal affairs agencies," he explained.
Experts often point out that a guest house is serviced by one or more people, and there may not be enough resources to meet all the requirements.
According to Dmitry Bogdanov, some of the facilities will be forced to enter the daily rental market, which is still less regulated by law.
— This does not mean that they will go into a gray area, just a different format of legal registration. As a rule, people receive money from customers and pay taxes, but these are not hotels or guest houses, but daily rental housing," he explained.
However, according to him, there are many facilities, especially in the Krasnodar Territory, that operate only during the season. So some of the market participants plan to open closer to the summer, so for now they are refraining from undergoing self-assessment, intending to do this in April-May and open just before the high season.
In total, according to various sources, there are 5-8 thousand in the Krasnodar Territory. guest houses listed in the registry at the time of writing — 1990.
"I predict a decrease in the number of such facilities by 30-50%, since not all owners will undergo a self—assessment and meet the requirements for land, property and the absence of demolition decisions," said Managing partner of the Law Firm Matyunina and Partners and head of the Public Reception of the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs in Moscow on violations and crimes in the field of economic activity. Oleg Matyunin.
A powerful competitor
The true picture of the market will be shown by the figures after January 1. Based on how many objects will be registered in the register, it will be possible to conclude who will start paying the tourist tax after the New Year, Dmitry Bogdanov said.
At the same time, according to him, hoteliers note that the daily rental market has become a very powerful competitor: the list of requirements from the state is minimal, which allows offering low prices, investing less in security issues, accounting.
Oleg Matyunin believes that switching to short-term rental housing (without classification as a guest house) is formally possible, but risky and may qualify as circumvention of the law.
— If the rental disguises the services of the guest house (and in fact, for example, bed linen is changed, cleaning is carried out by the owner, etc.), this entails heavy fines under the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation — Article 14.39 "Violation of the requirements of the legislation on the provision of accommodation facilities", plus the initiation of criminal proceedings under art. 171 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Illegal entrepreneurship"), — the lawyer explained.
Speaking about the facilities that are located in regions where the experiment has not yet been conducted, Oleg Matyunin stressed that the owners can work as individuals in the field of rental housing, but without accommodation services and with mandatory registration of tenants at their place of residence.
— Practice shows that in such regions it is better to formalize an individual entrepreneur and rent daily, signing lease agreements in order to avoid accusations of illegal entrepreneurship, — he specified.
What should tourists do?
The Ministry of Economic Development added that based on the results of monitoring the effects of the experiment, decisions will be made to extend it to the entire territory of the country.
In any case, according to experts, it is too early to evaluate it.
— In many regions participating in the experiment, the necessary regulations have been adopted recently. Before their adoption, it was impossible to enter the federal register, so now the dynamics of classifying guest houses is increasing," explained Alexander Bragin. — Those who do not make it on time will probably try to do it after January 1. The aggregators will close reservations in such facilities, but as soon as they enter the registry, the system will update the data and reservations will resume. We assume that in any case, tourists will still have a wide choice.
As Oksana Bulakh noted, this law is a natural continuation of the work on legalizing the industry and bringing all participants to uniform rules: hotels have long had a classification, while guest houses, which in some regions account for more than 50% of the total number of rooms, had nothing of the kind.
At the same time, Alexander Bragin is confident that bookings made before January 1 will not burn out and tourists will be able to go on a trip.
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