Rule one: the trade name and the permit number, on every advert
Dubai's holiday home bylaw is Administrative Resolution No. (1) of 2020, issued on 7 January 2020 under Decree No. (41) of 2013 and published on the Dubai Legislation Portal. Article 14 lists what a licensed operator must do. Item 12 says to use the approved trade name in all dealings with third parties. Item 13 says to include that trade name and the Permit number in all print and digital advertisements.
On a website that comes down to two habits. The company name in your header, footer, schema and Google profile is the exact name on your licence, not a shortened brand. Every unit page that offers a stay shows that unit's permit number in plain text.
Both habits help with AI too. An assistant deciding whether you are one company or several looks for a name that never changes. A permit number it can see beside the unit is one more fact that matches the regulator's record.
Rule two: describe the unit as licensed, never better
Item 14 of the same article says an operator must not promote, describe or advertise holiday homes in a misleading way. Under Article 15 every Dubai holiday home is classified as deluxe or standard, and the regulator issues a classification certificate for each one. That certificate is the ceiling for how you describe a unit.
The fines schedule makes it concrete. Executive Council Resolution No. (49) of 2014, issued on 7 December 2014, sets AED 1,000 for failing to give guests accurate and complete information about a holiday home and its classification, and AED 2,000 for charging guests extra for electricity and water. A repeat within a year doubles the fine, capped at AED 100,000.
The classification also changes the guest's bill. Airbnb's Dubai page puts the Tourism Dirham at AED 15 a night for each occupied deluxe bedroom and AED 10 for each occupied standard bedroom (Airbnb Help Center, Responsible hosting in Dubai). So a standard unit sold as deluxe is wrong in the copy and wrong on the invoice.
Rule three: in Abu Dhabi, no licence means no listing
Under the rules reported by Gulf News on 15 September 2026 and The National on 17 September 2026, a holiday home in Abu Dhabi cannot be listed on any website or digital platform without a valid DCT Abu Dhabi licence, and the licence number has to be shown on the listing page. Gulf News adds that tenants and people the owner authorises can now qualify as licensed operators.
That is a website rule as much as a platform rule. If your own site lists an Abu Dhabi unit, its page carries the licence number. If the licence is still being processed, the unit does not go up yet, on your site or anywhere else.
Sharjah licenses holiday homes through the Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority, under a framework it launched in 2022 (Gulf News, 14 August 2022). We could not find a current, readable Sharjah fee or display schedule online, so we confirm the listing details with the authority before a Sharjah unit goes on a client's site.
Owners are consumers too
Most operators read these rules as guest rules. The federal Consumer Protection Law, Federal Law No. 15 of 2020, reaches further. Its consumer is any person who obtains a service, and on that plain wording an owner who hires a manager is one. Article 17 forbids describing a service with incorrect data or in a misleading advertisement.
The law's own definition of a misleading advertisement includes leaving out essential information that would have changed the decision. For an owner, that is the cost of linen, deep cleans or maintenance that sits outside your percentage. A fee page that names the exclusions is the safe page.
It also rules out the income pitch. A page that promises an owner a monthly figure, an occupancy rate or a yield is a claim you would need to stand behind. Publish the ranges you have actually achieved, dated, with the area and the unit type, and say that past results do not set future ones.
Article 26 adds that data, advertisements and contracts for consumers are to be made in Arabic, with other languages allowed in addition. Plenty of owners read in English, so we keep the English and the Arabic versions saying the same thing.
What the rules change, page by page
An operator site written to these rules has fewer adjectives and more numbers. Each number is one a regulator issued or one you can show.
Unit pages
Licensed trade name, permit or licence number, classification, maximum occupancy, what the price includes. Photos of the unit as it is today.
Owner fee page
Your percentage, what it covers, every cost outside it, the notice period. No projected earnings.
Guest terms
Every charge agreed before the stay, since Article 14 item 7 bars charging guests anything beyond what the contract says.
Review replies
Answer the point without naming the guest or their booking. Article 14 item 23 bars disclosing guest information except to the authorities named in the bylaw.
Creator stays
If you host a content creator for promotion, ask to see their Advertiser Permit before the stay.
The facts a regulator demands are the facts an assistant repeats
When an owner asks who should manage a Business Bay apartment, the assistant reaches for facts it can check. A licensed trade name. A permit number. A classification. A fee band with the exclusions spelled out. Those are the facts the Dubai bylaw and the federal law already ask you to publish.
The lines the rules discourage, such as a guaranteed income or a five star promise on a standard unit, are lines a model has no way to confirm. It drops them. So the careful operator gives up nothing in the answer and keeps everything on the page.
This is what we write to, not legal advice. Rules change and they change quickly, so check the current rules with your regulator.
