Most of what circulates about short-term letting in Guyana says that the rules are evolving, that they differ from place to place, and that you should ask your local council. That is wrong on all three counts, and wrongly reassuring. The obligation sits in an act of Parliament, it is national, and it has been worked out in regulations since 2008. If you let a property to visitors for money in Guyana, the starting point is that you need a license from the Guyana Tourism Authority.
What the statute actually says
The governing law is the Guyana Tourism Authority Act, Chapter 91:13, as consolidated in the 2012 revised edition of the Laws of Guyana and read on 24 October 2026. Two provisions decide the question.
First the definition. Section 2 defines tourist accommodation as an apartment, a hotel, a resort, a guest house, an eco-lodge, an inn or any other premises or place where accommodation is provided to tourist for reward. Read that last clause twice. It is not a list of hotel types that a spare apartment escapes; it is a catch-all that turns on two facts only — accommodation, and reward. A tourism business, in turn, is defined as the business of providing tourist accommodation, guest house or restaurant facilities and the other listed activities.
Then the prohibition. Section 32(1): No person shall operate any tourism business except under, and in accordance with a licence issued by the Authority. Section 32(3) attaches the penalty: a person who operates without one is guilty of an offense and liable on summary conviction to a fine of one million six hundred thousand dollars, with a further fine of eighty thousand dollars for each day the offense continues after conviction. Those are the figures printed in the Act, read on 24 October 2026.
The subsidiary legislation narrows the accommodation case further. The Guyana Tourism Authority (Tourism Accommodation Establishment) Regulations, Reg. 16 of 2008, made under section 44, define an establishment in regulation 2 as a hotel, apartment, a guest house or an inn. An apartment is named expressly.
The license year, the renewal date, and the sign-offs
Section 33 sets a calendar that catches people out. A license is valid from the date of issue to the 31st day of December of the year during which the licence was issued, and is renewable annually not later than the 31st day of January of each year. It is a calendar-year license, not a twelve-month one: issued in November, it expires at the end of December. Section 34 requires the license, or a certified copy, to be displayed in a conspicuous place at the principal place of business and at every branch.
Before a license is granted or renewed, section 35 requires the Authority to obtain and consider reports on the premises and on its plant and equipment from the Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Chief Environmental Health Officer, the Chief Fire Officer, the Director of the Authority and any other public officer the Authority considers desirable. Any of them may inspect the premises while an application is pending.
Regulation 4(2) goes further for accommodation and lists six agencies whose reports or certificates of conformity must be supplied before a license can be granted: the Environmental Protection Agency, the Chief Environmental Health Officer, the Chief Fire Officer, the Central Housing and Planning Authority or the relevant municipal council or local government authority, the National Insurance Scheme, and the Guyana Revenue Authority. A new business that cannot yet show compliance with the National Insurance Scheme and the revenue authority must supply its registration numbers for both. That is the real lead time on this project, and it is why starting with a booking calendar is the wrong way round.
The fees that are published, and the ones that are not
Regulation 5 sets the sequence: apply on the form in the Schedule with the application fee, an authorized officer inspects and reports any non-conformities, the applicant gets a period of forty days, or a period agreed upon with the Authority to put them right, a second inspection may follow, and only on completion does the applicant pay the license fee and receive the license.
The Schedule prints the amounts. Read on 24 October 2026 in the 2012 revised edition:
- Application fee: Application fee for an establishment shall be GY$2,000.00.
- License fee, by number of rooms: 1 to 15 rooms, GY$25,000; 16 to 30 rooms, GY$50,000; 31 to 60 rooms, GY$75,000; 61 to 100 rooms, GY$100,000; 101 rooms and above, GY$150,000.
- Submitted with the application: a copy of business registration; for a company, a copy of its memorandum or articles of association and certificate of registration; and the certificates of conformity from the agencies in regulation 4(2).
Now the honest part. Those are the figures as consolidated in 2012 from regulations made in 2008. We could not confirm what the Authority charges today, because its own website was unreachable when we measured it on 24 October 2026 and the Parliament of Guyana document server returned errors for the regulation files. So treat the amounts above as the published legal text and confirm the current schedule with the Authority before you budget. We are not going to print a figure we could not read.
The duties that continue for as long as you host
The regulations do not stop at the license. These obligations run continuously, and three of them surprise people who think of a listing as a private arrangement:
- Published rates. Regulation 11 requires the current rates for all categories of room or suite to be available in printed form at the reception area, including the rack rate for one person, the rack rate for more than one person, and the additional taxes or service charges that are payable.
- Reporting to the Authority. Regulation 12(2) requires the operator to provide any change in rack rates within one month, and to supply occupancy information monthly in a format the Authority stipulates.
- A guest register. Regulation 13 requires records of each guest's name, address and country of residence, nationality, arrival and departure dates and the room rate charged, with identification provided, and registration completed by a parent or guardian where the guest is under eighteen.
- Safety. Regulation 10 requires emergency procedures to be clearly displayed, after-hours procedures for summoning assistance to be made available, and a responsible person on call twenty four hours a day.
- Minimum requirements. Regulation 14 lists them item by item — among them a copy of the tariff in all bedrooms, disaster instructions displayed in each bedroom, a smoke detector in bedrooms, means of securing doors from inside and outside, a number on each bedroom door, first aid kits with trained personnel approved by the Authority, and a kitchen waste disposal system with grease traps.
Regulation 16 makes failure to comply with regulations 8, 9(3), 10, 11, 12, 13(1) and 15 an offense, liable on summary conviction to a fine of fifty thousand dollars. The Authority also reserves the right under regulation 6 to inspect any establishment at any reasonable time without prior notice.
Tax: what the Revenue Authority publishes, and what it does not
On income tax, the Guyana Revenue Authority publishes the structure, read on 24 October 2026: a deduction or free pay of GYD 780,000 or one-third of the individual's income earned on an annual basis, then 28 per cent on chargeable income below GYD 1,560,000 annually and 40 per cent above it, with employees' National Insurance contributions allowed as a deduction. The statutory references the Authority gives are section 20 of the Income Tax Act, Cap. 81:01, sections 36 and 36A for the rates, and section 16(1)(k) for the insurance deduction.
Two gaps in that source, both of which matter here. The Authority frames those figures as the assessment of Income Tax for the year 2020, which is its own wording, not ours. And the page defines income by reference to earnings through employment, trade or business; it says nothing specific about rental income and nothing about non-residents. If you are letting a property while living abroad, that is exactly the question, and it is not answered there. Put it to the Authority in writing.
On value-added tax, the Authority's VAT registration policy page — which carries its own date of 2 February 2026 and which we read on 24 October 2026 — puts mandatory registration at fifteen million Guyana dollars (G$15,000,000.00) of taxable activity, tested at the end of twelve months, earlier if the threshold is exceeded sooner, and also where activity is expected to exceed it in any period during the next twelve months. Under section 80(1) of the VAT Act, failing to apply when required carries a penalty equal to double the amount of output tax payable until an application is filed.
What we will not tell you is whether your lettings are a taxable supply. Whether short-term accommodation is standard-rated, zero-rated or exempt is decided by the schedules to the VAT Act, and we did not read them. Nor is there an accommodation tax or tourist levy in anything we read: the regulations require you to display the additional taxes or service charges that are payable, but they do not name one. Anyone who quotes you a tourist tax rate for Guyana should be asked which instrument it comes from.
What it costs to run, and what the long-term alternative asks
Before the income, the running costs. Electricity is the one that moves with occupancy. Guyana Power and Light's published residential tariff class A, as approved by the Public Utilities Commission and in force since 11 April 2021, is a standing charge of GYD 341.54 a month plus GYD 39.10 per kWh for consumption of 75 kWh or less, and a standing charge of GYD 351.04 plus GYD 43.43 per kWh above 75 kWh. The standing charge is billed whether or not any power is used. Note the class. That is the residential tariff; we did not find published guidance on whether a licensed establishment is billed residentially, and the answer changes your arithmetic, so ask the utility.
Internet is the other fixed line. The Public Utilities Commission's approved telecommunications rates, read on 3 July 2026, list One Communications fiber plans at GYD 8,399 a month for 20 Mbps, GYD 10,399 for 200 Mbps and GYD 11,399 for 300 Mbps.
And the comparison most hosts never make. Advertised asking rents for residential property from Century 21 Guyana, measured on 11 October 2026 across a sample of 20 listings ranging from USD 574 to USD 3,500 a month, give a 25th percentile of USD 1,500, a median of USD 2,000 and a 75th percentile of USD 2,500. Read those as asking prices from one agency's listings on a small sample, not as a market average — and read them as the opportunity cost. A long-term tenancy at the median asks nothing of you under the Tourism Authority Act. Short-term letting has to beat that number after the license, the six sign-offs, the monthly returns and the electricity.
What expats should know
- A license is compulsory, not advisable. Section 32(1) of Cap. 91:13 admits no threshold for small operators.
- The definition catches an apartment. Accommodation plus reward is the test, and regulation 2 names apartments expressly.
- Operating without a license is an offense carrying a fine of one million six hundred thousand dollars plus eighty thousand dollars a day after conviction.
- It is a calendar-year license expiring on 31 December, renewable by 31 January.
- Six agencies must sign off before issue under regulation 4(2). Start with them, not with the listing.
- The published fees are GY$2,000 to apply and from GY$25,000 for a license at 1 to 15 rooms — as printed in the 2012 revised edition. Confirm the current schedule.
- You owe the Authority monthly occupancy data and any rack-rate change within one month.
- Get your tax position in writing. The revenue authority's published income tax page does not address rental income or non-residents, and whether your lettings are a taxable supply for VAT is not something we could verify.
Where to check
The Act, the regulations and the fee schedule are in the Laws of Guyana, Chapter 91:13, in the 2012 revised edition published by the Ministry of Legal Affairs. The income tax figures are from the Guyana Revenue Authority's income tax pages and the registration threshold from its VAT registration policy. All read on 24 October 2026. The utility and rent figures are from our own reference data, with the source, measurement date and sample size given above. The Tourism Authority's own site was unreachable when we measured it, so confirm current fees and forms with the Authority directly before you apply.
AI-Generated Content: This article was created with AI assistance and may contain inaccuracies. Please verify important information with official sources.
