Registering Your Short-Term Rental in French-Speaking Switzerland: Valais vs Vaud, the Difference That Matters

“What is my registration number?” The question comes up at almost every first meeting with an owner about to put their chalet or apartment on the short-term rental market. The answer tends to throw people: in Switzerland, there is no unified registration number - not at federal level, and not even canton-wide. Your obligations do not run through a single desk. They depend on the canton and, very often, on the municipality where your property sits. Between Valais and the canton of Vaud, the underlying logic is not remotely the same - to the point that an owner with one apartment in Verbier and another in Villars-sur-Ollon is dealing with two genuinely separate regimes.

The reflex that wastes the most time: applying French or EU rules

Many owners arrive with what they have read online front of mind: the European regulation on short-term rentals, in force since 20 May 2026, which imposes a registration number, or the French “Le Meur” law. These texts share one essential feature: they do not apply in Switzerland. Neither mechanism has a federal equivalent here. Hunting for your Swiss “registration number” means hunting for something that does not exist.

This is by far the most common confusion, and it costs twice over: it wastes time, and - more seriously - it creates the illusion of compliance while the real obligations, which are municipal, have gone unmet.

Valais: everything happens at municipal level

The Valais framework rests on the 1996 cantonal tourism act and its 2014 implementing ordinance, supplemented by municipal regulations. The key point: the cantonal law sets the frame, but the landlord’s concrete obligations are set by the municipality. There is no centralised declaration covering the canton as a whole.

In practice, a Valais owner letting on a short-term basis generally has to:

• register with their municipality or the local tourist office;
• declare overnight stays, usually on a monthly basis;
• collect the tourist tax from guests and pass it on.

The devil is in the detail, and the detail changes from one resort to the next.

Zermatt. Zermatt Tourismus is responsible for levying the tourist tax and draws up the statement on the basis of the municipal housing register, in accordance with the municipal tourist tax regulation. Put differently, your property is already known to the municipality: the accounting does not rest solely on your goodwill as a declarant. We set out how this works on our page covering the rules in Zermatt.

Verbier and Val de Bagnes. The municipality adopted its own tourist tax regulation in 2021. Overnight stays are declared monthly through the tools provided by the tourist office, and the tax amounts to 4 francs per adult per night. The practical steps are laid out on our page on a landlord’s obligations in Verbier.

Crans-Montana, Icogne and Lens. These three municipalities apply a joint regulation, adopted on 16 December 2024 and approved by the Conseil d’État on 30 April 2025. The direct consequence for owners: the tax rose from 3 to 5 francs per person per overnight stay as of 1 May 2025. In return, it gives your guests access to the My Explorer Card - a selling point it would be a shame not to feature in your listing. The details are explained on our page about the tourist tax in Crans-Montana.

Elsewhere in Valais - Nendaz, Saas-Fee, Veysonnaz, Ovronnaz - the general mechanics are comparable, but the amounts, the declaration tools and the people you deal with all differ. There is no shortcut: your own municipal regulation is what governs.

Vaud: a genuine cantonal law, with municipal enforcement

The canton of Vaud took a different route. Since the revision of the LEAE (the act on the exercise of economic activities) came into force on 1 July 2022, obligations are written into a cantonal text:

• register with the municipal authorities before the first overnight stay (art. 4a and 74c). This is not a formality to be sorted out afterwards: the notification must precede the first guest’s arrival;
• keep a guest register (art. 74c para. 3 and 4);
• on the authorities’ side, municipalities keep a register of landlords (art. 74d).

Enforcement therefore remains municipal, but the obligation itself is cantonal - that is the fundamental difference from Valais.

The 90-day rule: the point almost everyone gets wrong

This is the most talked-about rule, and the most widely misunderstood. The principle: anyone who was letting a dwelling on a traditional basis and wishes to let it through a platform for more than 90 days per calendar year must obtain authorisation for a change of use (art. 15 RLPPPL).

But - and this is decisive - the rule only applies in districts affected by the housing shortage, and those districts are listed in a Conseil d’État order that is reissued every single year.

The order of 17 December 2025, valid for 2026, provides that the LPPPL applies:

• in full in six districts: Gros-de-Vaud, Lausanne, Lavaux-Oron, Morges, Ouest lausannois and Riviera-Pays-d’Enhaut;
• in a lighter form in three districts: Broye-Vully, Jura-Nord vaudois and Nyon;
• and not, as regards its Title II, in the district of Aigle.

Translated into owner’s terms: there is no 90-day limit in Villars-sur-Ollon in 2026 - the resort belongs to the municipality of Ollon, in the district of Aigle - whereas that limit does apply on the Vaud Riviera. Two properties less than an hour’s drive apart, in the same canton, are therefore not subject to the same regime. This is precisely one of the points we check with owners in Villars-sur-Ollon and on the Vaud Riviera alike.

One caveat, though: because the order is reissued annually, the status of the district of Aigle could change in 2027. It is not a settled entitlement but an annual snapshot. Before any long-term commitment - a purchase, a major renovation, a management mandate - check the order in force for the year concerned.

The exemptions from authorisation

Even in a district where the LPPPL applies in full, authorisation for a change of use is not always required. Art. 3 LPPPL sets out several exemptions, including:

• a dwelling last occupied by the owner or by a close relative;
• a building containing no more than two dwellings;
• a dwelling with a net habitable floor area of 150 m² or more.

Plenty of Vaud second homes fall into one of these categories without their owner realising it. Checking before giving up on renting out avoids needlessly hobbling a perfectly lettable property.

Tourist tax and subletting: two Vaud points not to miss

In the canton of Vaud, the tourist tax falls within municipal competence: amounts and arrangements therefore vary from one municipality to the next. The Union des communes vaudoises has also concluded an agreement with Airbnb to facilitate collection, which lightens the landlord’s workload - without exempting them from checking what their own municipality expects.

Finally, a useful reminder even though it does not concern owners directly: a tenant wishing to sublet on a short-term basis must obtain the prior consent of their landlord (art. 262 CO, art. 22 RULV). If you let your property on a year-round lease, the decision is yours.

The takeaway

There is no such thing as a “Swiss declaration” for short-term rentals. In Valais, you register with your municipality or tourist office, declare your overnight stays and pass on the tourist tax in line with the local regulation. In the canton of Vaud, you notify your municipality before the first overnight stay, keep a guest register, and check each year whether your district is caught by the 90-day limit. The rest - European registration numbers, the Le Meur law - belongs to a legal system other than ours.

This information is provided as guidance only: municipal regulations and cantonal orders evolve, and only your municipality can confirm what applies to your property. This is exactly the kind of verification we take on as part of our rental management service, which covers registration, overnight-stay statements and tourist tax follow-up.

Not sure which regime applies to your property? Our free owner audit reviews your obligations and your revenue potential within 24 hours.