Letting short-term in Nendaz: regulations and permits

In Valais there is no registration number: there is a municipality

This is the first misunderstanding to clear up, and it costs owners a great deal of time. There is no unified cantonal registration number in Valais, unlike the practice in certain European cities or in other jurisdictions where a listing must display an official identifier. Searching for "the Valais Airbnb registration number" is a dead end: there is none.

The real framework lies elsewhere, and it has three tiers. At federal level, the Lex Weber governs the designated use of second homes. At cantonal level, the Tourism Act of 9 February 1996 and its ordinance of 10 December 2014 establish the tourist taxes and entrust their collection to the municipalities. At municipal level - and this is where everything is decided in practice - the municipality of Nendaz has adopted its own regulation on the tourist tax, in force since 1 November 2025, which sets the rates, the tourist zoning, the declaration procedures, the checks and the penalties.

In other words: in Nendaz, your counterpart is neither the canton nor a platform, it is the municipality of Nendaz and its tourist office. We have devoted a whole article to the contrast between the Valais model and the Vaud model, which works on a completely different logic: declaring your short-term rental in Valais and in the canton of Vaud.

Your three practical obligations as a landlord owner

Once the framework is set, the day-to-day life of a landlord owner in Nendaz comes down to three obligations, which follow one another in this order.

First, notify. Before the property is first let, the host makes himself known to the municipal authority and the tourist office. This notification is not a matter of courtesy: it is what allows the municipality to know that a property is being operated, to determine the applicable tax regime and to send you the declaration documents. Without it, you are invisible - until the day you no longer are.

Second, declare the overnight stays. The municipal regulation requires professional hosts and rental agencies to report to the municipality every month the number of actual overnight stays and their country of origin, by the 10th of the following month. For a holiday-accommodation host, reporting takes place over a longer period, in agreement with the municipality, but at least twice a year, by 10 May and 10 November. This data feeds the destination's tourism statistics as much as the calculation of the tax.

Third, collect the tourist tax from the guest, then remit it. This is the point most often misunderstood: the tax is not a cost borne by the owner, it is a tax owed by the guest - but whoever provides the accommodation is responsible for collecting it and paying it over to the collecting body, failing which he is personally liable. If you have not charged it to the guest, the municipality will still claim it from you. Rates by zone, the annual flat rate for second homes and the detailed procedure are covered in our full guide to the tourist tax in Nendaz.

Not notifying costs more than notifying

Many second-home owners in Nendaz let for a few weeks a year, "among friends" or through a platform, without ever having informed the municipality. The reasoning seems risk-free: no one will come and check. That is less and less true.

The municipal regulation gives the municipality explicit powers: it is entitled to carry out checks on the regularity of payments of the tourist tax, and responsible for verifying the occupancy and use of holiday accommodation - owners and tenants being unable to object to such checks. The regulation further provides that, where the necessary information or payment is not provided, the municipal council proceeds, after an unsuccessful formal reminder, to an assessment by default, the costs of which are borne by the debtor, and which is equivalent to an enforceable judgment within the meaning of the Federal Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act. A fine under the cantonal Tourism Act may be added.

The real risk is therefore not symbolic: it is a retroactive recovery covering the years during which the property was let without being declared. On a second home let over several seasons, the bill bears no comparison with the cost of simply becoming compliant. The good news is that regularisation is almost always straightforward when it is initiated voluntarily.

Second homes: choosing the right tax regime

Nendaz has a very high proportion of second homes, often occupied only a few weeks a year. The municipal regulation provides a particular regime for them, and the interaction between the two possible regimes is the resort's real regulatory point of vigilance.

On one side, the annual flat rate: an owner liable for the tax who occupies the property himself pays a lump sum, calculated on the gross floor area of the property, on its tourist zone and on an average occupancy of 50 nights per year. This flat rate covers every night spent in the property - his own, those of his family, his guests and his occasional tenants. On the other side, the per-night tax: holiday accommodation let exclusively on a commercial basis is not subject to the annual flat rate, but its owner must produce any supporting document proving the exclusively commercial use of the property.

Between the two lies the most common situation: mixed use. You come for a week in February, lend the chalet to relatives at Easter, and let it for the rest of the season. That is entirely legitimate - but you need to know which regime applies, to notify the municipality, and to be able to document it. A vague file generally ends up costing the annual flat rate on top of the tax already collected from guests.

Lex Weber in Nendaz: a question of designated use, not prohibition

The federal act on second homes, known as the Lex Weber, caps the share of second homes per municipality at 20%. Nendaz far exceeds that threshold: the construction of new "classic" second homes has therefore been frozen there since 2013. For an owner, the first consequence is economic: supply is structurally limited, which supports the value of existing properties.

The second is legal, and it needs to be stated clearly: the Lex Weber does not prohibit short-term letting. It governs the creation and the designated use of homes, not their rental use. In practice, two regimes coexist in Nendaz. Properties built or authorised before the freeze benefit from acquired rights: they can be lived in, let on a long-term basis or let short-term, freely. Some more recent properties were authorised on condition of being designated for tourist accommodation: for those, letting is not a right but an obligation, entered in the land registry.

The right reflex is therefore to think in terms of designated use rather than prohibition, and to verify the exact status of the property: land registry extract, any mention of tourist designation, and the municipal building regulations. This verification is part of our free audit, and we set it out from the investor's angle in our guide to buying to let in Nendaz.

Co-ownership, subletting, insurance: the rest of the checklist

A large part of the Haute-Nendaz stock consists of apartments in co-ownership (PPE), in large residences built as the resort developed. Some co-ownership regulations restrict short-term letting, the use of the ski room or the parking, or even the installation of access devices on common parts. Reading these regulations before publishing a listing avoids neighbourhood conflicts that are hard to undo afterwards.

If you are a tenant rather than an owner, the logic changes entirely: subletting requires the landlord's prior consent (art. 262 CO). Subletting without that consent exposes you to termination of the lease, regardless of any steps taken with the municipality. The two obligations are cumulative: notifying the municipality does not replace the landlord's consent, and the landlord's consent does not exempt you from notifying the municipality.

That leaves insurance, systematically overlooked. A household and building policy taken out for private use generally does not cover rental activity: in the event of damage caused by a guest, the insurer may reduce or refuse its performance if the rental use was not declared. Three covers need examining: damage caused by tenants, the landlord's civil liability, and, where relevant, loss of rental income. Platform protections are a useful complement, never a substitute for a suitable Swiss policy. Finally, remember that rental income is taxable and must appear in your tax return, and that hosting foreign guests for profit entails its own reporting obligations.

Letting legally in Nendaz: the 6 steps

This information is provided for guidance only and reflects the state of the applicable framework at the time of writing. The municipal framework evolves - the Nendaz tourist tax regulation was itself revised recently - and practices may vary. For any particular situation, refer to the municipality of Nendaz or to legal counsel.

What our concierge service takes care of

For every property we manage in Nendaz, compliance is part of the service: verification of the property's status when it enters management, notification to the municipality, determination of the tourist zone and the applicable tax regime, collection of the tourist tax from guests across all channels, overnight-stay statements submitted by the deadlines of the municipal regulation, retention of supporting documents, and ongoing regulatory monitoring - if the municipality changes its requirements, your listings and declarations are adapted without any action on your part. You receive your income, your Nendaz concierge service carries the administrative burden, within our all-inclusive rental management, charged at 25% of the net amount collected after deduction of platform fees, transaction fees and cleaning.