

The types of tourism businesses that can apply for a licence to sell alcohol, those that cannot, and the criteria and the process of how to apply.
You will need a licence from your local county court to sell alcohol on your premises.
You will only be able to apply to the court for a liquor licence for certain premises, including:
You can't apply for a licence if your premises are situated on a service area, or are on the same premises as a garage or petrol station.
If you run a hotel, guest house or a conference centre, you must apply to the courts for a liquor licence and show that:
If you operate a restaurant from your guest house, you will need to adhere to certain conditions when selling alcohol including:
Conference centres must meet certain requirements to get a licensing letter from Tourism NI.
The type of television licence you will need if you have TVs at your tourist accommodation premises hotel, hostel or campsite, the costs of the licence and the exceptions.
If you're providing TVs on your premises for overnight guests, you should apply for a Hotel and Mobile Units Television Licence.
While staying on your property, guests are not covered by their home licence. Long-term hotel guests (ie those staying over 28 days) are an exception. They are not covered by a hotel licence and must have their own ordinary television licence.
Your licence fee will depend on the number of accommodation or mobile units you offer:
If you show TV programmes or films (live broadcast or via DVD or online streaming) in public areas such as bars, shops, restaurants, lounges or lobbies, you will require a licence.
There are a number of main organisations that issue these licenses, including the Motion Picture Licensing Company.
Download guidance on the showing of broadcast television programmes and film in public (PDF, 242KB).
The type of licences you must have to play recorded or live music in your business, including background music, the radio or live bands, and the exemptions.
If you play music in your business, you are required by law to have a music licence.
Previously, businesses had to obtain separate music licences from PPL and PRS for Music. However, they have joined forces to form PPL PRS Ltd and have launched TheMusicLicence.
TheMusicLicence allows you to legally play music for employees or customers in your business through the radio, TV, other digital devices and live performances.
If you play or perform music in your business or organisation, you will usually need TheMusicLicence.
Read more about TheMusicLicence.
Although it’s not a legal requirement, It is a good idea to get public liability insurance for your tourism business to cover the risk of being sued.
The types of tourism businesses that can apply for a licence to sell alcohol, those that cannot, and the criteria and the process of how to apply.
You will need a licence from your local county court to sell alcohol on your premises.
You will only be able to apply to the court for a liquor licence for certain premises, including:
You can't apply for a licence if your premises are situated on a service area, or are on the same premises as a garage or petrol station.
If you run a hotel, guest house or a conference centre, you must apply to the courts for a liquor licence and show that:
If you operate a restaurant from your guest house, you will need to adhere to certain conditions when selling alcohol including:
Conference centres must meet certain requirements to get a licensing letter from Tourism NI.
The type of television licence you will need if you have TVs at your tourist accommodation premises hotel, hostel or campsite, the costs of the licence and the exceptions.
If you're providing TVs on your premises for overnight guests, you should apply for a Hotel and Mobile Units Television Licence.
While staying on your property, guests are not covered by their home licence. Long-term hotel guests (ie those staying over 28 days) are an exception. They are not covered by a hotel licence and must have their own ordinary television licence.
Your licence fee will depend on the number of accommodation or mobile units you offer:
If you show TV programmes or films (live broadcast or via DVD or online streaming) in public areas such as bars, shops, restaurants, lounges or lobbies, you will require a licence.
There are a number of main organisations that issue these licenses, including the Motion Picture Licensing Company.
Download guidance on the showing of broadcast television programmes and film in public (PDF, 242KB).
The type of licences you must have to play recorded or live music in your business, including background music, the radio or live bands, and the exemptions.
If you play music in your business, you are required by law to have a music licence.
Previously, businesses had to obtain separate music licences from PPL and PRS for Music. However, they have joined forces to form PPL PRS Ltd and have launched TheMusicLicence.
TheMusicLicence allows you to legally play music for employees or customers in your business through the radio, TV, other digital devices and live performances.
If you play or perform music in your business or organisation, you will usually need TheMusicLicence.
Read more about TheMusicLicence.
Although it’s not a legal requirement, It is a good idea to get public liability insurance for your tourism business to cover the risk of being sued.
The types of tourism businesses that can apply for a licence to sell alcohol, those that cannot, and the criteria and the process of how to apply.
You will need a licence from your local county court to sell alcohol on your premises.
You will only be able to apply to the court for a liquor licence for certain premises, including:
You can't apply for a licence if your premises are situated on a service area, or are on the same premises as a garage or petrol station.
If you run a hotel, guest house or a conference centre, you must apply to the courts for a liquor licence and show that:
If you operate a restaurant from your guest house, you will need to adhere to certain conditions when selling alcohol including:
Conference centres must meet certain requirements to get a licensing letter from Tourism NI.
The type of television licence you will need if you have TVs at your tourist accommodation premises hotel, hostel or campsite, the costs of the licence and the exceptions.
If you're providing TVs on your premises for overnight guests, you should apply for a Hotel and Mobile Units Television Licence.
While staying on your property, guests are not covered by their home licence. Long-term hotel guests (ie those staying over 28 days) are an exception. They are not covered by a hotel licence and must have their own ordinary television licence.
Your licence fee will depend on the number of accommodation or mobile units you offer:
If you show TV programmes or films (live broadcast or via DVD or online streaming) in public areas such as bars, shops, restaurants, lounges or lobbies, you will require a licence.
There are a number of main organisations that issue these licenses, including the Motion Picture Licensing Company.
Download guidance on the showing of broadcast television programmes and film in public (PDF, 242KB).
The type of licences you must have to play recorded or live music in your business, including background music, the radio or live bands, and the exemptions.
If you play music in your business, you are required by law to have a music licence.
Previously, businesses had to obtain separate music licences from PPL and PRS for Music. However, they have joined forces to form PPL PRS Ltd and have launched TheMusicLicence.
TheMusicLicence allows you to legally play music for employees or customers in your business through the radio, TV, other digital devices and live performances.
If you play or perform music in your business or organisation, you will usually need TheMusicLicence.
Read more about TheMusicLicence.
Although it’s not a legal requirement, It is a good idea to get public liability insurance for your tourism business to cover the risk of being sued.
The types of tourism businesses that can apply for a licence to sell alcohol, those that cannot, and the criteria and the process of how to apply.
You will need a licence from your local county court to sell alcohol on your premises.
You will only be able to apply to the court for a liquor licence for certain premises, including:
You can't apply for a licence if your premises are situated on a service area, or are on the same premises as a garage or petrol station.
If you run a hotel, guest house or a conference centre, you must apply to the courts for a liquor licence and show that:
If you operate a restaurant from your guest house, you will need to adhere to certain conditions when selling alcohol including:
Conference centres must meet certain requirements to get a licensing letter from Tourism NI.
The type of television licence you will need if you have TVs at your tourist accommodation premises hotel, hostel or campsite, the costs of the licence and the exceptions.
If you're providing TVs on your premises for overnight guests, you should apply for a Hotel and Mobile Units Television Licence.
While staying on your property, guests are not covered by their home licence. Long-term hotel guests (ie those staying over 28 days) are an exception. They are not covered by a hotel licence and must have their own ordinary television licence.
Your licence fee will depend on the number of accommodation or mobile units you offer:
If you show TV programmes or films (live broadcast or via DVD or online streaming) in public areas such as bars, shops, restaurants, lounges or lobbies, you will require a licence.
There are a number of main organisations that issue these licenses, including the Motion Picture Licensing Company.
Download guidance on the showing of broadcast television programmes and film in public (PDF, 242KB).
The type of licences you must have to play recorded or live music in your business, including background music, the radio or live bands, and the exemptions.
If you play music in your business, you are required by law to have a music licence.
Previously, businesses had to obtain separate music licences from PPL and PRS for Music. However, they have joined forces to form PPL PRS Ltd and have launched TheMusicLicence.
TheMusicLicence allows you to legally play music for employees or customers in your business through the radio, TV, other digital devices and live performances.
If you play or perform music in your business or organisation, you will usually need TheMusicLicence.
Read more about TheMusicLicence.
Although it’s not a legal requirement, It is a good idea to get public liability insurance for your tourism business to cover the risk of being sued.
Find out if you need planning permission for your bed and breakfast, self catering or other tourism business.
If you plan to open a small bed and breakfast in your own home, you may not need planning permission to start your business. The key test to decide if you need planning permission is whether you will change the overall nature of the house. For example, a building changing from a private home to business premises.
If your home will no longer be used mainly as a private residence, and your business activities will affect the area where you live then you will likely need planning consent for a change of use. Things affecting the local area include disturbance to neighbours and increased footfall.
You only need planning permission if the new building use is classed differently from the current one. For example, changing the building from a greengrocer to a shoe shop will not need planning permission as both are classed as shops. However, if you're changing a home into a guest house then you will need planning permission.
Contact your council’s local planning office for advice.
If you are agreeing a lease or buying a new property for your accommodation start-up, you should consider in advance if you need to get planning permission for your intended use. Also think about what your chances of getting it are. Contact your local area planning office for their advice at an early stage.
Building regulations apply if you plan to:
These rules set standards on the safety and stability of any building work.
If you're planning on carrying out work on your premises, you must apply with your local Building Control Office.
Find out if you need to pay business rates serviced or self catering accommodation premises.
If you operate bed and breakfast or self-catering accommodation, you may need to pay business rates.
If you operate a bed and breakfast you may have to pay both non-domestic rates, on the portion used for guest accommodation, and domestic rates on the portion used for owner/staff accommodation. See business rates.
Business rates do not apply to a bed and breakfast where:
Business rates do not apply to a self-catering accommodation where:
If you have to pay business rates, but use your property for business and domestic purposes, only the part you use for business purposes is subject to business rates. You will have to pay domestic rates for the residential part of the property.
Find out if you need permission to display tourism signs or advertisements for your business.
If you display any outdoor signs or advertisements you may need to apply to the planning authority for consent. Whether you need consent from the planning authority depends on whether your signs are fully, partially or not lit-up and where you place them.
If your property is listed or lies within a conservation area you may need further consent. You could also be more restricted in the types of signs you can display.
You will also need to ensure that any signs you display are not misleading. This could be a breach of fair trading rules, as well as marketing laws.
If you wish to apply for brown tourism signposting, you should contact the Roads Department of your local council, who will advise you about:
Tourism Northern Ireland provide information about brown signs.
An outline of health and safety obligations specific to tourism businesses.
As a tourist accommodation provider, you are responsible for health and safety of your guests whilst they are on your premises.
Your health and safety obligations extend to not only to guests, but to anyone on your premises, including staff.
For more general guidance on health and safety, see health and safety.
You have a 'duty of care' to guests and other visitors. You must make sure that premises are reasonably safe for purpose.. If you don't take precautions to ensure reasonable safety of the premises, you can be sued for compensation or prosecuted.
To make premises 'reasonably safe', you should take common sense precautions such as:
If certain parts of your premises, such as the kitchen or the store room, are clearly marked out of bounds to guests, your duty of care may not extend to these areas.
You may be held liable for accidents caused as a result of the actions of your staff or other guests. However, your guests also have a duty to take care of their own safety. If they have an accident due to their own negligence, or while doing something you wouldn't reasonably expect them to do, your liability for the accident may be reduced or overridden.
As part of your health and safety responsibilities, you will need to report certain accidents involving your guests or staff. See first aid, accidents and ill health in the workplace.
For on outline of your health and safety duties to your staff, see employer's health and safety responsibilities.
You are also legally required to have insurance to cover your liability for any bodily injury or disease sustained by an employee at work. See liability insurance for your business.
Whilst it's not a legal requirement, you should consider taking out additional insurance to cover your liability to your guests. See public liability insurance.
If a guest or a member of your staff has made a claim against you, you should seek legal advice. Find a solicitor.
Fire, gas and electricity safety laws that tourist accommodation businesses must comply with.
All accommodation businesses, regardless of their size, have to comply with safety laws relating to fire, gas and electricity.
All businesses must:
Fire risk assessment is the foundation for all the fire safety measures you need on the premises. It is essential to keep your business and your guests safe. See fire safety and risk assessment.
If you are providing self-catering accommodation that contains upholstered furniture, your furniture must comply with certain safety tests:
All new upholstered furniture (except mattresses and bedding) and loose and stretch covers for furniture must carry a permanent label detailing compliance with fire safety requirements. Always look for these labels before buying any upholstered furniture for your property.
You could consider buying furniture designed to cope with a greater fire hazard (eg hotel beds and chairs). When re-equipping your self-catering property, it will normally be for you to decide if you require the new furniture to meet these higher fire resistance standards. If you are in doubt, check with your local fire authority.
Electrical safety laws apply to most electrical equipment in your accommodation. This includes:
The laws apply to new and second-hand equipment equally.
If you are making the equipment available for your guests to use, you will be liable for their safety. For electrical equipment to be regarded as safe, there should be no risk (or only a minimal risk) that the equipment could cause death or injury to any person, or cause damage to property.
Whilst not a legal requirement, you should regularly check and service the electrical goods you supply in your accommodation to ensure their safety.
You must have gas appliances, installation pipework or flue installed in your premises in accordance with manufacturer's instructions. You must maintain them in a safe condition. A Gas Safe engineer must inspect them at least once a year.
Information to help you comply with food safety laws if you offer food or drink to your guests.
If you wish to carry out any 'food operations' in the course of your accommodation business, you must register your premises with your local council's environmental health department. You must do so at least 28 days before your business opens.
Food operations include selling, cooking, storing, handling, preparing and distributing food and drink.
If you're serving food to your guests, you also need to ensure that you comply with other relevant laws relating to food safety, hygiene and labelling. Find detailed information on each below.
If you wish to sell alcohol on your premises, you will need an alcohol licence.
Disability and discrimination laws for accommodation providers and what they mean for your business.
If you provide any sort of accommodation in Northern Ireland, serviced or self-catering, you have duties under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
Under this law, you must not discriminate against disabled people using your goods, facilities or services. You must treat everyone fairly, regardless of their:
You can't refuse to serve people with disabilities or provide them a lower standard of service, unless this can be justified.
You may need to make 'reasonable adjustments' to any barriers that may prevent a person with disabilities using or accessing their service.
What is 'reasonable' will depend on a number of factors, including the cost of an adjustment. Think ahead and take steps to address barriers that impede disabled people. This can include:
See disabled access and facilities in business premises.
The Equality Commission offer advice and information to service providers on their duties under equality law.
Employment law and best practice resources that can help you run your tourism business lawfully and efficiently.
If you employ staff in your tourism business, or are thinking of doing so in the future, there are a number of things that you will need to consider.
The guides below can help you comply with the relevant employment laws, and provide you with best practice know-how for managing your staff:
Why you must keep a guest register if you run a hotel, bed and breakfast, hostel or any other accommodation business, and what you need to record in it.
If you run a serviced or self-catering accommodation business, you must keep a record of all guests over the age of 16. This can take the form of a registration form, or can be recorded electronically.
You must keep each guest's details for at least 12 months and have the register available for inspection by police or other authorised persons at all time.
On guests' arrival, you need to record:
If your guests are using your car parking facilities, you may also want to take record of the registration number of their car. However, you aren't legally required to do so.
When keeping a guest register, even if it's just names and contact details, you must protect your guests' privacy under the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
The rules for reselling gas and electricity, charging for telephone calls and providing water from private supply.
When you're running a tourist accommodation business, the costs and responsibilities of providing utilities to your guests are one of the factors you will need to consider.
If you are reselling electricity to your guests that has already been bought from an authorised electricity supplier, the most you can charge is limited by law.
You can only resell electricity at the same price you bought it. You are not allowed to charge guests more money for electricity than you paid for it.
This rule does not apply if you charge your guests an inclusive charge for accommodation, eg one that includes 'all amenities' and does not specify separate charge for electricity.
As with electricity, you may only resell gas at the same price that you bought it. You aren't allowed to charge your guests more for gas than you originally paid for it.
Download guidance for resellers of electricity and gas (PDF, 307KB).
If you use or provide water from a private supply to other people in the course of your business, eg by renting out holiday accommodation or using water for food production, you have a duty of care towards these people for the safety of the water you supply.
In these circumstances, you must register your supply with the Northern Ireland Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI).
Once you register your private water supply, the DWI will assess it for contamination risk and place it on a monitoring programme to check that it meets the water quality standards.
As a matter of good practice, you should be as open as possible with guests about telephone charges.
You should indicate clearly typical usage rates for bedroom telephones. These should include examples of costs per unit and length of time that unit represents.
You should display charges for:
Your responsibilities for safekeeping, and your rights to retain, your guest's belongings.
If you run serviced accommodation, such as a bed and breakfast or a hotel, you must take responsibility for looking after your guest's luggage. In some cases, you may have the legal right to keep your guest's luggage if they don't pay their bill.
If you run a hotel and have a guest for at least one night, you could be liable for loss and damage to your guest's property. This will depend on certain factors:
If your guest didn't stay overnight and was, for example, simply visiting the restaurant or bar, you will usually be liable for the loss of or damage to your guest's property only if:
In certain circumstances, serviced accommodation providers may have the right to detain a guest's luggage.
The owner of a hotel (as defined in the Hotel Proprietors Act (Northern Ireland) 1958) has the legal right to keep a guest's property until the guest settles their bill. This does not include the guest's car or property left in it; or clothes that the guest is wearing.
When the guest settles their bill, you must return the property to them. You cannot charge for storage. You must reimburse the guest if the property has been damaged while you had it.
If the bill has not been paid in full after six weeks, you may sell the guest's property at a public auction, advertised at least four weeks in advance. If the sale makes more money than what is owed to you (including the costs of advertising and organising the auction), you must return the excess to the guest.
Another option for getting what's owed to you is claiming it through the small claims procedure.
All tourist accommodation businesses must keep a guest register – be aware of your responsibilities to keep this data secure.
All serviced and self-catering accommodation premises must keep a record of all guests over the age of 16. The record should include full name and nationality. See keeping a guest register in your tourist accommodation business.
When keeping a guest register, even if it's just names and contact details, you must protect your guests' privacy under data protection law. The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) sets out the key principles, rights and obligations for processing of personal data.
If you handle customer's credit/debit card number, you must follow the standards of the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. The standard is applicable to any organisation that stores, transmits or processes cardholder information.
Find out how to protect your customers and achieve the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance; See accepting online payments.
Find out if you need planning permission for your bed and breakfast, self catering or other tourism business.
If you plan to open a small bed and breakfast in your own home, you may not need planning permission to start your business. The key test to decide if you need planning permission is whether you will change the overall nature of the house. For example, a building changing from a private home to business premises.
If your home will no longer be used mainly as a private residence, and your business activities will affect the area where you live then you will likely need planning consent for a change of use. Things affecting the local area include disturbance to neighbours and increased footfall.
You only need planning permission if the new building use is classed differently from the current one. For example, changing the building from a greengrocer to a shoe shop will not need planning permission as both are classed as shops. However, if you're changing a home into a guest house then you will need planning permission.
Contact your council’s local planning office for advice.
If you are agreeing a lease or buying a new property for your accommodation start-up, you should consider in advance if you need to get planning permission for your intended use. Also think about what your chances of getting it are. Contact your local area planning office for their advice at an early stage.
Building regulations apply if you plan to:
These rules set standards on the safety and stability of any building work.
If you're planning on carrying out work on your premises, you must apply with your local Building Control Office.
Find out if you need to pay business rates serviced or self catering accommodation premises.
If you operate bed and breakfast or self-catering accommodation, you may need to pay business rates.
If you operate a bed and breakfast you may have to pay both non-domestic rates, on the portion used for guest accommodation, and domestic rates on the portion used for owner/staff accommodation. See business rates.
Business rates do not apply to a bed and breakfast where:
Business rates do not apply to a self-catering accommodation where:
If you have to pay business rates, but use your property for business and domestic purposes, only the part you use for business purposes is subject to business rates. You will have to pay domestic rates for the residential part of the property.
Find out if you need permission to display tourism signs or advertisements for your business.
If you display any outdoor signs or advertisements you may need to apply to the planning authority for consent. Whether you need consent from the planning authority depends on whether your signs are fully, partially or not lit-up and where you place them.
If your property is listed or lies within a conservation area you may need further consent. You could also be more restricted in the types of signs you can display.
You will also need to ensure that any signs you display are not misleading. This could be a breach of fair trading rules, as well as marketing laws.
If you wish to apply for brown tourism signposting, you should contact the Roads Department of your local council, who will advise you about:
Tourism Northern Ireland provide information about brown signs.
An outline of health and safety obligations specific to tourism businesses.
As a tourist accommodation provider, you are responsible for health and safety of your guests whilst they are on your premises.
Your health and safety obligations extend to not only to guests, but to anyone on your premises, including staff.
For more general guidance on health and safety, see health and safety.
You have a 'duty of care' to guests and other visitors. You must make sure that premises are reasonably safe for purpose.. If you don't take precautions to ensure reasonable safety of the premises, you can be sued for compensation or prosecuted.
To make premises 'reasonably safe', you should take common sense precautions such as:
If certain parts of your premises, such as the kitchen or the store room, are clearly marked out of bounds to guests, your duty of care may not extend to these areas.
You may be held liable for accidents caused as a result of the actions of your staff or other guests. However, your guests also have a duty to take care of their own safety. If they have an accident due to their own negligence, or while doing something you wouldn't reasonably expect them to do, your liability for the accident may be reduced or overridden.
As part of your health and safety responsibilities, you will need to report certain accidents involving your guests or staff. See first aid, accidents and ill health in the workplace.
For on outline of your health and safety duties to your staff, see employer's health and safety responsibilities.
You are also legally required to have insurance to cover your liability for any bodily injury or disease sustained by an employee at work. See liability insurance for your business.
Whilst it's not a legal requirement, you should consider taking out additional insurance to cover your liability to your guests. See public liability insurance.
If a guest or a member of your staff has made a claim against you, you should seek legal advice. Find a solicitor.
Fire, gas and electricity safety laws that tourist accommodation businesses must comply with.
All accommodation businesses, regardless of their size, have to comply with safety laws relating to fire, gas and electricity.
All businesses must:
Fire risk assessment is the foundation for all the fire safety measures you need on the premises. It is essential to keep your business and your guests safe. See fire safety and risk assessment.
If you are providing self-catering accommodation that contains upholstered furniture, your furniture must comply with certain safety tests:
All new upholstered furniture (except mattresses and bedding) and loose and stretch covers for furniture must carry a permanent label detailing compliance with fire safety requirements. Always look for these labels before buying any upholstered furniture for your property.
You could consider buying furniture designed to cope with a greater fire hazard (eg hotel beds and chairs). When re-equipping your self-catering property, it will normally be for you to decide if you require the new furniture to meet these higher fire resistance standards. If you are in doubt, check with your local fire authority.
Electrical safety laws apply to most electrical equipment in your accommodation. This includes:
The laws apply to new and second-hand equipment equally.
If you are making the equipment available for your guests to use, you will be liable for their safety. For electrical equipment to be regarded as safe, there should be no risk (or only a minimal risk) that the equipment could cause death or injury to any person, or cause damage to property.
Whilst not a legal requirement, you should regularly check and service the electrical goods you supply in your accommodation to ensure their safety.
You must have gas appliances, installation pipework or flue installed in your premises in accordance with manufacturer's instructions. You must maintain them in a safe condition. A Gas Safe engineer must inspect them at least once a year.
Information to help you comply with food safety laws if you offer food or drink to your guests.
If you wish to carry out any 'food operations' in the course of your accommodation business, you must register your premises with your local council's environmental health department. You must do so at least 28 days before your business opens.
Food operations include selling, cooking, storing, handling, preparing and distributing food and drink.
If you're serving food to your guests, you also need to ensure that you comply with other relevant laws relating to food safety, hygiene and labelling. Find detailed information on each below.
If you wish to sell alcohol on your premises, you will need an alcohol licence.
Disability and discrimination laws for accommodation providers and what they mean for your business.
If you provide any sort of accommodation in Northern Ireland, serviced or self-catering, you have duties under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
Under this law, you must not discriminate against disabled people using your goods, facilities or services. You must treat everyone fairly, regardless of their:
You can't refuse to serve people with disabilities or provide them a lower standard of service, unless this can be justified.
You may need to make 'reasonable adjustments' to any barriers that may prevent a person with disabilities using or accessing their service.
What is 'reasonable' will depend on a number of factors, including the cost of an adjustment. Think ahead and take steps to address barriers that impede disabled people. This can include:
See disabled access and facilities in business premises.
The Equality Commission offer advice and information to service providers on their duties under equality law.
Employment law and best practice resources that can help you run your tourism business lawfully and efficiently.
If you employ staff in your tourism business, or are thinking of doing so in the future, there are a number of things that you will need to consider.
The guides below can help you comply with the relevant employment laws, and provide you with best practice know-how for managing your staff:
Why you must keep a guest register if you run a hotel, bed and breakfast, hostel or any other accommodation business, and what you need to record in it.
If you run a serviced or self-catering accommodation business, you must keep a record of all guests over the age of 16. This can take the form of a registration form, or can be recorded electronically.
You must keep each guest's details for at least 12 months and have the register available for inspection by police or other authorised persons at all time.
On guests' arrival, you need to record:
If your guests are using your car parking facilities, you may also want to take record of the registration number of their car. However, you aren't legally required to do so.
When keeping a guest register, even if it's just names and contact details, you must protect your guests' privacy under the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
The rules for reselling gas and electricity, charging for telephone calls and providing water from private supply.
When you're running a tourist accommodation business, the costs and responsibilities of providing utilities to your guests are one of the factors you will need to consider.
If you are reselling electricity to your guests that has already been bought from an authorised electricity supplier, the most you can charge is limited by law.
You can only resell electricity at the same price you bought it. You are not allowed to charge guests more money for electricity than you paid for it.
This rule does not apply if you charge your guests an inclusive charge for accommodation, eg one that includes 'all amenities' and does not specify separate charge for electricity.
As with electricity, you may only resell gas at the same price that you bought it. You aren't allowed to charge your guests more for gas than you originally paid for it.
Download guidance for resellers of electricity and gas (PDF, 307KB).
If you use or provide water from a private supply to other people in the course of your business, eg by renting out holiday accommodation or using water for food production, you have a duty of care towards these people for the safety of the water you supply.
In these circumstances, you must register your supply with the Northern Ireland Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI).
Once you register your private water supply, the DWI will assess it for contamination risk and place it on a monitoring programme to check that it meets the water quality standards.
As a matter of good practice, you should be as open as possible with guests about telephone charges.
You should indicate clearly typical usage rates for bedroom telephones. These should include examples of costs per unit and length of time that unit represents.
You should display charges for:
Your responsibilities for safekeeping, and your rights to retain, your guest's belongings.
If you run serviced accommodation, such as a bed and breakfast or a hotel, you must take responsibility for looking after your guest's luggage. In some cases, you may have the legal right to keep your guest's luggage if they don't pay their bill.
If you run a hotel and have a guest for at least one night, you could be liable for loss and damage to your guest's property. This will depend on certain factors:
If your guest didn't stay overnight and was, for example, simply visiting the restaurant or bar, you will usually be liable for the loss of or damage to your guest's property only if:
In certain circumstances, serviced accommodation providers may have the right to detain a guest's luggage.
The owner of a hotel (as defined in the Hotel Proprietors Act (Northern Ireland) 1958) has the legal right to keep a guest's property until the guest settles their bill. This does not include the guest's car or property left in it; or clothes that the guest is wearing.
When the guest settles their bill, you must return the property to them. You cannot charge for storage. You must reimburse the guest if the property has been damaged while you had it.
If the bill has not been paid in full after six weeks, you may sell the guest's property at a public auction, advertised at least four weeks in advance. If the sale makes more money than what is owed to you (including the costs of advertising and organising the auction), you must return the excess to the guest.
Another option for getting what's owed to you is claiming it through the small claims procedure.
All tourist accommodation businesses must keep a guest register – be aware of your responsibilities to keep this data secure.
All serviced and self-catering accommodation premises must keep a record of all guests over the age of 16. The record should include full name and nationality. See keeping a guest register in your tourist accommodation business.
When keeping a guest register, even if it's just names and contact details, you must protect your guests' privacy under data protection law. The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) sets out the key principles, rights and obligations for processing of personal data.
If you handle customer's credit/debit card number, you must follow the standards of the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. The standard is applicable to any organisation that stores, transmits or processes cardholder information.
Find out how to protect your customers and achieve the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance; See accepting online payments.
Find out if you need planning permission for your bed and breakfast, self catering or other tourism business.
If you plan to open a small bed and breakfast in your own home, you may not need planning permission to start your business. The key test to decide if you need planning permission is whether you will change the overall nature of the house. For example, a building changing from a private home to business premises.
If your home will no longer be used mainly as a private residence, and your business activities will affect the area where you live then you will likely need planning consent for a change of use. Things affecting the local area include disturbance to neighbours and increased footfall.
You only need planning permission if the new building use is classed differently from the current one. For example, changing the building from a greengrocer to a shoe shop will not need planning permission as both are classed as shops. However, if you're changing a home into a guest house then you will need planning permission.
Contact your council’s local planning office for advice.
If you are agreeing a lease or buying a new property for your accommodation start-up, you should consider in advance if you need to get planning permission for your intended use. Also think about what your chances of getting it are. Contact your local area planning office for their advice at an early stage.
Building regulations apply if you plan to:
These rules set standards on the safety and stability of any building work.
If you're planning on carrying out work on your premises, you must apply with your local Building Control Office.
Find out if you need to pay business rates serviced or self catering accommodation premises.
If you operate bed and breakfast or self-catering accommodation, you may need to pay business rates.
If you operate a bed and breakfast you may have to pay both non-domestic rates, on the portion used for guest accommodation, and domestic rates on the portion used for owner/staff accommodation. See business rates.
Business rates do not apply to a bed and breakfast where:
Business rates do not apply to a self-catering accommodation where:
If you have to pay business rates, but use your property for business and domestic purposes, only the part you use for business purposes is subject to business rates. You will have to pay domestic rates for the residential part of the property.
Find out if you need permission to display tourism signs or advertisements for your business.
If you display any outdoor signs or advertisements you may need to apply to the planning authority for consent. Whether you need consent from the planning authority depends on whether your signs are fully, partially or not lit-up and where you place them.
If your property is listed or lies within a conservation area you may need further consent. You could also be more restricted in the types of signs you can display.
You will also need to ensure that any signs you display are not misleading. This could be a breach of fair trading rules, as well as marketing laws.
If you wish to apply for brown tourism signposting, you should contact the Roads Department of your local council, who will advise you about:
Tourism Northern Ireland provide information about brown signs.
An outline of health and safety obligations specific to tourism businesses.
As a tourist accommodation provider, you are responsible for health and safety of your guests whilst they are on your premises.
Your health and safety obligations extend to not only to guests, but to anyone on your premises, including staff.
For more general guidance on health and safety, see health and safety.
You have a 'duty of care' to guests and other visitors. You must make sure that premises are reasonably safe for purpose.. If you don't take precautions to ensure reasonable safety of the premises, you can be sued for compensation or prosecuted.
To make premises 'reasonably safe', you should take common sense precautions such as:
If certain parts of your premises, such as the kitchen or the store room, are clearly marked out of bounds to guests, your duty of care may not extend to these areas.
You may be held liable for accidents caused as a result of the actions of your staff or other guests. However, your guests also have a duty to take care of their own safety. If they have an accident due to their own negligence, or while doing something you wouldn't reasonably expect them to do, your liability for the accident may be reduced or overridden.
As part of your health and safety responsibilities, you will need to report certain accidents involving your guests or staff. See first aid, accidents and ill health in the workplace.
For on outline of your health and safety duties to your staff, see employer's health and safety responsibilities.
You are also legally required to have insurance to cover your liability for any bodily injury or disease sustained by an employee at work. See liability insurance for your business.
Whilst it's not a legal requirement, you should consider taking out additional insurance to cover your liability to your guests. See public liability insurance.
If a guest or a member of your staff has made a claim against you, you should seek legal advice. Find a solicitor.
Fire, gas and electricity safety laws that tourist accommodation businesses must comply with.
All accommodation businesses, regardless of their size, have to comply with safety laws relating to fire, gas and electricity.
All businesses must:
Fire risk assessment is the foundation for all the fire safety measures you need on the premises. It is essential to keep your business and your guests safe. See fire safety and risk assessment.
If you are providing self-catering accommodation that contains upholstered furniture, your furniture must comply with certain safety tests:
All new upholstered furniture (except mattresses and bedding) and loose and stretch covers for furniture must carry a permanent label detailing compliance with fire safety requirements. Always look for these labels before buying any upholstered furniture for your property.
You could consider buying furniture designed to cope with a greater fire hazard (eg hotel beds and chairs). When re-equipping your self-catering property, it will normally be for you to decide if you require the new furniture to meet these higher fire resistance standards. If you are in doubt, check with your local fire authority.
Electrical safety laws apply to most electrical equipment in your accommodation. This includes:
The laws apply to new and second-hand equipment equally.
If you are making the equipment available for your guests to use, you will be liable for their safety. For electrical equipment to be regarded as safe, there should be no risk (or only a minimal risk) that the equipment could cause death or injury to any person, or cause damage to property.
Whilst not a legal requirement, you should regularly check and service the electrical goods you supply in your accommodation to ensure their safety.
You must have gas appliances, installation pipework or flue installed in your premises in accordance with manufacturer's instructions. You must maintain them in a safe condition. A Gas Safe engineer must inspect them at least once a year.
Information to help you comply with food safety laws if you offer food or drink to your guests.
If you wish to carry out any 'food operations' in the course of your accommodation business, you must register your premises with your local council's environmental health department. You must do so at least 28 days before your business opens.
Food operations include selling, cooking, storing, handling, preparing and distributing food and drink.
If you're serving food to your guests, you also need to ensure that you comply with other relevant laws relating to food safety, hygiene and labelling. Find detailed information on each below.
If you wish to sell alcohol on your premises, you will need an alcohol licence.
Disability and discrimination laws for accommodation providers and what they mean for your business.
If you provide any sort of accommodation in Northern Ireland, serviced or self-catering, you have duties under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
Under this law, you must not discriminate against disabled people using your goods, facilities or services. You must treat everyone fairly, regardless of their:
You can't refuse to serve people with disabilities or provide them a lower standard of service, unless this can be justified.
You may need to make 'reasonable adjustments' to any barriers that may prevent a person with disabilities using or accessing their service.
What is 'reasonable' will depend on a number of factors, including the cost of an adjustment. Think ahead and take steps to address barriers that impede disabled people. This can include:
See disabled access and facilities in business premises.
The Equality Commission offer advice and information to service providers on their duties under equality law.
Employment law and best practice resources that can help you run your tourism business lawfully and efficiently.
If you employ staff in your tourism business, or are thinking of doing so in the future, there are a number of things that you will need to consider.
The guides below can help you comply with the relevant employment laws, and provide you with best practice know-how for managing your staff:
Why you must keep a guest register if you run a hotel, bed and breakfast, hostel or any other accommodation business, and what you need to record in it.
If you run a serviced or self-catering accommodation business, you must keep a record of all guests over the age of 16. This can take the form of a registration form, or can be recorded electronically.
You must keep each guest's details for at least 12 months and have the register available for inspection by police or other authorised persons at all time.
On guests' arrival, you need to record:
If your guests are using your car parking facilities, you may also want to take record of the registration number of their car. However, you aren't legally required to do so.
When keeping a guest register, even if it's just names and contact details, you must protect your guests' privacy under the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
The rules for reselling gas and electricity, charging for telephone calls and providing water from private supply.
When you're running a tourist accommodation business, the costs and responsibilities of providing utilities to your guests are one of the factors you will need to consider.
If you are reselling electricity to your guests that has already been bought from an authorised electricity supplier, the most you can charge is limited by law.
You can only resell electricity at the same price you bought it. You are not allowed to charge guests more money for electricity than you paid for it.
This rule does not apply if you charge your guests an inclusive charge for accommodation, eg one that includes 'all amenities' and does not specify separate charge for electricity.
As with electricity, you may only resell gas at the same price that you bought it. You aren't allowed to charge your guests more for gas than you originally paid for it.
Download guidance for resellers of electricity and gas (PDF, 307KB).
If you use or provide water from a private supply to other people in the course of your business, eg by renting out holiday accommodation or using water for food production, you have a duty of care towards these people for the safety of the water you supply.
In these circumstances, you must register your supply with the Northern Ireland Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI).
Once you register your private water supply, the DWI will assess it for contamination risk and place it on a monitoring programme to check that it meets the water quality standards.
As a matter of good practice, you should be as open as possible with guests about telephone charges.
You should indicate clearly typical usage rates for bedroom telephones. These should include examples of costs per unit and length of time that unit represents.
You should display charges for:
Your responsibilities for safekeeping, and your rights to retain, your guest's belongings.
If you run serviced accommodation, such as a bed and breakfast or a hotel, you must take responsibility for looking after your guest's luggage. In some cases, you may have the legal right to keep your guest's luggage if they don't pay their bill.
If you run a hotel and have a guest for at least one night, you could be liable for loss and damage to your guest's property. This will depend on certain factors:
If your guest didn't stay overnight and was, for example, simply visiting the restaurant or bar, you will usually be liable for the loss of or damage to your guest's property only if:
In certain circumstances, serviced accommodation providers may have the right to detain a guest's luggage.
The owner of a hotel (as defined in the Hotel Proprietors Act (Northern Ireland) 1958) has the legal right to keep a guest's property until the guest settles their bill. This does not include the guest's car or property left in it; or clothes that the guest is wearing.
When the guest settles their bill, you must return the property to them. You cannot charge for storage. You must reimburse the guest if the property has been damaged while you had it.
If the bill has not been paid in full after six weeks, you may sell the guest's property at a public auction, advertised at least four weeks in advance. If the sale makes more money than what is owed to you (including the costs of advertising and organising the auction), you must return the excess to the guest.
Another option for getting what's owed to you is claiming it through the small claims procedure.
All tourist accommodation businesses must keep a guest register – be aware of your responsibilities to keep this data secure.
All serviced and self-catering accommodation premises must keep a record of all guests over the age of 16. The record should include full name and nationality. See keeping a guest register in your tourist accommodation business.
When keeping a guest register, even if it's just names and contact details, you must protect your guests' privacy under data protection law. The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) sets out the key principles, rights and obligations for processing of personal data.
If you handle customer's credit/debit card number, you must follow the standards of the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. The standard is applicable to any organisation that stores, transmits or processes cardholder information.
Find out how to protect your customers and achieve the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance; See accepting online payments.
Find out if you need planning permission for your bed and breakfast, self catering or other tourism business.
If you plan to open a small bed and breakfast in your own home, you may not need planning permission to start your business. The key test to decide if you need planning permission is whether you will change the overall nature of the house. For example, a building changing from a private home to business premises.
If your home will no longer be used mainly as a private residence, and your business activities will affect the area where you live then you will likely need planning consent for a change of use. Things affecting the local area include disturbance to neighbours and increased footfall.
You only need planning permission if the new building use is classed differently from the current one. For example, changing the building from a greengrocer to a shoe shop will not need planning permission as both are classed as shops. However, if you're changing a home into a guest house then you will need planning permission.
Contact your council’s local planning office for advice.
If you are agreeing a lease or buying a new property for your accommodation start-up, you should consider in advance if you need to get planning permission for your intended use. Also think about what your chances of getting it are. Contact your local area planning office for their advice at an early stage.
Building regulations apply if you plan to:
These rules set standards on the safety and stability of any building work.
If you're planning on carrying out work on your premises, you must apply with your local Building Control Office.
Find out if you need to pay business rates serviced or self catering accommodation premises.
If you operate bed and breakfast or self-catering accommodation, you may need to pay business rates.
If you operate a bed and breakfast you may have to pay both non-domestic rates, on the portion used for guest accommodation, and domestic rates on the portion used for owner/staff accommodation. See business rates.
Business rates do not apply to a bed and breakfast where:
Business rates do not apply to a self-catering accommodation where:
If you have to pay business rates, but use your property for business and domestic purposes, only the part you use for business purposes is subject to business rates. You will have to pay domestic rates for the residential part of the property.
Find out if you need permission to display tourism signs or advertisements for your business.
If you display any outdoor signs or advertisements you may need to apply to the planning authority for consent. Whether you need consent from the planning authority depends on whether your signs are fully, partially or not lit-up and where you place them.
If your property is listed or lies within a conservation area you may need further consent. You could also be more restricted in the types of signs you can display.
You will also need to ensure that any signs you display are not misleading. This could be a breach of fair trading rules, as well as marketing laws.
If you wish to apply for brown tourism signposting, you should contact the Roads Department of your local council, who will advise you about:
Tourism Northern Ireland provide information about brown signs.
An outline of health and safety obligations specific to tourism businesses.
As a tourist accommodation provider, you are responsible for health and safety of your guests whilst they are on your premises.
Your health and safety obligations extend to not only to guests, but to anyone on your premises, including staff.
For more general guidance on health and safety, see health and safety.
You have a 'duty of care' to guests and other visitors. You must make sure that premises are reasonably safe for purpose.. If you don't take precautions to ensure reasonable safety of the premises, you can be sued for compensation or prosecuted.
To make premises 'reasonably safe', you should take common sense precautions such as:
If certain parts of your premises, such as the kitchen or the store room, are clearly marked out of bounds to guests, your duty of care may not extend to these areas.
You may be held liable for accidents caused as a result of the actions of your staff or other guests. However, your guests also have a duty to take care of their own safety. If they have an accident due to their own negligence, or while doing something you wouldn't reasonably expect them to do, your liability for the accident may be reduced or overridden.
As part of your health and safety responsibilities, you will need to report certain accidents involving your guests or staff. See first aid, accidents and ill health in the workplace.
For on outline of your health and safety duties to your staff, see employer's health and safety responsibilities.
You are also legally required to have insurance to cover your liability for any bodily injury or disease sustained by an employee at work. See liability insurance for your business.
Whilst it's not a legal requirement, you should consider taking out additional insurance to cover your liability to your guests. See public liability insurance.
If a guest or a member of your staff has made a claim against you, you should seek legal advice. Find a solicitor.
Fire, gas and electricity safety laws that tourist accommodation businesses must comply with.
All accommodation businesses, regardless of their size, have to comply with safety laws relating to fire, gas and electricity.
All businesses must:
Fire risk assessment is the foundation for all the fire safety measures you need on the premises. It is essential to keep your business and your guests safe. See fire safety and risk assessment.
If you are providing self-catering accommodation that contains upholstered furniture, your furniture must comply with certain safety tests:
All new upholstered furniture (except mattresses and bedding) and loose and stretch covers for furniture must carry a permanent label detailing compliance with fire safety requirements. Always look for these labels before buying any upholstered furniture for your property.
You could consider buying furniture designed to cope with a greater fire hazard (eg hotel beds and chairs). When re-equipping your self-catering property, it will normally be for you to decide if you require the new furniture to meet these higher fire resistance standards. If you are in doubt, check with your local fire authority.
Electrical safety laws apply to most electrical equipment in your accommodation. This includes:
The laws apply to new and second-hand equipment equally.
If you are making the equipment available for your guests to use, you will be liable for their safety. For electrical equipment to be regarded as safe, there should be no risk (or only a minimal risk) that the equipment could cause death or injury to any person, or cause damage to property.
Whilst not a legal requirement, you should regularly check and service the electrical goods you supply in your accommodation to ensure their safety.
You must have gas appliances, installation pipework or flue installed in your premises in accordance with manufacturer's instructions. You must maintain them in a safe condition. A Gas Safe engineer must inspect them at least once a year.
Information to help you comply with food safety laws if you offer food or drink to your guests.
If you wish to carry out any 'food operations' in the course of your accommodation business, you must register your premises with your local council's environmental health department. You must do so at least 28 days before your business opens.
Food operations include selling, cooking, storing, handling, preparing and distributing food and drink.
If you're serving food to your guests, you also need to ensure that you comply with other relevant laws relating to food safety, hygiene and labelling. Find detailed information on each below.
If you wish to sell alcohol on your premises, you will need an alcohol licence.
Disability and discrimination laws for accommodation providers and what they mean for your business.
If you provide any sort of accommodation in Northern Ireland, serviced or self-catering, you have duties under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
Under this law, you must not discriminate against disabled people using your goods, facilities or services. You must treat everyone fairly, regardless of their:
You can't refuse to serve people with disabilities or provide them a lower standard of service, unless this can be justified.
You may need to make 'reasonable adjustments' to any barriers that may prevent a person with disabilities using or accessing their service.
What is 'reasonable' will depend on a number of factors, including the cost of an adjustment. Think ahead and take steps to address barriers that impede disabled people. This can include:
See disabled access and facilities in business premises.
The Equality Commission offer advice and information to service providers on their duties under equality law.
Employment law and best practice resources that can help you run your tourism business lawfully and efficiently.
If you employ staff in your tourism business, or are thinking of doing so in the future, there are a number of things that you will need to consider.
The guides below can help you comply with the relevant employment laws, and provide you with best practice know-how for managing your staff:
Why you must keep a guest register if you run a hotel, bed and breakfast, hostel or any other accommodation business, and what you need to record in it.
If you run a serviced or self-catering accommodation business, you must keep a record of all guests over the age of 16. This can take the form of a registration form, or can be recorded electronically.
You must keep each guest's details for at least 12 months and have the register available for inspection by police or other authorised persons at all time.
On guests' arrival, you need to record:
If your guests are using your car parking facilities, you may also want to take record of the registration number of their car. However, you aren't legally required to do so.
When keeping a guest register, even if it's just names and contact details, you must protect your guests' privacy under the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
The rules for reselling gas and electricity, charging for telephone calls and providing water from private supply.
When you're running a tourist accommodation business, the costs and responsibilities of providing utilities to your guests are one of the factors you will need to consider.
If you are reselling electricity to your guests that has already been bought from an authorised electricity supplier, the most you can charge is limited by law.
You can only resell electricity at the same price you bought it. You are not allowed to charge guests more money for electricity than you paid for it.
This rule does not apply if you charge your guests an inclusive charge for accommodation, eg one that includes 'all amenities' and does not specify separate charge for electricity.
As with electricity, you may only resell gas at the same price that you bought it. You aren't allowed to charge your guests more for gas than you originally paid for it.
Download guidance for resellers of electricity and gas (PDF, 307KB).
If you use or provide water from a private supply to other people in the course of your business, eg by renting out holiday accommodation or using water for food production, you have a duty of care towards these people for the safety of the water you supply.
In these circumstances, you must register your supply with the Northern Ireland Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI).
Once you register your private water supply, the DWI will assess it for contamination risk and place it on a monitoring programme to check that it meets the water quality standards.
As a matter of good practice, you should be as open as possible with guests about telephone charges.
You should indicate clearly typical usage rates for bedroom telephones. These should include examples of costs per unit and length of time that unit represents.
You should display charges for:
Your responsibilities for safekeeping, and your rights to retain, your guest's belongings.
If you run serviced accommodation, such as a bed and breakfast or a hotel, you must take responsibility for looking after your guest's luggage. In some cases, you may have the legal right to keep your guest's luggage if they don't pay their bill.
If you run a hotel and have a guest for at least one night, you could be liable for loss and damage to your guest's property. This will depend on certain factors:
If your guest didn't stay overnight and was, for example, simply visiting the restaurant or bar, you will usually be liable for the loss of or damage to your guest's property only if:
In certain circumstances, serviced accommodation providers may have the right to detain a guest's luggage.
The owner of a hotel (as defined in the Hotel Proprietors Act (Northern Ireland) 1958) has the legal right to keep a guest's property until the guest settles their bill. This does not include the guest's car or property left in it; or clothes that the guest is wearing.
When the guest settles their bill, you must return the property to them. You cannot charge for storage. You must reimburse the guest if the property has been damaged while you had it.
If the bill has not been paid in full after six weeks, you may sell the guest's property at a public auction, advertised at least four weeks in advance. If the sale makes more money than what is owed to you (including the costs of advertising and organising the auction), you must return the excess to the guest.
Another option for getting what's owed to you is claiming it through the small claims procedure.
All tourist accommodation businesses must keep a guest register – be aware of your responsibilities to keep this data secure.
All serviced and self-catering accommodation premises must keep a record of all guests over the age of 16. The record should include full name and nationality. See keeping a guest register in your tourist accommodation business.
When keeping a guest register, even if it's just names and contact details, you must protect your guests' privacy under data protection law. The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) sets out the key principles, rights and obligations for processing of personal data.
If you handle customer's credit/debit card number, you must follow the standards of the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. The standard is applicable to any organisation that stores, transmits or processes cardholder information.
Find out how to protect your customers and achieve the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance; See accepting online payments.
Find out if you need planning permission for your bed and breakfast, self catering or other tourism business.
If you plan to open a small bed and breakfast in your own home, you may not need planning permission to start your business. The key test to decide if you need planning permission is whether you will change the overall nature of the house. For example, a building changing from a private home to business premises.
If your home will no longer be used mainly as a private residence, and your business activities will affect the area where you live then you will likely need planning consent for a change of use. Things affecting the local area include disturbance to neighbours and increased footfall.
You only need planning permission if the new building use is classed differently from the current one. For example, changing the building from a greengrocer to a shoe shop will not need planning permission as both are classed as shops. However, if you're changing a home into a guest house then you will need planning permission.
Contact your council’s local planning office for advice.
If you are agreeing a lease or buying a new property for your accommodation start-up, you should consider in advance if you need to get planning permission for your intended use. Also think about what your chances of getting it are. Contact your local area planning office for their advice at an early stage.
Building regulations apply if you plan to:
These rules set standards on the safety and stability of any building work.
If you're planning on carrying out work on your premises, you must apply with your local Building Control Office.
Find out if you need to pay business rates serviced or self catering accommodation premises.
If you operate bed and breakfast or self-catering accommodation, you may need to pay business rates.
If you operate a bed and breakfast you may have to pay both non-domestic rates, on the portion used for guest accommodation, and domestic rates on the portion used for owner/staff accommodation. See business rates.
Business rates do not apply to a bed and breakfast where:
Business rates do not apply to a self-catering accommodation where:
If you have to pay business rates, but use your property for business and domestic purposes, only the part you use for business purposes is subject to business rates. You will have to pay domestic rates for the residential part of the property.
Find out if you need permission to display tourism signs or advertisements for your business.
If you display any outdoor signs or advertisements you may need to apply to the planning authority for consent. Whether you need consent from the planning authority depends on whether your signs are fully, partially or not lit-up and where you place them.
If your property is listed or lies within a conservation area you may need further consent. You could also be more restricted in the types of signs you can display.
You will also need to ensure that any signs you display are not misleading. This could be a breach of fair trading rules, as well as marketing laws.
If you wish to apply for brown tourism signposting, you should contact the Roads Department of your local council, who will advise you about:
Tourism Northern Ireland provide information about brown signs.
An outline of health and safety obligations specific to tourism businesses.
As a tourist accommodation provider, you are responsible for health and safety of your guests whilst they are on your premises.
Your health and safety obligations extend to not only to guests, but to anyone on your premises, including staff.
For more general guidance on health and safety, see health and safety.
You have a 'duty of care' to guests and other visitors. You must make sure that premises are reasonably safe for purpose.. If you don't take precautions to ensure reasonable safety of the premises, you can be sued for compensation or prosecuted.
To make premises 'reasonably safe', you should take common sense precautions such as:
If certain parts of your premises, such as the kitchen or the store room, are clearly marked out of bounds to guests, your duty of care may not extend to these areas.
You may be held liable for accidents caused as a result of the actions of your staff or other guests. However, your guests also have a duty to take care of their own safety. If they have an accident due to their own negligence, or while doing something you wouldn't reasonably expect them to do, your liability for the accident may be reduced or overridden.
As part of your health and safety responsibilities, you will need to report certain accidents involving your guests or staff. See first aid, accidents and ill health in the workplace.
For on outline of your health and safety duties to your staff, see employer's health and safety responsibilities.
You are also legally required to have insurance to cover your liability for any bodily injury or disease sustained by an employee at work. See liability insurance for your business.
Whilst it's not a legal requirement, you should consider taking out additional insurance to cover your liability to your guests. See public liability insurance.
If a guest or a member of your staff has made a claim against you, you should seek legal advice. Find a solicitor.
Fire, gas and electricity safety laws that tourist accommodation businesses must comply with.
All accommodation businesses, regardless of their size, have to comply with safety laws relating to fire, gas and electricity.
All businesses must:
Fire risk assessment is the foundation for all the fire safety measures you need on the premises. It is essential to keep your business and your guests safe. See fire safety and risk assessment.
If you are providing self-catering accommodation that contains upholstered furniture, your furniture must comply with certain safety tests:
All new upholstered furniture (except mattresses and bedding) and loose and stretch covers for furniture must carry a permanent label detailing compliance with fire safety requirements. Always look for these labels before buying any upholstered furniture for your property.
You could consider buying furniture designed to cope with a greater fire hazard (eg hotel beds and chairs). When re-equipping your self-catering property, it will normally be for you to decide if you require the new furniture to meet these higher fire resistance standards. If you are in doubt, check with your local fire authority.
Electrical safety laws apply to most electrical equipment in your accommodation. This includes:
The laws apply to new and second-hand equipment equally.
If you are making the equipment available for your guests to use, you will be liable for their safety. For electrical equipment to be regarded as safe, there should be no risk (or only a minimal risk) that the equipment could cause death or injury to any person, or cause damage to property.
Whilst not a legal requirement, you should regularly check and service the electrical goods you supply in your accommodation to ensure their safety.
You must have gas appliances, installation pipework or flue installed in your premises in accordance with manufacturer's instructions. You must maintain them in a safe condition. A Gas Safe engineer must inspect them at least once a year.
Information to help you comply with food safety laws if you offer food or drink to your guests.
If you wish to carry out any 'food operations' in the course of your accommodation business, you must register your premises with your local council's environmental health department. You must do so at least 28 days before your business opens.
Food operations include selling, cooking, storing, handling, preparing and distributing food and drink.
If you're serving food to your guests, you also need to ensure that you comply with other relevant laws relating to food safety, hygiene and labelling. Find detailed information on each below.
If you wish to sell alcohol on your premises, you will need an alcohol licence.
Disability and discrimination laws for accommodation providers and what they mean for your business.
If you provide any sort of accommodation in Northern Ireland, serviced or self-catering, you have duties under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
Under this law, you must not discriminate against disabled people using your goods, facilities or services. You must treat everyone fairly, regardless of their:
You can't refuse to serve people with disabilities or provide them a lower standard of service, unless this can be justified.
You may need to make 'reasonable adjustments' to any barriers that may prevent a person with disabilities using or accessing their service.
What is 'reasonable' will depend on a number of factors, including the cost of an adjustment. Think ahead and take steps to address barriers that impede disabled people. This can include:
See disabled access and facilities in business premises.
The Equality Commission offer advice and information to service providers on their duties under equality law.
Employment law and best practice resources that can help you run your tourism business lawfully and efficiently.
If you employ staff in your tourism business, or are thinking of doing so in the future, there are a number of things that you will need to consider.
The guides below can help you comply with the relevant employment laws, and provide you with best practice know-how for managing your staff:
Why you must keep a guest register if you run a hotel, bed and breakfast, hostel or any other accommodation business, and what you need to record in it.
If you run a serviced or self-catering accommodation business, you must keep a record of all guests over the age of 16. This can take the form of a registration form, or can be recorded electronically.
You must keep each guest's details for at least 12 months and have the register available for inspection by police or other authorised persons at all time.
On guests' arrival, you need to record:
If your guests are using your car parking facilities, you may also want to take record of the registration number of their car. However, you aren't legally required to do so.
When keeping a guest register, even if it's just names and contact details, you must protect your guests' privacy under the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
The rules for reselling gas and electricity, charging for telephone calls and providing water from private supply.
When you're running a tourist accommodation business, the costs and responsibilities of providing utilities to your guests are one of the factors you will need to consider.
If you are reselling electricity to your guests that has already been bought from an authorised electricity supplier, the most you can charge is limited by law.
You can only resell electricity at the same price you bought it. You are not allowed to charge guests more money for electricity than you paid for it.
This rule does not apply if you charge your guests an inclusive charge for accommodation, eg one that includes 'all amenities' and does not specify separate charge for electricity.
As with electricity, you may only resell gas at the same price that you bought it. You aren't allowed to charge your guests more for gas than you originally paid for it.
Download guidance for resellers of electricity and gas (PDF, 307KB).
If you use or provide water from a private supply to other people in the course of your business, eg by renting out holiday accommodation or using water for food production, you have a duty of care towards these people for the safety of the water you supply.
In these circumstances, you must register your supply with the Northern Ireland Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI).
Once you register your private water supply, the DWI will assess it for contamination risk and place it on a monitoring programme to check that it meets the water quality standards.
As a matter of good practice, you should be as open as possible with guests about telephone charges.
You should indicate clearly typical usage rates for bedroom telephones. These should include examples of costs per unit and length of time that unit represents.
You should display charges for:
Your responsibilities for safekeeping, and your rights to retain, your guest's belongings.
If you run serviced accommodation, such as a bed and breakfast or a hotel, you must take responsibility for looking after your guest's luggage. In some cases, you may have the legal right to keep your guest's luggage if they don't pay their bill.
If you run a hotel and have a guest for at least one night, you could be liable for loss and damage to your guest's property. This will depend on certain factors:
If your guest didn't stay overnight and was, for example, simply visiting the restaurant or bar, you will usually be liable for the loss of or damage to your guest's property only if:
In certain circumstances, serviced accommodation providers may have the right to detain a guest's luggage.
The owner of a hotel (as defined in the Hotel Proprietors Act (Northern Ireland) 1958) has the legal right to keep a guest's property until the guest settles their bill. This does not include the guest's car or property left in it; or clothes that the guest is wearing.
When the guest settles their bill, you must return the property to them. You cannot charge for storage. You must reimburse the guest if the property has been damaged while you had it.
If the bill has not been paid in full after six weeks, you may sell the guest's property at a public auction, advertised at least four weeks in advance. If the sale makes more money than what is owed to you (including the costs of advertising and organising the auction), you must return the excess to the guest.
Another option for getting what's owed to you is claiming it through the small claims procedure.
All tourist accommodation businesses must keep a guest register – be aware of your responsibilities to keep this data secure.
All serviced and self-catering accommodation premises must keep a record of all guests over the age of 16. The record should include full name and nationality. See keeping a guest register in your tourist accommodation business.
When keeping a guest register, even if it's just names and contact details, you must protect your guests' privacy under data protection law. The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) sets out the key principles, rights and obligations for processing of personal data.
If you handle customer's credit/debit card number, you must follow the standards of the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. The standard is applicable to any organisation that stores, transmits or processes cardholder information.
Find out how to protect your customers and achieve the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance; See accepting online payments.