If you let a flat in Kraków, Warsaw, Gdańsk or anywhere else in Poland by the night, the rules are about to change. On 8 October 2026 the Sejm passed an amendment to the Act on Hotel Services that regulates short-term rentals. The vote was 407 for, 24 against and 9 abstentions, with only Konfederacja voting against.

It isn't law yet. Below is what the bill says, where it stands now, and what you can do in the meantime.

Where the bill stands

As of 17 October 2026, the bill is with the Senate, which can still propose amendments. If it does, the bill goes back to the Sejm. After that, the President has to sign it. According to the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, most provisions would apply 14 days after publication in the Journal of Laws. The building-level bans and municipal zones would follow on 1 January 2028.

In practice, registration and fines could arrive within weeks of the President signing. That's not much time if you haven't started preparing.

What the bill changes

Stays under 30 days become a hotel service

Letting a house, flat or room to the public for a stay of less than 30 days to a single guest would count as a hotel service. Under this act, people who provide that service would be treated as entrepreneurs. Lets of 30 days or more, such as ordinary residential leases, are not covered by these rules.

Small hosts get some relief: the full hotel requirements, including stricter fire-safety rules, would only kick in above six units or 30 beds in one building.

A register entry and a number on every listing

The law brings in the EU regulation on short-term rental data. It creates the Central List of Tourist Accommodation Facilities (CWTON), a public register fed with data from municipal accommodation records. Each unit would get its own ID number, and that number has to appear in every listing, including on Airbnb and Booking.com.

Fines of up to 50,000 zł

Operating without the required registration, or advertising without the number, could bring an administrative fine of up to 50,000 zł. Finwire notes that the fines apply per unit, so if you have several unregistered flats, each one could be fined separately.

If the authorities record three breaches of safety or public order within six months, the unit could be removed from the register. You could only apply to register it again after a year.

Building bans and municipal zones from 2028

This is the part that matters most to tenants and owner-occupiers in buildings full of tourist lets. From 1 January 2028:

  • A housing community (wspólnota mieszkaniowa) or the general assembly of a housing cooperative could vote to ban short-term lets in their building. In a cooperative, the ban would need more than 50% of all members entitled to vote, not just a majority of those present.
  • After a ban is adopted, owners would have six months to stop letting short term.
  • A municipal council, at the mayor's request, could set zones where short-term letting of flats is temporarily switched off. Councils could tailor these by area, type of building or season.
  • Housing communities, cooperatives and neighbours could also ask for inspections.

Why this matters beyond Poland

Many owners from Ukraine, Hungary and elsewhere in the region have bought flats in Polish cities, and the choice between nightly and long-term letting looks different now. A flat that earns well on Airbnb today could be shut out of short-term letting by its own building's vote in 2028. Leases of 30 days or more aren't affected by these rules, so a long-term tenant is the steadier option if your building or district is likely to restrict tourist lets.

What you can do now

  1. List your units and the length of your stays. Work out which flats have bookings under 30 days. Those are the ones the new rules would cover.
  2. Get ready to register. Collect the property details, ownership documents and contact details you'll need, and keep an eye on your municipality's announcements about the accommodation register.
  3. Plan to update your listings. Once you have a number, add it to every platform you use. A listing without one is exactly what the fines target.
  4. Talk to your building. Find out how your housing community or cooperative feels about tourist lets. Neighbours who are bothered by noise and key boxes are the ones who will vote in 2028.
  5. Run the numbers for long-term letting. Compare your net income from nightly lets with a stable lease, including cleaning, platform fees and empty nights. If you switch, keep the lease, payments and documents for each flat together. In LeasingTrack the lease balance follows from the records, and it's free for up to two properties.
  6. Get advice on your situation. Being treated as an entrepreneur under this act may have other consequences for you, and the final text could still change in the Senate. Check your own case with a Polish accountant or lawyer, especially if you live abroad.

We'll update this article once the Senate has voted and the law is published.