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The charges commonly described as DTCM fees now fall under DET (Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, formerly DTCM) and serve two distinct purposes. The first group covers registration and the annual Holiday Home permit, paid by the owner or operator. The second is the Tourism Dirham, which the operator collects from guests per bedroom, per night, and remits monthly. Under the DET fee schedule reviewed in September 2026, the permit charge is calculated by bedroom and capped for each holiday home. Both categories are also affected by temporary relief measures in 2026, subject to the validity periods announced by DET. As fees may be revised, every figure below is indicative and should be confirmed through the DET portal when the relevant transaction is made.
The payment cycle provides a practical way to distinguish these charges. Registration costs arise when the property enters the Holiday Homes system, permit fees return at renewal, and Tourism Dirham reporting and remittance begin once guests are hosted. Linking each charge to its trigger makes the regulatory budget easier to plan and keeps it separate from operating costs such as cleaning, utilities, maintenance, and management.
The distinction that matters most is between what the owner pays and what the guest pays. Registration and permit fees are paid by the owner or by the licensed operator acting on the owner's behalf, and they are fixed amounts set by DET. The Tourism Dirham is paid by the guest as part of each stay, and the operator's role is to collect it and remit it to DET on schedule, which makes it a pass-through obligation rather than a cost of the business.
A third group, the penalties, applies only where a remittance is late or a requirement is not met, so a well-run property may never encounter it.
Two charges arise when a property becomes a holiday home, and one of them recurs: the registration fee is a one-off charge paid by the host or operator to set up an account with DET. DET charges apply at two levels. Registration applies when the homeowner or operator enters the Holiday Homes system, while each property requires its own permit. The DET portal currently shows the applicable registration amount when the account is created, published at AED 1,520, made up of AED 1,500 together with the AED 10 knowledge fee and the AED 10 innovation fee that accompany the transaction.
The permit fee is the recurring charge, and the published schedule structures it per bedroom: AED 300 for each bedroom, plus AED 50 for the holiday home classification certificate, plus the AED 10 knowledge fee and the AED 10 innovation fee. A studio or one-bedroom home therefore carries a permit fee of AED 370 under that schedule, the amount rises with each additional bedroom. The per-bedroom permit component is capped at AED 1,200 per holiday home each year. Including the separately listed classification, knowledge, and innovation fees, the indicative total may reach AED 1,270. A Holiday Home permit is valid for one year and may be renewed for the same period, subject to the applicable requirements.
Renewal carries the same annual permit fee and follows the permit's own expiry date, which should be monitored continuously with renewal reminders set in advance. The permit renewal process, its document list, and the responsibilities around it are covered separately, and the wider route through licensing a holiday home explains where each fee falls in the application itself.
Published DET fee schedule for holiday homes, checked in September 2026; amounts indicative, confirmed on the DET portal at submission.
The Tourism Dirham is charged per bedroom, per night, at a rate set by the property's classification, AED 10 per bedroom for a standard holiday home and AED 15 per bedroom for a deluxe holiday home, and it applies per bedroom regardless of how many guests occupy it, for up to the first 30 consecutive nights of a stay, so a guest staying longer pays it for the first 30 nights only.
The operator collects the fee from the guest as part of the stay and remits it to DET on schedule, by the 15th of the following month, with the classification recorded at registration, when the property is certified as standard or deluxe. The Dubai holiday home regulations that follow licensing, from guest registration to remittance and inspections, treat the Tourism Dirham as a continuing monthly duty rather than a one-off charge.
Late payment of the Tourism Dirham carries a penalty, currently 10 per cent of the amount owed with a minimum of AED 1,000. Repetition of the same violation within one year may double the fine, subject to a maximum of AED 50,000. DET may also impose temporary or permanent closure measures. Because the fee applies to every booking, the exposure comes from volume rather than from any single stay, which makes systematic collection the practical safeguard. A monthly reconciliation of occupied bedroom-nights against the Tourism Dirham collected and remitted is the simplest check an owner can ask an operator to show.
DET can also fine operators for failing to provide regular maintenance and for operating outside the permit's terms, and a property is no longer authorised to operate or be advertised as a holiday home once its permit has expired. DET's published schedule includes a fine of AED 2,000 for failing to provide regular maintenance and AED 500 for non-compliance with Holiday Home permit terms. Other sanctions may also apply according to the nature and repetition of the violation.
Two government measures affect these charges in 2026. From 1 April 2026, eligible hospitality establishments, including holiday homes, could defer the Tourism Dirham and specified sales fees for three months. On 21 May 2026, a second package of measures announced by the Government of Dubai included an exemption from permit and licence fees for holiday homes and an exemption from collection of the Tourism Dirham for establishments registered with DET, with the implementation timeframes to be announced by DET.
At the time of writing, in September 2026, the implementation dates and the duration of the holiday home exemptions had not been published on the sources checked for this list, so the published schedule above remains the reference for what the charges are, while the DET portal is the reference for whether an exemption or deferral applies to a given application or remittance on the day it is made.
Several of the costs an owner meets are often grouped with the regulator's fees but belong elsewhere: electricity and water are billed by DEWA, district cooling by the building's cooling provider where one serves it, service charges are administered by the building's Management Entity under Dubai's jointly owned property framework, and insurance is arranged with an insurer and must remain valid throughout the licence period.
Platform and management charges form a separate layer. Airbnb uses different service-fee structures. Under the single-fee model, which is mandatory for hosts using property-management software, most hosts currently pay 15.5 per cent, although the applicable percentage should be confirmed for the listing. This is the platform's charge rather than the property manager's commission, and the manager's own fee is set out in the management agreement. The Airbnb management fees breakdown separates those layers line by line, and the wider question of what property managers charge in Dubai covers the fee models an owner is likely to meet.
The table places every charge in this list beside the party it is paid to and how often it recurs, so an owner can see the regulatory fees in proportion to the rest.
First Class Property Management handles the DET registration as part of its onboarding, tracks each permit's expiry date for renewal, collects the Tourism Dirham from guests, and remits it to DET on schedule, with the owner's financial statement and payout issued on the 15th of each month. It has recorded zero DET fines since the company was founded in 2020.
Its management scope combines operational coordination with AI-powered dynamic pricing and daily review by pricing specialists. First Class Property Management charges a single management fee of 20 per cent, shown separately from the Airbnb platform fee and from property-level operating costs, with the revenue basis for the calculation defined in the management agreement, so the DET charges in this list appear on the owner's statement as their own lines rather than folded into the fee.
How much is the DET holiday home permit in Dubai?
Under the published schedule, checked in September 2026, the permit fee is AED 300 per bedroom plus AED 50 for the classification certificate and the AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation fees, which makes AED 370 for a studio or one-bedroom home, capped at AED 1,200 per holiday home per year. A one-off registration fee of AED 1,520 is paid by the host or operator when setting up an account with DET.
Who pays the Tourism Dirham on a holiday home?
The guest pays it as part of the stay, at AED 10 per bedroom per night for a standard holiday home or AED 15 for a deluxe one, for up to the first 30 consecutive nights. The operator collects the amount and remits it to DET by the 15th of the following month, so it passes through the operator's accounts rather than reducing the owner's income.
Are holiday home permit fees waived in 2026?
The Government of Dubai announced on 21 May 2026 that holiday homes registered with DET would be exempted from permit and licence fees and from collection of the Tourism Dirham as part of an economic incentives package, with implementation dates to be announced by DET. The sources checked in September 2026 did not yet publish those dates, so the current position is confirmed on the DET portal before budgeting.
Is there a separate fee to renew a holiday home permit?
Renewal carries the same annual permit fee as the original permit, including the per-bedroom element and the classification certificate, and it is paid against the permit's own expiry date rather than on a fixed calendar date. The one-off registration fee is not repeated at renewal.
If you would rather have the registration, the renewals, and the monthly remittance handled inside one arrangement, First Class Property Management's property management service carries the DET charges as separate lines on the owner's statement.
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First Class Property Management
Office 301, Al Zarouni Business Centre,
606 Sheikh Zayed Road,
Al Barsha First, Dubai, UAE
