Short-term rental in Costa Rica is legal in the way a licensed hotel is legal: there is a statute, a registry, and a tax, and skipping them is not a gray area this page will dress up. Stays from 24 hours up to one year are “hospedaje no tradicional” under Law 9742, in force since October 29, 2019. If that is the plan for a Guanacaste house, the plan includes paperwork before the first key handoff. See Investment guide.
The tourism registry
Hosts register with the Costa Rican Tourism Board. The filing identifies the host, the address, the rooms, the maximum number of guests, and a contact. The board validates the file and aims to respond within 15 calendar days with a user code. Keep the data current; changes are supposed to be reported within a month. Operating without that registration is not allowed. This page does not print penalty amounts. They were not verified against a current official schedule, and an invented fine would be worse than none. Ask the attorney or accountant who will stand behind the filing.
Whether booking platforms now refuse a listing that lacks the code is also not something to guess. Check the platform’s current Costa Rica rules the month you go live.
Value-added tax is not optional
Hosts also register with the tax authority, charge 13 percent VAT, issue electronic invoices, and file a monthly VAT return on form D-104-2. Airbnb’s own Costa Rica tax guide says there is no registration threshold and that Airbnb does not add the VAT for you. If you were hoping the platform would be the tax department, it will not. Income tax is a further layer: generally 15 percent of 85 percent of gross receipts, unless you elect the ordinary regime and deduct documented expenses because renting is the main activity.
Municipal licensing and zoning still apply. A national registry does not override a canton. And the building can be stricter than the country. Condominium law does not, in the materials reviewed, ban short stays by itself. A registered set of bylaws can. Buyers are bound by the rules that already exist. Changing them takes a vote representing at least two-thirds of the condominium’s value, with a further rule when one owner holds half or more. Read the designated use, the rental clause, and any minimum stay before you underwrite a nightly rate.
What this coast has not published
A public, current statement of short-term rules for every Reserva Conchal neighborhood, or for Las Catalinas, was not found while this page was prepared. Owners do participate in rental programs, including programs tied to the W Residences and the W Hotel, and Beach Club access for owners is not the same thing as access for their guests. Until you have the neighborhood rules and the program contract, do not model a yield that assumes nightly rentals are welcome.
Gross rental yield, the only yield figure this site publishes, is 5 to 9 percent before management, HOA, taxes, maintenance, and platform fees. The income page walks through that. The law on this page is what has to be true before that yield is even a spreadsheet.