This page is here to help give you a starting point to find out about some of the obligations that may apply to you if you decide to host Trips or Experiences on Airbnb. It’s for your information only and includes summaries of some of the rules that may apply to different sorts of activities, and contain links to official resources that you may find helpful.

Please understand that these information pages are not comprehensive, and are not legal advice. If you are unsure about how local laws or this information may apply to you or your Experience, we encourage you to check with official sources or seek legal advice.

Please note that we don’t update this information in real time, so you should confirm that the law has not changed recently.*

When am I a business?

You are likely to be considered to be operating a business if you regularly provide goods or services in return for money. If you just provide a Trip or experience as a once-off or irregularly, you are unlikely to be considered to be operating a business.

Examples of where an individual may be considered to be “operating a business":

• I am a professional cook and I make my living by organising pop-up dinners. My experiences and Trips will involve pop-up dining.
• I am a non-professional cook with a passion for food and my local area. I provide experiences or Trips involving cooking classes and guided visits of my area and the shops and locals I love. I do this on a regular basis and this is how I make my living.
• I am a professional part-time yoga instructor. I want to occasionally provide Trips or experiences which involve me providing yoga classes and introducing guests to some of the wonderful yogis I know. While I will be providing these Trips or experiences to guests occasionally, these activities will be similar to those activities which I provide regularly as a professional part-time yoga instructor.

Examples of where an individual may not be considered to be “operating a business":

• I provide an experience or a Trip as a once-off thing, or just a handful of times a year, mainly centred around local events that I love going to (and where I know the organisers and artists). This is not something I rely on to make my living: I am a freelance graphic designer by trade.
• I am a professional yoga instructor by trade and I make my living by running yoga classes in various locations. In my spare time, I love to cook healthy vegetarian meals and I have a passion for sharing this way of eating with people. I want to provide experiences or Trips on an ad-hoc irregular basis which will centre around healthy vegetarian and vegan eating and organic food markets only and will not include yoga classes.

The above scenarios are general, high level examples of when an individual may or may not be considered to be operating a business. There are no specific criteria which can be applied to determine whether the frequency with which you intend to provide the Trips or experiences would result in you being considered to be operating a business. Whether or not you might be considered to be operating a business depends on your individual circumstances; if you are unsure, you should seek advice from an accountant or legal advisor.

What if I am a business? Is there anything I need to be aware of when dealing with consumers?

Yes. If you are regularly providing goods or services to Guests (who are consumers), in exchange for money, it is likely that the goods or services would be considered to be provided “in the ordinary course of your business" (even if you do not think of yourself as operating a “business") and you will need to comply with the Consumer Protection Act 2008. This applies to all your dealings with Guests - including the information you provide Guests about your Trip or Experience, any transaction you enter into with a Guest to provide your Trip or Experience to them, as well as the Trip or Experience itself.

The Consumer Protection Act requires you to deal with Guests fairly and transparently and to ensure that you do not provide them with false, misleading or deceptive information: for example, by exaggerating what they’ll get as part of a Trip, by misrepresenting the price of your Trip or Experience or by failing to tell them in advance about any additional fees or expenses they may need to incur as part of an activity - e.g. if they need to pay for entry tickets to an event). It also requires you to provide safe and good quality good and services to your Guests.

You can find out more about the Consumer Protection Act on the National Consumer Commission website. If you are unsure about whether the Consumer Protection Act applies to you, or which provisions of the Consumer Protection Act apply to you, you should seek advice from an accountant or legal advisor.

Do any business registration / licensing obligations apply?

You can operate as a business in South Africa without having to obtain a “general" business licence.

However, you should always check whether specific licences or registrations are required in relation to the specific activities you would like to carry out or in relation to the premises in which you might be carrying these out: