I hold a Special Operating Licence. Do I also need a registry number?

No. The same paragraph, point c, exempts holders of a Special Operating Licence, or of a filed notification, from registering with the registry. The display duty stays, though: you show the licence or notification number, in the same places.

What is the fine if it is missing?

For short-term letting there is no separate fine for the display alone. There is one fine for failing to meet the conditions of paragraph 2 as a whole: a standalone administrative fine per year, equal to 50% of the gross income of the tax year, and not less than 5,000 euros.

What happens if I am caught?

The law gives you fifteen calendar days from the finding of the breach to comply. If the same breach recurs within a year of the act imposing the fine, the fine is imposed at double the original amount.

Does anything additional apply to hotels?

Something additional applies. Article 165 paragraph 3 of Law 4070/2012 requires the tourism registry number to appear in all advertising placements, websites expressly included, in a way that makes it "clearly and distinctly perceptible". The fine there is 1,000 euros payable to the Greek National Tourism Organisation (EOT).

Does the guest have a 14-day right of withdrawal?

Not when the booking is for specific dates. Article 3l of Law 2251/1994, point (l), excludes the provision of accommodation other than for residential purposes, "if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance". Which is exactly why your own cancellation policy has to be written down and visible before the booking.

Is this legal advice?

No. I show you where each item is written, with the law and the article beside it, so you know what to ask. What your particular business owes, in its particular form and under its particular licence, is a question for an accountant and a lawyer.

Greek property websites: the registry numbers and details the law requires

I open property websites most weeks. Photographs a magazine would envy, a map, a booking form, three languages. Then I look for a number, and I do not find it.

It is not carelessness. It is a misunderstanding, and it is the same one every time: the registry number went on the platform, so it is done. That is not what the law says.

What the law actually says

Article 111 of Law 4446/2016, as codified by the Greek tax authority, sets out in paragraph 2 the conditions for short-term letting. Point b is one sentence:

“The registration number in the Short Term Stay Property Registry must accompany the listing of the property, in a visible place, on the digital platforms, as well as in every means of promotion.”

The words that cost money are “as well as”. It does not say “on the platforms”. It says on the platforms and in every means by which the property is promoted.

Your website is a means of promotion. Your Instagram is a means of promotion. The leaflet you leave at the cafe on the square is a means of promotion. A listing in a local guide is a means of promotion. Wherever you show the property in order to bring people in, the number needs to be there, in a visible place.

The tax authority’s own frequently asked questions of 23/09/2025 confirm it, listing the obligation in question 15 as “display of the registry number in a visible place when listing the property on the digital platforms as well as in every means of promotion of the property”, and it applies regardless of how you are taxed.

And if you hold a Special Operating Licence

The next point, c, is the one that confuses half the guesthouses in the country. Anyone holding a Special Operating Licence under articles 1 to 4 of Law 4276/2014, or who has filed a notification under article 6 of Law 4442/2016, does not register with the Short Term Stay Property Registry.

They are not exempt from the display, though. The law says those businesses “do however have the obligation to display in a visible place the number of the Special Operating Licence or of the notification, when listing the property on the digital platforms, as well as in every means of promotion”.

The number changes. Where it goes does not.

The cost, without the drama

I want to be precise here, because figures circulate out of context.

For short-term letting there is no separate fine for a missing display. Nowhere does the law say “the number is missing from the site, that is X euros”. What exists is a fine for failing to meet the conditions of paragraph 2 as a whole, and the display is one of them. Paragraph 5 point a:

“In the event of failure to meet the conditions of paragraphs 2 and 8, a standalone administrative fine is imposed on property managers per year, equal to fifty percent (50%) of the gross income of the tax year in which the breach is committed, which may not be less than five thousand (5,000) euros.”

Fifty percent of the year’s gross income, with a floor of five thousand. And two further sentences that matter as much as the first: from the finding of the breach you have fifteen calendar days to comply, and if it happens again within a year of the act imposing the fine, the fine is doubled.

Let me say it as I see it. The chance of someone catching you because a number is missing from your site is not large. The chance of fixing it in a few minutes is a hundred percent. You do not have to believe in the fear to do something that costs so little.

Hotels carry a second obligation

If the business is entered in the tourism business registry, there is a further provision, older and often forgotten.

Article 165 paragraph 3 of Law 4070/2012 requires the tourism registry number to appear in all advertising placements by tourism businesses: in radio and television broadcasts, in publications, and expressly on websites, in a way that makes it “clearly and distinctly perceptible” to the recipient of the message. The fine there is fixed: one thousand euros payable to the Greek National Tourism Organisation.

“Clearly and distinctly” means that a number in nine-point grey, at the very bottom of the footer, technically exists and effectively does not. Put it in the footer of every page, at the same size as everything else beside it, and the conversation is over.

Who you are, on paper

The next part is not about tourism, it is about any site that sells something, and property owners forget it more often than most.

Article 4 of Presidential Decree 131/2003, the Greek text on electronic commerce, asks that the following be easily and directly accessible: the provider’s name, the geographic address at which the provider is established, contact details including an electronic address, the registration number in a register where one exists, the details of the supervisory authority where the activity is subject to an authorisation scheme, and the VAT number where one is required. The second paragraph adds that prices are to be indicated clearly, making clear whether taxes and additional costs are included.

In practice this is one page, or one well-written footer. And no, an “info@” address with a form is not the same thing as an address. “Geographic address” is meant literally.

The booking form, the part everybody forgets

The moment a visitor types a name, a phone number and dates, you are collecting personal data. GDPR does not ask you to beg for it. It asks you to say so.

Beside the form, not buried three clicks away, four things should be visible: who is collecting the details, by full name or company name, for what purpose, for how long they will be kept, and where the visitor finds their rights. A link to the Privacy Policy, visible before the button, covers most of it.

And one distinction almost everyone loses: a booking does not need consent. It is performance of a contract. You will not ask anybody’s permission to keep their name so you can put them in a room. A newsletter does need it, and it needs its own box, empty. A box that arrives ready ticked is not consent, it is decoration. The rest, on cookies and consent, I have written out in GDPR and cookies in 2026.

What the guest has to know before pressing “book”

There is a point in the law that works in your favour, and most owners never use it.

Article 3l of Law 2251/1994, point (l), excludes from the right of withdrawal “the provision of accommodation other than for residential purposes, transport of goods, car rental services, catering or services related to leisure activities, if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance”.

In plain words: a booking for specific dates does not carry the fourteen-day withdrawal right that a purchase from an eshop carries.

Which is precisely why your own cancellation policy becomes the only rule in play. There is no legal safety net behind it to catch the misunderstanding. If the policy is not written down, visible before the booking and comprehensible to a person who does not read law, the policy will end up being written by a bad review.

Anything paid on site belongs in the same place. The climate crisis resilience levy, the municipal charge, cleaning, a deposit. Whatever you will ask for at check-in has to have been read by the guest before they booked. No surprise at check-in has ever ended well.

The ten-minute check

Open your site in a private window, on a phone, and behave like a stranger. Look for seven things, in this order:

The registry number, or the licence or notification number, in a visible place. The tourism registry number if you are a registered tourism business. The company name and geographic address. A phone number and an email address you can see without opening a form. The final price, with what it includes and what it does not. The cancellation policy before the button, not after it. And the link to the Privacy Policy beside the booking form.

If one or two are missing, that is half an hour of work. If five are missing, the site does not have a compliance problem, it has a seriousness problem, and the visitor reads that too, without knowing any law at all.

Because here is the substance that never makes it into a statute. A registry number in a visible place tells the visitor that you exist on paper. That what faces them is not a photograph with a bank account attached. In a market where everyone is afraid of being defrauded, being properly registered is not a burden. It is a selling point, and a free one.

And if you want less dependence on the platforms, the first step is a site that stands on its own, in every respect. I have written out with numbers what that dependence really costs you, and also how more direct bookings actually arrive.

If you would rather go through it together, tell me and we will take it one item at a time.

What your property's website has to say, and does not