The licences and registrations to open a hotel in India

The Ministry of Tourism's guidelines for star classification list the licences and NOCs a hotel shows its inspectors. Whether or not you ever apply, it makes a useful national checklist:

• A trade licence to operate as a hotel.
• An NOC from the fire department.
• A health clearance from the municipal health officer or sanitary inspector.
• An NOC from the police.
• Consent to operate from the state pollution control board.
• A bar licence, where you serve alcohol.
• Where they apply: an NOC from the environment ministry, from the Airports Authority of India near an airport, and coastal regulation zone (CRZ) clearance.
• Land use permission, sanctioned building plans and the occupancy certificate.

Add GST, FSSAI and, in some states, the tourism department's registration. Each comes from a different law and office, and states, cities and panchayats set many of them, so the same hotel needs different papers in Shimla, Panaji and Delhi. The Ministry itself says its approval is no substitute for any statutory approval.

You register for GST once, on the GST portal, against the business's PAN, which the portal says is mandatory for it.

Apply within 30 days of becoming liable and your registration counts from that day, the portal's manual says. On www.gst.gov.in, choose “Services”, then “Registration”, then “New Registration”: Part A takes the PAN, email and mobile, and Part B the business details, the place of business with proof, and Aadhaar authentication (the full steps are in the guide on starting a hotel business). A homestay may need GST sooner than the limit: Himachal Pradesh requires a GST number for its Diamond and Gold categories.

If you serve food, you are a food business. FSSAI's licensing regulations, in the version FSSAI publishes, set three levels:

• Registration, for a petty food business, with the registering authority: a food safety officer, or an official of the panchayat, municipality or other local body.
• A licence from the state's licensing authority, for food businesses above that size.
• A central licence from FSSAI, for the kinds of business its Schedule 1 lists, such as a food business operating in two or more states.

• A registration is granted, refused, or sent for inspection within 7 days. If nothing happens in that time, the regulations let you start the business.
• A licence is due within 60 days of a complete application.
• Both last from 1 to 5 years, as you choose, and you apply to renew at least 30 days before they end.

FSSAI's online portal is FoSCoS, at foscos.fssai.gov.in. For homestays, states may ask less: Kerala's homestay scheme asks for food safety registration and says no licence is needed, and Goa's policy lets a homestay serving home-cooked food ask to be exempted.

The fire service of your state or city gives the fire safety certificate, or fire NOC, under its own act and rules. How it works in Delhi, as the Delhi Fire Service describes it:

1. 1While the building is planned, the Delhi Fire Service issues fire safety guidelines, in line with the Unified Building Bye Laws, 2016 and the National Building Code. The request goes through the building or licensing authority, with plans and a questionnaire your architect fills in.
2. 2The guidelines usually come within three weeks, if the information is correct.
3. 3Once the building follows them, the owner or builder applies to the Director for the no objection certificate, and the fire service inspects.
4. 4The fire service charges no inspection fee for this inspection or for the NOC.
5. 5A hotel's fire safety certificate is renewed every 3 years (residential buildings other than hotels, every 5), and the renewal is applied for at least six months before it ends.

Other states have their own fire services, acts and timelines, so ask yours at the planning stage, before the building is finished. A homestay may need less: Himachal Pradesh's rules ask for basic fire equipment, and Goa lists a fire NOC among the local permissions it may ask for.

The municipal corporation, municipality, nagar panchayat or gram panchayat where the hotel stands gives the trade licence to run it, and checks sanitation. The licence's name, form and fee are the local body's own. What the official pages ask for:

• The Ministry of Tourism, for a classified hotel: a trade licence to operate as a hotel, the municipality's or corporation's certificate that it is registered as a hotel, and a health NOC from the municipal health officer or sanitary inspector.
• The Ministry, for an approved guest house: the municipality's licence registering it as a guest house, with its sanitary and hygiene clearance, and registration with the police, municipality, electricity, water and fire authorities and the state tourism department.
• Goa, for a homestay: local permissions as the case needs, such as the trade licence from the panchayat or municipality.
• Himachal Pradesh, for a homestay: tell the urban or rural local body, which keeps a register of homestays.
• Kerala, for homestay classification: no NOC from the panchayat, municipality or corporation, since 3 June 2022.

Ask your local body's licensing or health department what it issues for a hotel, guest house or lodging, and what it needs to see first.

• Police clearance: the Ministry of Tourism asks a classified hotel for the police department's NOC, and an approved guest house for the police licence that authorises it to run. For homestays its form asks whether the police have cleared the owner's antecedents, and Kerala asks for a police clearance certificate from the local station house officer.
• Guest register: keep a record of every guest's check-in and check-out; the Ministry's homestay checklist asks for passport details of foreign guests.
• Foreign guests: every keeper of accommodation, from hotels and boarding houses to home stays, tents and paying guest houses, sends Form III, earlier called Form C, to the registration officer within 24 hours of a foreign guest's arrival, and the departure within 24 hours of leaving, on indianfrro.gov.in or its app. Overseas Citizen of India cardholders are now included. Keep the records electronically for at least a year.

In Delhi, the fire service's website also links to the Ministry of Home Affairs' unified portal for licensing eating, lodging and boarding establishments. Ask your local police station what your city asks of a hotel or lodging.

The Central Pollution Control Board sorts businesses into red, orange, green and white categories by how much they pollute. For hotels, motels and resorts, its list as on 24 August 2026 goes by the number of rooms:

• Above 300 rooms: red, or orange with cleaner or gas fuel in the kitchen and its conditions.
• 101 to 300 rooms: orange.
• 21 to 100 rooms: orange, or green with cleaner or gas fuel in the kitchen and its conditions.
• Up to 20 rooms: green, or white with cleaner or gas fuel in the kitchen and its conditions.

The conditions include gensets that meet the CPCB IV+ norms or run fully on gas, electric or gas boilers, an oil and grease trap at the kitchen outlet, and wastewater handled as the CPHEEO's 2013 manual on sewerage sets out; in the green band for 21 to 100 rooms, a hotel of more than 50 rooms needs its own sewage treatment plant. Your state pollution control board tells you which consents your category needs, and when. The Ministry of Tourism asks classified hotels for the board's consent to operate.

Some states have their own law for tourist businesses:

• Himachal Pradesh: the Tourism Development and Registration Act, 2002 and its Home Stay Rules, 2025, under which no homestay may run unregistered.
• Goa: the Goa Registration of Tourist Trade Act, 1982, under which homestays and bed and breakfasts register with the Department of Tourism.
• Kerala: homestay classification is mandatory.
• Uttarakhand: the Uttarakhand Tourism Travel Trade Registration Rules, 2026, and homestay registration on the tourism board's portal.

The Ministry of Tourism's own schemes are voluntary: star classification, guest house approval and the Incredible India homestay scheme. So is NIDHI, whose registration page says it doesn't replace any legal requirement of the centre or a state. For rural homestays, the Ministry's draft strategy asks states to exempt them, where feasible, from needing a licence under the Sarais Act, 1867 or similar laws to provide food and lodging; it is a draft, so check what your state does.

1. 1Before you buy or build: check that the land use allows a hotel, and ask the pollution control board and the fire service what your size needs.
2. 2While you build: building plan sanction, the fire service's guidelines, and the pollution control board's consent to establish if your category needs one.
3. 3As the building finishes: the occupancy or completion certificate, the fire safety certificate, and the board's consent to operate.
4. 4Before you open: PAN, GST registration if you need it, FSSAI registration or licence, the trade licence and health clearance, police clearance, your state's tourism registration, and the bar licence if you serve alcohol.
5. 5Before your first foreign guest: sign up on the Form C portal.
6. 6Then, if you choose: NIDHI and the Ministry's classification.

Keep a list of every licence with its number, the office, the date it ends and the date to apply for renewal. FSSAI wants renewals at least 30 days ahead, the Delhi Fire Service six months ahead, and the Ministry's classification six months ahead.