How to register a homestay in India

• Your state's scheme, if it has one. The Ministry of Tourism's guidelines say it classifies homestays only where the state or union territory has no scheme of its own. In some states registering is the law: Himachal Pradesh forbids running an unregistered homestay, and Kerala makes classification mandatory.
• The Ministry of Tourism's Incredible India Bed & Breakfast and Homestay scheme, where your state has none.
• NIDHI, the Ministry's national register of places to stay, which is voluntary and sits alongside either.

Your municipality or panchayat, the fire service, FSSAI for food, and GST may ask for their own registrations as well (see the guide on licences to open a hotel in India).

The Ministry's Common National Standards and Guidelines of 10 December 2018 set the scheme, and also serve as the common standard for the states' own schemes:

• Two categories, Silver and Gold, judged first against a checklist of facilities and then on their quality, by a regional committee.
• A homestay: the owner's family lives there. A bed and breakfast: an agent or operator chosen by the owner lives there. Either lets 1 to 6 rooms, 12 beds at most.
• The regional committee is chaired by the regional director of India Tourism, or an officer the director names, with members from the Indian Association of Tour Operators, the Travel Agents Association of India, a hotel management institute and the state tourism department.
• Once you apply, the house must be ready for inspection at any time: the guidelines allow no request to put it off.
• Whatever the committee asks you to fix must be fixed in the time agreed at the inspection, never more than 3 months, or the application is rejected.
• The committee may recommend a lower category than you applied for, never a higher one, and then the fee isn't refunded.
• A complete application is decided within 30 days of the online application and the fee's receipt.
• Classification lasts two years. Apply to renew 3 months before it ends.
• Report any change in your facilities to the regional India Tourism office within 30 days.
• If you disagree with the decision, appeal to the Chairman of the HRACC at the Ministry within 30 days.

The 2018 guidelines name an older online portal for applications. The Ministry now says it classifies homestays and bed and breakfasts through its NIDHI portal, at nidhi.tourism.gov.in. Questions go to the regional director of India Tourism for your region: New Delhi for the north, Mumbai for the west and centre, Chennai for the south, Kolkata for the east and Guwahati for the north-east.

• The name of the homestay, the category you apply for, and the owners' names and addresses with a note on their background.
• The full address, telephone and email, and the distance in kilometres from the airport, railway station, city centre, main shopping centre and bus stand.
• The area of the house, owned or leased, with copies of the sale or lease deed, revenue papers showing ownership, and an affidavit from any co-sharer of the house or land.
• Whether the police have cleared the owner's antecedents and the proposed activity, with a copy.
• The number of rooms and each room's size in square feet, the number of attached bathrooms, and the sizes of the lounge, dining space and parking.
• Any eco-friendly features, facilities for guests with disabilities and fire-fighting equipment.
• Photographs of the building inside and out: bathroom, living room, bedroom and parking.
• The checklist of facilities, filled in online, and an undertaking signed by the owner to follow the rules.

The checklist and the room sizes for Silver and Gold are in the guide on starting a homestay.

NIDHI, the National Integrated Database of Hospitality Industry, is the Ministry of Tourism's register of places to stay, travel agents, tour operators and restaurants. A registered unit gets a NIDHI ID and can then apply for the Ministry's services from its dashboard. Its registration page is plain about what NIDHI is not. Registering:

• is voluntary;
• doesn't mean the Ministry has recognised or approved you, and you may not advertise that it has just because you registered;
• doesn't replace any legal requirement of the centre or your state for setting up or running a place to stay.

Keep ready a valid email address and mobile number, the PAN and GST number of the unit or owner where you have them, and an FSSAI licence number if you have one. The steps, from the NIDHI user manual that Goa's Department of Tourism publishes:

1. 1Go to nidhi.tourism.gov.in and choose “Register your unit”.
2. 2Read the disclaimer and choose “ACCEPT & PROCEED”, then read the instructions and proceed.
3. 3Select your category and sub-category: Accommodation Unit, then Homestay or Bed & Breakfast.
4. 4Fill in the basic information, the unit's address and contact details, and the contact person.
5. 5Enter the PAN, GST and Aadhaar numbers asked for, check the details, and verify the email address and mobile number with the one-time passwords sent to them.
6. 6Take the NIDHI pledge for safe and honourable tourism, and submit.

Your state or union territory's nodal officer then checks the application. Once it is verified, NIDHI emails your NIDHI ID, your sign-in details and a pledge certificate. If it is rejected, you can apply again with the details corrected.

• Who: a resident of Kerala, in their own house, letting 1 to 6 rooms, 12 beds at most, to tourists. The owner's family must live there, leased or rented houses aren't considered, and the classification is issued only in the owner's name. Since an order of 24 January 2026, a husband or wife holding a valid power of attorney may apply for an owner who is away.
• Mandatory: the Department of Tourism says classification is mandatory for homestays, and anyone starting one has to apply online.
• Categories: Diamond, Gold and Silver, set by a committee that visits the house and checks it against the checklist. The Director of Tourism issues the order.
• Documents to upload: acceptance of the regulatory conditions on stamp paper, a residence certificate and an ownership certificate from the panchayat, municipality or corporation, an up-to-date land tax receipt, a police clearance certificate from the local station house officer, food safety registration (no licence needed), the plan and elevation of the building, and 2 photographs each of the outside and inside.
• Not needed: an NOC from the panchayat, municipality or corporation, since a government order of 3 June 2022.
• Validity: three years. Apply to reclassify, with the fee, three months before it ends, or it counts as a new application. A higher category is considered only at reclassification.
• After: display the certificate where guests can see it, report changes to the district office within 30 days, cook for guests when they ask, and file Form C for foreign guests.

Apply online from the Department of Tourism's page on classifying homestays, at keralatourism.org.

The Himachal Pradesh Home Stay Rules, 2025, notified on 25 June 2025, replaced the Home Stay Scheme of 2008.

• Who: the owner of a private house in good condition anywhere in the state, as recorded in the record of rights; preference may go to bonafide Himachalis. The owner doesn't have to live there.
• Rooms: 1 to 6, each with an attached toilet (a separate one may be allowed in rural areas), 12 single beds at most, with up to 3 family suites of 4 beds.
• Apply online through the state's e-Services Portal to the district tourism development officer, with the documents and the fee. The officer inspects the house.
• Documents: the application form, revenue papers (jamabandi and tatima), an affidavit under section 29 of the state's Tourism Development and Registration Act, 2002, an undertaking on stamp paper, and the guest register and bill book for verification. The form asks for at least two photographs of the outside, rooms, lounge and interiors, the nearest hospital or dispensary, and a GST number for Diamond and Gold.
• Decision: within 60 days of a complete application, or it counts as accepted. Time spent on the officer's questions doesn't count.
• Validity: one year or three, renewed online with the old certificate.
• Tell your urban or rural local body that you run a homestay; it keeps a register of them.
• Changing the number of rooms means telling the officer first and registering afresh.

Homestays registered under the Ministry's scheme or the 2008 scheme had to apply within 30 days of the rules' publication. They keep their registration until it ends without a new fee, and had 90 days to meet the new rules.

Homestays and bed and breakfasts register online with the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board at homestay.uttarakhandtourism.gov.in. Its policy page carries the rules of the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grah Aawas Vikas Yojna and the Atithi Uttarakhand Grah Awas Yojana, and its eligibility criteria link to the Uttarakhand Tourism Travel Trade Registration Rules, 2026. The steps, from the portal's user guide:

1. 1On the homestay portal, click “New User Sign Up” and fill in the form. You sign up once.
2. 2Sign in, and on the dashboard click “Application Form”.
3. 3Fill in your personal details, the homestay's location, the rooms and any other information.
4. 4Upload the documents as PDF and the photos as JPG, each up to 2 MB, and click “Save and Continue”.
5. 5Check everything on the preview page and click “Save and Continue to Payment”.
6. 6Accept the agreements, click “Save and Continue” and pay. Your application's status becomes “Submitted”.

The district tourism development officer (DTDO) then reviews it. Follow it under “Track Application”: “Under Review” means wait, “Documents Required” means upload what is asked in the application form, and “Rejected” comes with the officer's comments to act on. Once it is approved, download the certificate under “Certificates”. The board says you can get the certificate directly from the portal, without any intermediaries.

Homestays registered on the old portal choose “Registered User Sign In”, reset the password with “Forgot Password”, and apply through the same form to renew. The user guide says a way to upload an old certificate or payment receipt for a new certificate is coming soon.

• The Department of Tourism's Homestay and Bed & Breakfast Policy covers 2 to 6 rooms, 12 beds at most. In a homestay the owner's family lives in the house; in a bed and breakfast a designated agent or operator does.
• The property must be registered with the local authority as wholly residential, and one in a housing society or gated complex needs its managing body's NOC.
• Register under the Goa Registration of Tourist Trade Act, 1982 and its rules of 1985: online at goaonline.gov.in, or on paper at the registration desk in Paryatan Bhavan, Patto, Panaji.
• Documents: the registration form, title documents or a house tax receipt (or, for a bed and breakfast on leased premises, the lease and licence agreement or a notarised NOC), proof of identity, and local permissions as the case needs, such as the trade licence from the panchayat or municipality and electricity, water and fire NOCs.
• Food: a bed and breakfast needs a Food and Drug Administration licence; a homestay serving home-cooked food may ask to be exempted.
• Category: Gold or Silver, from the policy's checklist, with 30 days to appeal.
• The first certificate lasts a year, and is then renewed.

Delhi's Department of Tourism runs a Bed and Breakfast scheme under its own act and rules, which it publishes with their amendments and the list of registered establishments.

For any other state, look on the state tourism department's website for a homestay, bed and breakfast or paying guest scheme. If there is none, apply under the Ministry's scheme through NIDHI, and ask the regional India Tourism office if you are unsure which applies. The Ministry's 2018 list of the states and union territories whose homestays it handled included Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and the north-eastern states. Rules change, so check with your state first.

• Display the certificate where guests can see it, as Kerala and Himachal Pradesh require.
• Renew before it ends: three months ahead for the Ministry's scheme and for Kerala.
• Report changes: within 30 days to the Ministry or to Kerala's district office; in Himachal Pradesh, tell the officer before you change the number of rooms, and register afresh.
• Send Form III, earlier called Form C, for every foreign guest within 24 hours of arrival and of departure, on the Bureau of Immigration's portal.
• Keep up the standards: the Ministry, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh may all inspect without notice.