There is something quietly absurd happening in Irish accommodation right now.
Across the west of Ireland, residential properties are welcoming tourists through Airbnb and other short-term letting platforms, while many hotel rooms across regional towns remain occupied by long-term residential placements, including emergency accommodation and international protection applicants.
Houses originally built for families are increasingly serving as holiday accommodation. Hotels that were designed to accommodate visitors are, in many cases, no longer available to them.
We have, almost without noticing, inverted the entire logic of how accommodation is supposed to function.
The consequences are significant—not only for homeowners, landlords and local communities, but also for buyers, sellers, investors and the wider property market.
With the Government introducing a mandatory Short-Term Tourist Letting Register from 1 December, the debate has largely focused on regulation and enforcement. While those are important, they risk overlooking a much more fundamental question.
Why did so many residential properties become tourist accommodation in the first place?
Unless we answer that honestly, we risk treating the symptom while leaving the underlying problem untouched.
The Government’s new legislation represents one of the most significant regulatory changes to Ireland’s short-term rental market in years.
Under the new rules, anyone offering paid accommodation for stays of up to 21 nights will be required to register with Fáilte Ireland and demonstrate that their property complies with relevant planning regulations.
Implementation begins on 1 December for towns with populations exceeding 20,000, with nationwide compliance following shortly afterwards and smaller settlements benefiting from a two-year transition period.
The objectives are understandable.
The Government wants to:
These are legitimate policy goals.
Operating what is effectively a hotel business from a residential property without the appropriate planning permission has long occupied a legal grey area. Property ownership carries considerable rights, but it also comes with responsibilities.
Transparency is a reasonable expectation.
If the register identifies genuinely unlawful operations in urban housing pressure zones and helps return some homes to long-term occupation, that represents a positive outcome.
However, the wider conversation becomes far more complex once we leave Dublin and examine regional Ireland.
Housing markets are rarely uniform.
The challenges affecting Dublin city centre are not identical to those facing Connemara, Clifden, Roundstone, Oughterard, Kinvara or the communities stretching along the Wild Atlantic Way.
Yet national policy often assumes they are.
Across Galway and much of Ireland’s western seaboard, tourism is not seasonal in the traditional sense anymore.
The Wild Atlantic Way has become one of Europe’s best-recognised tourism destinations.
Galway consistently ranks among Ireland’s most visited cities.
Connemara continues to attract domestic and international visitors throughout much of the year.
The Aran Islands remain one of Ireland’s iconic visitor destinations.
Demand has not disappeared.
If anything, it has strengthened.
The question is not whether tourists are coming.
The question is where we expect them to stay.
Much of the public debate assumes residential properties migrated into short-term letting because owners simply preferred higher returns.
While financial incentives certainly exist, that explanation only tells part of the story.
Markets respond to shortages.
When sufficient visitor accommodation exists, tourists stay in hotels, guesthouses, aparthotels and purpose-built holiday accommodation.
When that infrastructure does not exist, demand inevitably spills elsewhere.
Across large parts of the west of Ireland, that “elsewhere” became the residential housing stock.
This wasn’t simply the result of speculative behaviour.
It was a rational response to an obvious gap in supply.
For years, regional tourism has grown while investment in new hotel capacity has failed to keep pace.
That imbalance created an opportunity.
Property owners responded exactly as markets usually respond.
Another reality receives surprisingly little attention.
Many regional hotels that once formed part of Ireland’s tourism infrastructure have been unavailable to visitors for years.
Some have been used for emergency accommodation.
Others have been repurposed for international protection accommodation.
Many have therefore ceased operating as hotels in any meaningful tourism sense.
This has happened across numerous regional towns.
Every hotel removed from the tourism market reduces visitor accommodation capacity.
Demand, however, remains.
Visitors still arrive.
Events still take place.
Businesses still require accommodation for staff and clients.
Families still travel.
The Wild Atlantic Way remains internationally promoted.
The accommodation demand has not disappeared simply because hotel capacity has.
Instead, demand has transferred elsewhere.
Increasingly, that means residential homes.
Economics is rarely emotional.
When one form of supply disappears while demand remains strong, alternatives emerge.
That is exactly what happened.
Residential property owners filled a gap that commercial tourism infrastructure could no longer adequately serve.
It wasn’t necessarily ideological.
It wasn’t necessarily exploitative.
In many cases, it was simply rational.
If tourism accommodation is unavailable, visitors will seek accommodation wherever it exists.
If property owners are legally permitted to meet that demand, many understandably will.
The market adapted.
The real question is whether public policy has adapted with it.
The new registration system will undoubtedly improve visibility.
It will help local authorities identify non-compliant operators.
It may reduce unlawful short-term letting in certain locations.
But enforcement cannot create hotel rooms.
It cannot build visitor accommodation.
It cannot replace regional tourism infrastructure that has disappeared over recent years.
Compliance systems are valuable.
They are not, however, substitutes for investment.
Without addressing accommodation supply itself, enforcement risks becoming an endless cycle requiring increasing levels of monitoring and regulatory intervention.
Local authorities already face significant resource constraints.
Planning enforcement has historically proven difficult.
Adding additional regulatory obligations without addressing the underlying shortage risks placing greater pressure on systems that already struggle to keep pace.
If policymakers genuinely wish to reduce reliance on residential short-term lets, the solution is remarkably straightforward.
Build more hotels.
Encourage more guesthouses.
Support boutique hospitality developments.
Facilitate purpose-built tourism accommodation.
Provide planning certainty.
Reduce barriers to investment.
Encourage private capital to develop accommodation where tourism demand demonstrably exists.
The commercial incentive for residential short-term letting naturally weakens once adequate tourism infrastructure becomes available.
Visitors generally prefer professional accommodation.
Hotels offer services, reception facilities, food, parking, housekeeping and flexibility that private homes often cannot.
Businesses also prefer commercial accommodation.
Tour operators require dependable room stock.
Conference organisers need capacity.
International travel operators rely on hotel availability.
Expand hotel supply and the market begins to rebalance naturally.
That is a far more sustainable outcome than relying primarily on enforcement.
For homeowners and landlords across regional Ireland, uncertainty remains.
Many have invested significantly in improving properties that currently serve the visitor economy.
Others have inherited family homes in tourist locations where traditional long-term rental demand may be limited or seasonal.
These owners deserve policy that reflects local realities rather than assuming every community experiences identical housing pressures.
Property rights remain important.
The ability to derive income from legitimately owned assets has long formed part of Ireland’s economic model.
Naturally, those rights exist alongside planning obligations and broader public responsibilities.
Finding the appropriate balance requires nuance rather than broad assumptions.
That conversation deserves greater attention.
For buyers considering investment property, the changing regulatory landscape makes due diligence more important than ever.
Before purchasing a property with the intention of operating short-term accommodation, investors should understand:
The era of assuming every property can operate as a holiday let is coming to an end.
Professional advice has never been more valuable.
For homeowners considering selling property in popular tourist areas, regulation is unlikely to eliminate buyer demand.
Quality homes in desirable coastal locations continue to attract interest from owner-occupiers, investors and lifestyle buyers alike.
However, purchasers are increasingly asking more detailed questions about planning status, previous use and future letting potential.
Clear documentation and professional guidance will become increasingly valuable during the sales process.
Transparency benefits everyone involved.
Tourism is one of the west of Ireland’s most important economic sectors.
It supports restaurants.
Retailers.
Activity providers.
Transport companies.
Cafés.
Local attractions.
Professional services.
Accommodation forms the foundation upon which all of those businesses depend.
If visitors cannot find places to stay, regional economies inevitably suffer.
Housing policy therefore cannot be developed in isolation from tourism policy.
They are interconnected.
A thriving visitor economy requires sufficient accommodation.
Likewise, healthy communities require adequate housing.
Both objectives are achievable—but only if policymakers recognise that one cannot be solved by ignoring the other.
None of this should be interpreted as opposition to the new register.
Transparency is sensible.
Compliance matters.
Planning rules exist for good reasons.
Where genuinely unlawful operations exist, enforcement has a role to play.
But the register alone will not solve Ireland’s accommodation challenges.
For much of the west of Ireland, the underlying issue is not excessive tourism demand.
Nor is it irresponsible property ownership.
It is an insufficient supply of purpose-built visitor accommodation.
That distinction matters.
Because different problems require different solutions.
Alongside implementing the new short-term letting register, Government should also ask a second, equally important question:
Where are the additional hotel beds required along the Wild Atlantic Way?
Who will build them?
What planning reforms are necessary?
What investment incentives are needed?
How can development be encouraged in regional towns where tourism demand continues to grow?
Answer those questions, and much of today’s short-term letting debate begins to resolve itself.
The market will gradually rebalance.
Residential homes can increasingly return to residential use.
Hotels can once again perform the role they were originally built to fulfil.
Visitors will still come.
But they will have somewhere appropriate to stay.
That represents a far more sustainable long-term strategy than relying on enforcement alone.
Because enforcement may improve compliance.
It cannot create accommodation.
Investment can.
Ireland’s housing and tourism sectors are deeply interconnected, particularly across Galway and the west of Ireland.
The introduction of the Short-Term Tourist Letting Register represents an important policy change, but regulation should form only one part of a much broader strategy.
Long-term solutions require long-term thinking.
They require investment in tourism infrastructure, planning policies that support sustainable development, and an honest recognition that markets respond to shortages.
If Ireland wants fewer residential homes operating as tourist accommodation, it must first ensure there are enough hotels and purpose-built visitor facilities to meet demand.
Until then, we risk regulating around the edges of a problem whose real cause remains unresolved.
Enforcement alone is not strategy.
Johnny Gannon is the founder of Fair Deal Property, Galway’s award-winning estate agency. Fair Deal Property specialises in residential sales, valuations and property advice throughout Galway and the west of Ireland. Whether you are buying, selling, investing or developing property, our experienced team is here to help.
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