Paradise Island, Bahamas Short-Term Rental Regulations: A 2026 Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a condo or villa on Paradise Island in The Bahamas and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that yes, you can, and unlike a lot of destinations we cover, this is a genuinely open, legal, working market. Paradise Island sits just off Nassau in New Providence, a couple of toll bridges away, and short-term rentals here are permitted, licensed and taxed rather than banned. Nobody is going to block your listing at checkout the way New York City does.

The catch is that the rules are national, not local, and they've teeth now in a way they didn't a few years ago. There's no Paradise Island ordinance to read, no island night cap, no local permit counter. Instead you clear two central-government steps: a free registration with the Department of Inland Revenue, then a short-term vacation rental licence from the Ministry of Tourism's Hotel Licensing Department, which comes with an inspection and a training session. On top of that you charge 10% VAT. And most people buying on Paradise Island are foreign owners, so a few extra obligations kick in that a Bahamian owner never touches.

So let's walk through what it actually takes to do this properly: what the law requires in 2026, the licence and how you get it, the documents you'll assemble, the tax layers and who remits them, how the national framework sits above the island, how seriously any of it gets enforced, and exactly who to call when you get stuck. Every figure below comes from a Bahamian government page or statute, checked in July 2026, and where a number is still moving I've said so. Assuming you're comparing Paradise Island against other markets, run the property through BNBCalc first.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations Paradise Island, Bahamas?

Before you model any of that, though, it helps to understand where these rules even come from, since none of them are written for Paradise Island specifically. The Bahamas is a unitary state, so the same central-government law applies on every island. Your listing is governed by the Hotels Act (Chapter 288) and its 1971 regulations, administered by the Ministry of Tourism, plus the Value Added Tax regime run by the Department of Inland Revenue. There's no separate Paradise Island code layered on top, and no island-level night cap in any source I could find.

That Hotels Act matters more than its age suggests, because it defines a "hotel" broadly as any building where accommodation is provided for reward to guests. The Ministry reads that definition to cover short-term vacation rentals, so your two-bedroom condo at the Ocean Club end of the island falls under the same licensing statute as Atlantis does. The statute even sets a small per-bedroom licence fee: section 15 fixes it at "three dollars for each bedroom," which tells you the framework predates the modern rental boom by decades.

What's changed is enforcement, not the underlying law. These days the government runs a proper registration-and-licensing process for what it calls STVRs, short-term vacation rentals, and it treats any letting of under 30 days as one. Two steps sit at the centre of it, and you need both.

First you register the property with Inland Revenue, which is free, and then you get your short-term vacation rental licence from the Hotel Licensing Department, which involves an inspection and a training session before the certificate issues. Keep in mind that registering is not the same as being licensed, since only a licensed property may legally be marketed on the government's own Bahamas.com platform.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Paradise Island

That two-step process is the same whoever you are, but who you are changes how heavy it gets, and on Paradise Island that distinction is the whole ballgame. Most of the rental stock here, the condos at places like the Ocean Club, the villas behind the gates of Ocean Club Estates, the units in the resort rental programs, is owned by non-Bahamians. So if that's you, the compliance load is heavier than a local owner's, which is worth knowing before you buy rather than after.

Start with how you even hold the property, because The Bahamas regulates foreign ownership. Under the International Persons Landholding Act (Chapter 140), a non-Bahamian who buys a condo just to live in it, what the Act calls owner-occupied property, only has to register the purchase with the Investments Board. Buy the same condo intending to rent it out, though, and you're no longer owner-occupying it. That pushes you out of the registration route and into section 3, which requires an actual permit from the Board rather than a simple registration.

So the very thing that makes Paradise Island attractive, buying to let, is what triggers the tougher path.

Then there's tax status, which I'll cover in full later but which shapes the business case from day one. A Bahamian owner only has to register for VAT once turnover crosses a threshold. A non-Bahamian running a short-term rental has to register for VAT from the first dollar, and hold a business licence besides. The acting Controller of Inland Revenue said as much to The Tribune: "if you are a non-Bahamian you have to register for VAT no matter what your turnover is if you're in the area of short-term vacation rentals."

So model the 10% into your nightly rate from the start. You'll be charging it whether you clear a big number or barely book at all.

One more Paradise Island wrinkle worth checking before anything else: your building's own rules. Gated communities and condo-hotel programs here often carry covenants or rental-management arrangements that limit or channel how you can let, and those sit on top of the national law rather than instead of it. Make sure you read your HOA declaration or your resort's rental agreement, because a clean government licence won't save you from a covenant that bars nightly rentals.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Paradise Island, Bahamas

Assuming your ownership and covenant position is clear, you can then move on to the licence itself, and this is the step people underestimate. Registering with Inland Revenue gets you into the system, but the thing that authorises you to operate is the short-term vacation rental licence from the Hotel Licensing Department, which sits inside the Ministry of Tourism and runs under the Hotels Act. Without that certificate you're not a licensed operator, however diligently you've paid your taxes.

The department lays the process out in a set order, and it's worth walking it in that order rather than jumping ahead. First you confirm the property qualifies as a short-term rental, meaning stays generally under 30 days, and then you register it with Inland Revenue.

Once that's done, the department's Inspectorate Unit schedules an inspection that checks health and safety standards and fire and life safety compliance. After that you sit a hybrid three-hour hospitality training run jointly by the Ministry and CARPHA, the Caribbean Public Health Agency, with a two-hour CARPHA certification session on top for a first-time licence. Clear all of that and the STVR License Certificate issues.

Here's the timing detail that catches Paradise Island owners in particular. The department inspects by region, and because Paradise Island is part of New Providence, its inspection window runs July through December, whereas the Family Islands are done January through March. So if you're buying in the spring and hoping to be licensed for the winter high season, plan around that calendar, because you can't simply summon an inspector the week you're ready.

The licence isn't a one-and-done either. It renews annually, and to renew you keep your tax registrations current and produce a current business licence certificate, a fire certificate and satisfactory inspection reports.

On the fee, I'll be honest about what I could and couldn't confirm as of July 2026: the Hotels Act still names a statutory $3 per bedroom, and while secondary sources describe a larger operating fee under the current rollout, I couldn't find that figure on an official page. So treat any per-bedroom number you're quoted as something to confirm directly with the department rather than budget around.

Required Documents for Paradise Island, Bahamas Short-Term Rentals

Since the inspection and training only happen once you're in the system, getting your paperwork right up front is what keeps the whole thing moving. The document set differs by owner type, which is the recurring theme of this island, so start by being honest with yourself about which list applies to you.

If you're a Bahamian owner, the registration asks for the core ownership and tax records:

• The property conveyance, proving you own it.
• A rental agreement for the letting.
• A current Real Property Tax certificate.
• VAT registration, once your income crosses the $100,000 threshold.

A non-Bahamian owner carries a heavier set, and again that's most of Paradise Island:

• A business licence, which you'll need regardless of turnover.
• The property conveyance.
• A rental agreement.
• VAT registration, again regardless of turnover.
• A current Real Property Tax certificate.

On top of that, the Inland Revenue vacation-rental process asks non-Bahamian second-home owners to have the property lodged with the Registrar General, to submit a VAT stamp declaration, and to file the relevant ownership declaration or change forms before registering.

And remember the landholding piece from earlier: if you bought to let rather than to live in, keep your Investments Board permit with these records too, because that's the document that makes your rental use lawful in the first place.

Do gather all of this before you approach the Hotel Licensing Department, since the licence renewal each year leans on exactly the same certificates staying current.

Paradise Island Short-Term Rental Taxes

Once your documents are in order and the licence is within reach, there's still the tax, and it's the part that runs forever, so it's worth getting the shape of it clear rather than discovering it a quarter late. The headline is simpler than in most US markets, because there's no stack of city and county lodging taxes here. The standard VAT rate is 10%, short-term accommodation is a taxable supply, and that 10% is the main thing a guest pays on top of your rate.

Charge	Rate	Who remits it
VAT on the rental	10%	The host, to Inland Revenue
Business licence tax (non-Bahamian owners)	Varies by turnover	The host, to Inland Revenue
Real Property Tax (on the property)	Varies by value	The owner, to Inland Revenue

A couple of things about that table are worth spelling out. The old hotel guest tax that used to sit under the Hotels Act was repealed and folded into VAT, so there's no separate national bed tax layered on your guests beyond the 10%. And the registration threshold cuts differently depending on who you are: a Bahamian owner only registers for VAT once taxable turnover passes $100,000, while a non-Bahamian registers from the first booking. Keep that in mind when you price, because your break-even math shifts entirely on your nationality.

Now for the part hosts most often get wrong. Do not assume the platform handles your VAT the way Airbnb quietly collects occupancy tax in many US cities. The Bahamas is not on Airbnb's list of places where it automatically collects and remits tax, so the responsibility to charge and remit that 10% sits with you.

Government guidance does describe an option to authorise a platform to collect on your behalf, but that's a step you arrange, not a default that's already switched on, so check your own payout settings before you rely on it. Give the wrong assumption a full season and you'll owe VAT you never collected.

Bahamas Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

That VAT obligation is national, not something Paradise Island invented, which is a useful reminder that almost everything binding you here is set in Nassau rather than on the island. Because The Bahamas doesn't devolve short-term rental regulation, the framework above your listing is the same one that governs a cottage on Eleuthera or a marina apartment on Grand Bahama. It rests on two instruments: the Hotels Act (Chapter 288) and the Hotels Regulations of 1971, with the VAT regime running alongside.

What that uniformity means in practice is that the licensing steps, the inspection, the CARPHA training and the annual renewal don't change when you cross an island boundary. There's no national or island night cap in any of these sources, either, so the country regulates through licensing, inspection and tax rather than by limiting how many nights you rent. If you're deciding between markets, the differences that matter are demand, price and the local covenant picture, not the statute, and BNBCalc Markets is the place to compare that nightly demand island to island.

The uniform national picture is exactly why our other Bahamas guides are worth a look before you commit. The Freeport short-term rental guide covers the Grand Bahama market and its Hawksbill Creek wrinkles, the Harbour Island guide maps a second-home market with an ownership profile a lot like Paradise Island's, and the George Town guide covers the Exuma end of the country. Same national rules across all of them, genuinely different economics on the ground.

Does Paradise Island, Bahamas Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Given that the rules are uniform nationwide, the fair question is whether anyone actually checks, and the answer here has shifted enough since 2023 that older advice is worth ignoring. This is an active enforcement regime now, not a dusty statute.

The trigger was the government's decision to require registration of every short-term rental, and Inland Revenue has kept pressing it: it reissued its notice that "all short-term rental properties must be registered" on 15 August 2025, and its own bulletins note it has been receiving emails about rental activity, which is to say it's watching.

Enforcement runs through three levers rather than a night-counting inspector. The first is tax: register for VAT, charge it, remit it, and expect Inland Revenue to notice when a foreign-owned rental isn't doing so. The second is the licence itself, gated behind an inspection your property has to pass on health, safety and fire compliance before the certificate issues. The third is visibility, because the government ties legal marketing on Bahamas.com to holding a valid licence, which quietly separates licensed operators from the rest.

For a Paradise Island owner the practical read is that the risk isn't a surprise fine mid-stay, it's being unable to operate cleanly at all.

Watch out for the foreign-owner obligations especially, since those are the ones the Controller has publicly flagged and the ones easiest to overlook if you assumed the platform or a management company had it handled. Be aware, too, that the annual renewal is its own checkpoint: let a fire certificate or a business licence lapse and you don't quietly coast, you fall out of compliance at renewal time.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Paradise Island, Bahamas

Knowing it's enforced is exactly why the order of these steps matters, because doing them out of sequence tends to waste money on a property you can't legally let. Work through them roughly like this:

1. Sort out how you'll hold the property. If you're a non-Bahamian buying to rent, get the Investments Board permit under the Landholding Act, not just a registration, since renting takes you out of the owner-occupied route.
2. Read your building's covenants. Check the Ocean Club Estates rules, your condo-hotel rental agreement, or your HOA declaration for anything that limits nightly letting before you count on the income.
3. Register the property with Inland Revenue. It's free, and it's the entry point to everything else. Non-Bahamian owners should line up the Registrar General lodging and VAT stamp declaration here.
4. Register for VAT and, if you're a foreign owner, get your business licence. Remember you register for VAT from the first dollar as a non-Bahamian, so don't wait for a threshold that doesn't apply to you.
5. Book your Hotel Licensing Department inspection. Plan around the July-to-December New Providence window, and make sure the property meets the health, safety and fire standards the Inspectorate checks.
6. Complete the CARPHA and Ministry hospitality training. It's a hybrid three-hour session, with the extra CARPHA certification for a first licence.
7. Collect your STVR License Certificate, then keep every underlying certificate current, because next year's renewal asks for the same paperwork all over again.

Who to Contact in Paradise Island, Bahamas about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Whichever of those steps you get stuck on, two Nassau offices handle almost all of it between them, and since Paradise Island has no separate rental authority of its own, these are the numbers you'll actually be dialling.

For the licence, the inspection and the training, that's the Hotel Licensing Department inside the Ministry of Tourism, Investments and Aviation. They issue the STVR License Certificate and run the Inspectorate Unit.

• Address: BAF Building, 2nd Floor, George Street, Nassau, The Bahamas
• Phone: (242) 302-2000
• Email: [email protected]

For registration, VAT, the business licence and anything tax-shaped, that's the Department of Inland Revenue. They run the vacation-rental registration and they're the ones you remit VAT to.

• Short-term rental queries: [email protected]
• General tax inquiries: [email protected]
• Phone: 242-225-7280 (toll-free), 242-461-8050, or 242-604-8072

And for the ownership piece, a non-Bahamian buyer registers or permits the acquisition through the Bahamas Investments Board under the International Persons Landholding Act. Do check with a local attorney on that step, because whether you need a permit or just a registration turns on whether you're renting the place out.

What Do Airbnb Hosts in Paradise Island, Bahamas on Reddit and Bigger Pockets Think about Local Regulations?

Those official contacts tell you what the process is, but they don't tell you how it feels to actually run it, and that's where the host chatter is useful. What follows is my read of the recurring themes rather than any kind of survey, so do weigh it accordingly.

• The market itself gets a warm reception; the compliance does not. Owners consistently describe Paradise Island and greater Nassau as a strong, high-demand rental market, then in the same breath describe the licensing and tax setup as more paperwork than they expected. The gap between "great market" and "easy to operate" is where new hosts get caught.
• Foreign owners feel the split keenly. The theme that comes up most is the non-Bahamian VAT-from-the-first-dollar rule and the business licence, which surprises buyers who assumed a threshold protected small operators. It's the single most repeated "I wish I'd known" on the boards.
• Management companies are treated as close to mandatory. Because so many owners are offshore, a lot of the discussion is about who handles the licence renewals, inspections and VAT filings on the ground, and whether the management cut still leaves the numbers working.
• Nobody argues the rules are unenforced anymore. Since the 2023 registration push, the conversation has moved from "do I really need to bother" to "here's how to get compliant efficiently," which itself tells you where enforcement now sits.

Take the last point seriously. The debate about whether any of this matters is over, so the useful question is how to fold the licence, the VAT and the annual renewal into your operating rhythm rather than whether you can skip them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb on Paradise Island in 2026?

Yes. Short-term rentals are legal on Paradise Island, and the market is active. You register the property with the Department of Inland Revenue, which is free, then obtain a short-term vacation rental licence from the Hotel Licensing Department after an inspection and a hospitality training session. You also charge 10% VAT. Non-Bahamian owners need a business licence on top of that, and must register for VAT regardless of income.

How much does a Paradise Island short-term rental licence cost?

The Hotels Act sets a statutory fee of three dollars per bedroom, and the Inland Revenue vacation-rental registration itself is free. Secondary sources describe a larger per-bedroom operating fee under the current licensing rollout, but that figure isn't published on an official page, so confirm the exact amount directly with the Hotel Licensing Department before you budget. The licence renews annually, and renewal depends on keeping your tax, fire and business-licence certificates current.

Do foreign owners face different rules on Paradise Island?

Yes, and it matters, because most Paradise Island rental stock is foreign-owned. A non-Bahamian must register for VAT and charge the 10% from the very first booking, not once a turnover threshold is crossed, and must hold a business licence too. Buying a property specifically to rent it out also requires an Investments Board permit under the International Persons Landholding Act, rather than the simpler registration an owner-occupier uses.

Does Airbnb collect and remit VAT for Bahamas hosts?

Not automatically. The Bahamas isn't on Airbnb's list of jurisdictions where the platform collects and remits tax for you, so charging and remitting the 10% VAT to Inland Revenue is your responsibility. Government guidance mentions an option to authorise a platform to collect on your behalf, but that's something you arrange rather than a default. Check your own payout and tax settings, and don't assume it's handled.

Is there a limit on how many nights I can rent on Paradise Island?

No. Neither the national framework nor any Paradise Island rule sets an annual night cap. The Bahamas regulates short-term rentals through licensing, inspection and tax rather than by limiting nights, so a compliant, licensed property can operate year-round. The real limits you'll meet are practical ones: your building's covenants or resort rental program, and the health, safety and fire standards your property has to pass at inspection.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.