Section 2: Starting a Rural Accommodation 2.3. Legal Form, Required Permissions and Procedures

2.3.2. Required Permissions and Procedures

Any new company shall be registered at the Chamber of Commerce. The application should be made in advance, with the statement of the legal form chosen (liability, e.g. ltd). Moreover, you should verify if there exist some regulations or requirements regarding the accommodation facilities:

• site appraisal by the local authorities if accommodation is to be constructed from scratch
• prohibitions (e.g., no construction of tourist facilities is allowed within nature reserves)
• permit to make adaptations of the existing buildings
• building standards
• authorization for circulation and parking of cars, etc.
• design- and construction-related fire, health, hygiene requirements for your type of the tourist facility (e.g., number of emergency exits, planning, emergency access, etc.)
• all general rules considering the drainage system, use of electricity, gas, drinking water, etc. (e.g., no water drainage in protected water reservoirs).

You need to check carefully what kind of activities and services are allowed in your region on the land you own. In some areas, certain kinds of activity might be prohibited. For instance, large scale industrial activity is limited to zones which have the explicit destination of industrial zone. In such areas, you will probably not be allowed to open an accommodation. Do not worry, as the meadows around your minor house is a much better place for an accommodation. And, if you do not spoil the view of your minor house, it is unlikely that somebody will think about stopping you.

Ensure that you will not get in a conflict with local, regional or national laws. As an entrepreneur you have to deal also with several laws concerning the behaviour of companies. Laws you have to be familiar with are those in the area of rights and duties of you and your employees with regard to each other (minimum wages, right for days off, duty to work as required etc.).

Important laws are also those in the area of environment and pollution. If you pollute the environment, the government may make you pay for the damage. As exact formulations tend to vary from place to place (even within countries and within provinces), make sure you are well informed on the local and national laws in this area, and how they apply to you.

Take care that you make a list and go through the national legal demands for accommodations of your scale and type designed for lodging tourists. In Holland, for instance, special rules were developed concerning small B&B establishments: as long as you do not have more than four rooms with in total not more than eight guests, no special licences are required. In other countries rules may differ: in Hungary, for example, you are only considered an entrepreneur if you have more than 10 beds, while in Austria the maximum number of guests for a B&B location is 10. To facilitate the search for the regulations applicable to your case, apply to the national/regional tourism organizations. They often offer consultations and can be very helpful.

It might be important to know exactly what kinds of standards are set by some of the major tourist organisations in your country. If you fit their standards, there is a chance that they put you on the list of official accommodation addresses and you will get almost free publicity in this way.

Consider all the requirements and procedures in advance, when planning your accommodation, as fulfilling them might involve a lot of your time and money.

2.3.1. Legal Form

2.4. Management of an Accommodation