How to Keep a DET Guest Check-In Record for Each Short Stay in Dubai

The holiday-home permit is already in the unit file, and a guest has arrived. That PDF does not log this stay. The file for this arrival is one guest check-in record, entered on the Department of Economy and Tourism guest system and kept beside the permit. Start this file only after that permit exists. You are not applying for it again. A long-term Ejari and a community-portal guest log are different papers.

Disclaimer: IziRento is operations software, not legal advice. Local tenancy rules vary; check a qualified adviser for binding decisions.

The permit does not log this arrival

This file is one guest check-in record for a short stay on a unit that already has a holiday-home permit. Administrative Resolution No. 1 of 2020, Article 14(3) and Article 14(4), requires the licensee — the operator who holds the holiday-home permission — to conclude a Holiday Home Lease Contract with the guest, give the guest a copy, and keep that contract consistent with the licence and the permit. The first-edition Holiday Homes Guide treats the Holiday Home Guest check-in document as that contract between the licensee and the guest. Save the system entry and that document in the unit file, next to the permit.

A Department of Economy and Tourism circular dated 20 March 2024 splits guest stays from unit permits. From 1 April 2024, guest check-in, check-out, and Tourism Dirham transactions moved to Holiday Homes 2.0, while the older portal remains for holiday-home unit permits only. Check-out on the older system was a transition until 30 April 2024, so guests already registered there could be checked out and entered again on the new system. The attached user guide names the login for Holiday Homes 2.0.

The DET holiday-home permit service says an apartment or villa must be registered and approved before it is listed. That approval is the unit permit. If it is not in the folder yet, the holiday-home permit file is the place for that approval.

Article 1 defines a guest as a natural person who stays in a holiday home for a payment, intending to use it as overnight accommodation. Article 14(8) says the licensee must provide guest information regularly, as the department prescribes. It does not set an hour. Article 14(15) limits the stay to the maximum occupancy on the permit. Article 14(23) allows disclosure only to the concerned government entities or the competent judicial authority. The English text on the legislation portal is a translation, and Arabic prevails.

Decree No. 41 of 2013, Article 8(2), is the older records duty: keep paper and electronic records of holiday-home information for the period the DTCM — the department's former name — determines, and make them available to its staff. Articles 8(10) and 8(11) allow the whole unit to be leased by the day, the week, the month, or the year, not as rooms or beds. The Guide's check-in steps ask for a clear passport copy, or an identity card for a GCC citizen, for every guest.

Four papers, and only one is this stay

These four papers are easy to mix up. Only the guest check-in records this arrival. The permit can stay in the folder. A long-term Ejari stays on its registration checklist. A community portal, when this building uses one, is a lobby access log and is still not the DET stay.

Filing this one arrival

File this arrival only when the holiday-home permit is already in the folder. The inbound move permit, the building move-out permit, and the furnished contents list stay in their own files. None of them is the guest check-in.

The Guide's public text says the guest check-in document is valid for a maximum of three months, renewable for the same period if renewed before expiry. A booking can be shorter than three months. Decree No. 41 of 2013 still allows the whole holiday home to be leased daily, weekly, monthly, or annually.

Emaar Community Management's move-in terms, for example, say guest access may be delayed or restricted until the operator logs the names. Once the names are in, the guest details lock. The check-in date, check-out date, and guest count can be changed only before check-out, and extra guests need their documents uploaded. The terms also say not to share the portal login.

The same form asks for an Ejari, an Emirates ID or passport, a valid Dubai Tourism unit permit, and the company tourism licence. Those uploads are the access pack, not the DET stay. Gulf News, on 3 February 2025, reported an Emaar note dated 29 January 2025 that asks for a representative at concierge. The report ties that request to the Guide's duty to receive the guest, hand over the keys, and deliver the unit clean and ready. The Guide also says building management may view a passport or identity card and take a copy once check-in is complete. That instruction applies to Emaar's communities, not to every tower in Dubai.

Stop when this arrival has its own guest check-in record on the permitted unit, entered on the holiday-home guest system, with your copy beside the unit permit. If this building's portal also asked for the stay, that access log stays a separate paper. The holiday-home permit stays as filed. A long-term Ejari stays in its own registration. IziRento can store that copy beside the permit. It does not submit guest data to DET or make the owner compliant.