If you own one to eight Dubai apartments let by the night and are not sure whose name the holiday home permit is in, this is for you. This is not for you if your building is a hotel apartment block: hotel units run on a different licence.
Which DTCM permit do you mean?
Search "DTCM permit" and two kinds of page share the results. One is the permit for a holiday home, a furnished apartment or villa let to guests. The other is an event or counter permit for a show or a stand. This post is about the first.
DTCM is the name Dubai's tourism body used when its holiday home rules were written, and Administrative Resolution No. 1 of 2020 still uses it. The same functions now sit in the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET). So a "DTCM permit" on your wall and a DET holiday home permit in the portal are the same document for the same unit.
Who can hold the permit, and who can cancel it?
Whoever applied. DET's application page says all apartments and villas must be registered and approved before they are listed, and that by law the permit must be displayed in the unit. For an operator, it adds that "the permit issue and expiry dates must match the dates of the Property Management Letter". The operator's permit is tied to the paper that lets it manage your unit.
An owner can apply in their own name. DET's registration page says "Homeowners can register up to 8 Holiday Homes units only", and that for owners "the name on the account must match the name on the unit title deed". An operator registers with a trade licence whose listed activity is Vacation Homes Rental.
Then the line that matters when you want to change operator. DET's cancellation page says "Permit cancellation can only be done by the original permit applicant", with no checked-in guests, no way to revert, and a total fee of AED 70.
Three questions to ask your operator in writing
DET's pages say who may apply and who may cancel. They do not say which of those your contract made your operator. So ask, and keep the answer.
- 01Whose name is the permit for my unit in, mine or yours?
- 02What are its issue and expiry dates, and do they match your Property Management Letter?
- 03If we part, who cancels it, and will you release the unit so I can apply in my own name?
One operator's guide says a permit managed through the operator "was linked to your contract with them". That is an operator's view, so read it as a reason to ask, not as the rule. Then check with DET and a UAE lawyer before you rely on any answer. This is not legal advice.
What changes if the permit is in your name?
You can change operator without starting from nothing, because the permit stays with you. You decide when it is cancelled. And no one else's trade licence sits between your unit and the department.
It also puts duties on you. You keep the permit displayed in the unit and the registration details up to date. DET's registration page says essential information such as trade licences is updated yearly, with no renewal fee. Guests pay the Tourism Dirham, and the page says the licensee enters it by the 15th of each month, with late fees after that. Read DET's page on the day for the current amounts.
Above eight units, DET's rule for owners no longer fits, and the route is an operator licence. That is a business decision, so ask the department before you plan around it.
What does a booking site have to do with the permit?
Nothing on its own. A booking site does not issue or hold the permit, and it does not replace the DET portal. It matters because the party that holds the permit usually decides who runs the bookings. If the permit is in your name, a booking site of your own is yours to run. If an operator holds it, the operator's system is the one in charge.
Be exact about Mindcat Stays. It does not register guests in the DET system; your desk does that by hand today. It does not sync with Airbnb or Booking.com, so keep your channel manager if most nights come from them. For one to eight units, the shared minimum of AED/SAR 490 a month applies, not 20 per unit: five units pay the minimum, not 100. Setup is AED/SAR 3,900 once for up to 20 units. Prices exclude 5 percent UAE VAT and 15 percent Saudi VAT.
For the other side of the same decision, an operator that is closing, read our post on the three records to hold. Annual tenancies and Ejari are a different job, for Mindcat Lease. See our hotel apartments page for buildings that run as hotels.
How do we decide?
Our method is called Every unit, every night. Before we say anything about software, we ask whose name each permit is in, when it ends, and who holds the guest record. If the answer is the operator's, we tell you to fix that first. See what Mindcat Stays covers, and what it does not, on its page.
