What is an STR registration number, and does your Malta listing need one?

Explanatory rather than news. Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 has applied since 20 May 2026, and Article 7(1)(b) requires an online short-term rental platform to make sure a host has provided a registration number before the listing can be offered, and that the host displays that number clearly as part of the listing. The Malta Tourism Authority publishes a validator that lets a short-term rental licence holder verify their STR registration number, and lets anyone check a property's licence status from its licence number.

What is an STR registration number?

Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 defines a registration number as a unique identifier issued by the competent authority which identifies a unit in that Member State. It identifies the property, not the person. The Malta Tourism Authority uses the words STR registration number for the number it holds against a short-term rental licence, and its licences page says its validator lets Short-Term Rental licence holders verify that number at validator.mta.com.mt.

Does a Malta short-let listing need a registration number?

Where a host declares that the unit is in an area where a registration procedure has been established or applies, the platform must have a registration number before the listing can be offered, and the host must display that number clearly as part of the listing. Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 has applied since 20 May 2026, so this is not something arriving later.

The date sits in the final article, which sets no transitional period and no grace period.

What the platform has to do, and what it reports

It has to ask you first

Article 7(1)(a) requires the platform to design its interface so that hosts self-declare whether the unit is in an area where a registration procedure has been established or applies. The declaration is yours, and Article 5(6) makes hosts responsible for the accuracy of the information they provide to the competent authorities.

It has to hold the number before the listing goes up

Article 7(1)(b) requires the platform to have the registration number before allowing the offering of the service for that unit, and to have the host display it clearly in the listing.

It has to check the number afterwards, at random

Article 7(1)(c) requires platforms to make reasonable efforts to randomly check, on a regular basis, both the host's declaration and the validity of the registration number. Article 7(2) then requires the platform to inform the competent authorities and the host, without undue delay, of incorrect declarations, the misuse of a registration number, or invalid registration numbers.

A registration number is not the same thing as a licence

The regulation treats the two as separate. Article 5(1)(a)(v) asks a host to declare, where applicable, whether the unit is subject to an authorisation scheme under which the host must obtain authorisation from the competent authority, and if so whether that authorisation has been obtained. A registration number sits alongside that declaration rather than replacing it. Our reading is that in Malta the short-let licence is the authorisation and the STR registration number is the identifier, and the operator guide sets out what the licence itself requires.

Two further details follow from the instrument. A registration number must not include personal data, and it must be issued automatically and immediately once the host has submitted the information Article 5(1) lists. Article 4(5) also requires Member States to ensure registration numbers are included in a public and easily accessible registry.

How to check a Malta short-let licence number

The Malta Tourism Authority publishes a validator at validator.mta.com.mt. Its licences page says the validator lets Short-Term Rental licence holders quickly and securely verify their STR registration number, and that users can check a property's licence status by entering its licence number. That second use is open to anybody, which makes it a way for a guest or a neighbour to check a number against the authority's own records rather than against a screenshot.

The listing is not the only place a number has to appear. The authority's short-let page says a notice must be displayed outside the property showing the licence number and 24/7 contact details, so the number a platform shows and the number on the door should be the same number.

What we could not confirm

What to check this week

• Open validator.mta.com.mt, enter your licence number, and see what the authority holds against the unit.
• Open each of your listings and check that the number shown there is the same number, character for character, and that it is visible rather than buried in the description.
• Check the notice outside the unit carries the licence number and the 24 hour contact details, and that the contact number on it still reaches somebody.
• If a listing has no number on it at all, treat the platform's random check under Article 7(1)(c) as the deadline rather than a renewal date.

One thing we make

Our door sign generator builds a print-ready A5 or A4 PDF for a Malta unit, free, and the sign it produces carries the licence number and the 24 hour responsible person. It is ten short questions. We are not the Malta Tourism Authority and we license nothing, and that page says so on itself.