Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Act 2025

Part 1 - Overview of Act and Key Terms Used in Act

Section 1 – Overview of this Act

4. The overview of the Act shows how the Parts of the Act are arranged and provides a brief description of what each Part does.

Section 2 – Visitor accommodation

5. The section defines visitor accommodation for the purposes of both the register of visitor accommodation providers and the visitor levy. It details what is visitor accommodation, along with certain exceptions. It also contains a regulation making power for the Welsh Ministers to amend the list of visitor accommodation. Visitor accommodation is a defined term to ensure the scope of the Act is clear, recognising the variety of accommodation that is provided in Wales.

6. Visitor accommodation is:

a)

accommodation in hotels, guesthouses, bed and breakfasts, or other similar accommodation;

b)

accommodation in youth hostels, bunkhouses, or other similar accommodation;

c)

a pitch or area provided for camping, or a pitch or area provided for a mobile home that is not permanently or semi- permanently situated in one place (for example, a pitch or area provided for a tent or motorhome);

d)

accommodation at holiday parks, holiday resorts or at other similar places;

e)

accommodation in mobile homes, vessels or other vehicles permanently or semi-permanently situated in one place and that are offered on a short-term basis for business or leisure travel or educational trips;

f)

self-catering accommodation offered on a short-term basis for business or leisure travel or educational trips;

g)

any other kind of accommodation offered on a short-term basis for business or leisure travel or educational trips.

7. Accommodation listed in subsection (1)(e) to (g) of this section is only visitor accommodation for the purposes of the Act if is offered on a short-term basis; that is, for stays of 31 nights or less (and for that purpose, it does not matter whether the nights are consecutive). This ensures that these types of accommodation will only be visitor accommodation if they are offered on a short-term basis and removes from scope longer-term stays. For example, residential tenancies or accommodation provided to a lodger who rents a room Monday-Friday over a 3-month period.

8. The section excludes certain types of accommodation from being visitor accommodation. Accommodation is not visitor accommodation if it is on a Gypsy and Traveller site; if it is a pitch or area provided for a mobile home, vessel or other vehicle that is permanently or semi-permanently situated in one place; or in mobile homes, vessels or other vehicles that are not permanently or semi permanently situated in one place, which would exclude the hiring of a mobile home from scope but the visitor levy would be chargeable if it were sited at a pitch or area within the meaning of 2(1)(c)(ii). This also means that accommodation provided on board a vessel to passengers on a journey is not visitor accommodation, so, for example, a room onboard a cruise ship or a canal boat is not visitor accommodation and therefore not subject to registration requirements or the visitor levy. This provision, because it excludes pitches or areas for mobile homes that are permanently or semi permanently situated in one place also removes residential mobile home sites from the scope of the Act. ”Gypsy and Traveller site“ and “mobile home” are terms that are defined in the section.

9. The Welsh Ministers may by regulations amend this section to provide that a type of accommodation, or accommodation of a particular description, is or is not visitor accommodation, and to vary the description of a type of accommodation. Regulations made under this power are subject to the affirmative procedure in the Senedd.

Section 3 – Visitor accommodation provider

10. This section states that for the purposes of this Act a person is a visitor accommodation provider (VAP) if, in the course of a trade or business, they provide or offer to provide visitor accommodation at premises in Wales, and they are an occupier of the premises. A person provides visitor accommodation if that person enters into a contract under which, or in consequence of which, one or more people are entitled to reside for one or more nights in or at the accommodation. “Contract” does not include contracts of service, contracts of apprenticeship, or contracts where the person entitled to reside provides services to the VAP.

11. This section also states that “offers to provide” in relation to visitor accommodation includes advertising, marketing the accommodation or otherwise making any person aware that the accommodation is available for stays. It states that references to a “visitor accommodation provider” (or a “VAP”) include, unless the context requires otherwise, a person registered in the register of visitor accommodation providers, regardless of whether that person falls within the definition of a visitor accommodation provider in subsection (2) at any given time.