Airbnb Host in Vietnam

Hello everyone,

I was curious, whether any of you is renting out rooms or flats on Airbnb in Vietnam.
I would like to understand the procedure, whether it's legal as a foreigner, what legal issues need to be taken in to account, how long it takes etc.


Thanks a lot in advance

I cannot say whether it is legal or not, it depends on your local police. They may tolerate it in some areas. My wife and I were able to host international cycle tourers for some years, but eventually our village police withdrew permission, claiming to concerns about drugs.

Thank you very much for your reply Ralph!

To clarify: we used a cycling forum offering free hosting,
not Airbnb.

There are a lot less rules in Vietnam, and many rules are inconsistently applied, or have workarounds. You won't find an absolute answer about anything like in a western country.

That said, subletting would primarily be an issue with your landlord, or in a condo building, with the management company. Not to say you couldn't work something out. Lots of Vietnamese rent on Airbnb, I am curious how they handle the law about registering who is sleeping in the room with the police every night (and this rule is consistently applied!)

Thank you very much @gobot!

@gobot,  the host or managing agent does fill out a form upon check-in stating name, passport Id, duration of stay, and he/she submits entire list to local police on daily basis.  They generally work out a “deal” whereby the process is very simple.  In with the forms, stamp, and out within 5 minutes or less.

Yoda0807 wrote:

@gobot,  the host or managing agent does fill out a form upon check-in stating name, passport Id, duration of stay, and he/she submits entire list to local police on daily basis.  They generally work out a “deal” whereby the process is very simple.  In with the forms, stamp, and out within 5 minutes or less.


A group of westerners with some local vietnamese slip in 5 USD but i'm not sure if it was per passport or per batch every night. They have a pretty big airbnb operation going.

If your guests are non local then all you need to do for every check in is go online and register them with the police using their passport and visa info. The local police ward is no longer responsible for this. You will need to go to an office in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai if your rental is located in D1 to sign up for an account. There will be an official in fact only one guy who is currently doing this and he'll come by your place to help you set things up. Of course you would need all the housing paper work with you to do this. As far as I know most Airbnb peeps skip this procedure due to the amount of work involved but you never know when they do their inspection. The fines can be hefty.