Member Area Resources - Site
Accommodation Regulations

This website was updated on 31/5/22.

Victoria: Prescribed Accomodation Regulations

To view the Prescribed Accommodation Regulations for Victoria, please click here.

The ACA and Australian Tourism Accreditation Program (ATAP) do get asked, on occasion, whether it is a legal requirement to obtain the names of every individual member of a school group attending the camp?

ACA’s response:

Firstly, common sense says that a camp manager is in a position of responsibility in any critical incident and that they would want to know the names of everyone on site if there was to be an evacuation or similar.

Next, if there was any future legal action involving the camp, the camp manager would want to be able to prove or disprove that a particular person was actually on site.

Finally, the Health (Prescribed Accommodation) Regulations of 2001 (Part of the Health Act, Vic) are very explicit:

PART 5—GENERAL REGULATIONS APPLYING TO PRESCRIBED ACCOMMODATION
21. Register of occupants
(1) A proprietor of prescribed accommodation must keep a register recording— (a) the names and addresses of persons occupying the accommodation; and (b) the dates of their arrival and departure. Penalty: 20 penalty units.
(2) A proprietor is exempted from compliance with sub-regulation (1), if the proprietor is required under any other Act or regulation to keep a similar register.
(3) The proprietor must retain the register referred to in sub-regulation (1) or (2) for at least 12 months after the date of the last entry in the register.
Penalty: 20 penalty units.

Here is the link – Health (Prescribed Accommodation) Regulations of 2020 (Part of the Health Act, Vic)

So, in the ACA’s view, the short answer is, ‘yes’.

New South Wales: Public Health Act (Short Term Accomodation)

General rules around Code of conduct for the short-term rental accommodation industry can be found here.

(1) The occupier of premises must not allow any room or cubicle in the premises to be used for the purposes of sleeping accommodation unless—

(a) the room or cubicle has a floor area of 5.5 square metres or more for each person sleeping in it (in the case of long-term sleeping accommodation) or 2 square metres or more for each person sleeping in it (in any other case), or

(b) the room or cubicle has been exempted by the Minister under this clause and complies with any conditions attached to the exemption, or

(d) the premises are a correctional centre.

Maximum penalty—5 penalty units.

(2) The Minister may, by order in writing, exempt an occupier in relation to any room or cubicle from the requirements of this clause, either conditionally or unconditionally, if satisfied that the exemption will not have an adverse effect on the health of persons sleeping in the room or cubicle.

(3) An order made by the Minister under clause 22 of the Public Health (General) Regulation 2002 that was in force immediately before the commencement of this clause—

(a) is taken to be an order made under this clause, and

(b) continues in force for a period of 2 years from that commencement, unless sooner revoked.

(4) In this clause, long-term sleeping accommodation means accommodation that is provided to the same person for a period of more than 28 consecutive days.

Here is the link - Public Health Regulation 2012

Queensland: Local Government Act

You need to obtain development approval if you are conducting the following activities:

starting a new accommodation business
changing the existing activity (e.g. from private residence to rental accommodation)
re-establishing accommodation that was abandoned
changing the intensity of the accommodation (e.g. adding extra rooms)
carrying out building work
carrying out plumbing or drainage work.

Your approval may be issued with conditions that require you to:

limit the number of persons in the premises (or in a particular part of the premises) for whom you may provide accommodation
carry out modifications or other building work related to the premises within a certain period
regularly maintain the premises
provide and maintain facilities, furniture and equipment
regularly clean the premises
regularly provide clean linen and towels, if relevant to your accommodation
provide services of specific kinds for the persons using your accommodation
reside or have a council or local authority approved representative reside on the premises
keep specified records.

If your accommodation business includes a swimming pool, it must meet the requirements of the Queensland Development Code.

Find out more- Local Government Act 2009

To find your local government requirements find it here: Local Government Directory

Find more about the Building Act 1975

Tasmania: Short Stay Accommodation Act/ Building Act

The Short Stay Accommodation Act 2019 (the Act) requires booking platform providers to collect and display certain information regarding short stay premises listing on their booking platforms. This information must be provided to the Director of Building Control on a quarterly basis.

Providers must:

Not entering into a formal agreement with a booking platform provider without supply the required information.

Not providing false or misleading information to the booking platform provider.

Here is a link- Short Stay Accomodation Act 2019

Building Act

A Building Self-assessment form must be completed in the following situations where the property is used or intended to be used for visitor accommodation:

Owner occupiers of residential premises of more than four bookable rooms, or
Investment properties or shacks (not occupied by the owner) that have a gross floor area of not more than 200m2 per lot(this area relates to the floor area of the habitable building and not just the part of it intended to be let for visitor accommodation).

Specific Regulations can be found below.

Here is a link- Building Act 2016

Australian Capital Territory

More Details Coming Soon.

South Australia

There is a potential bill relating to short term accomodation legislated in South Australia.

Western Australia: Local Government Model by-Laws (Holiday Accommodation)

New Guidelines are being developed on short term accomodation.

A person shall not establish, maintain or conduct holiday accommodation unless —

(a) it is situated on an area of at least 4 000 m 2 ;

(b) the buildings and appurtenances of the group of units are so constructed, maintained and conducted that —

(i) any part of a building is not between the street alignment or the street alignments of the land and the building line fixed by the Council by any by-law for the particular street or streets or that part of the street or streets, or where a building line has not been fixed by the Council, within 7.5 m of the street alignment or any street or streets to which the land has a frontage or frontages; Local Government Model By-laws (Holiday Accommodation) No. 18 bl. 12 page 6 Version 00-c0-05 Ceased on 17 Oct 2005 Extract from www.slp.wa.gov.au, see that website for further information

(ii) every wall of a building is a minimum distance of 3.7 m from a boundary not being a street boundary of the land;

(iii) the minimum distance between the external walls of any building and another on the land is 9 m but so that if it is shown to the satisfaction of the Council or its duly authorised officer, that a permanent, adequate, reticulated water supply is available on the land, and permanent and adequate fire fighting appliances are provided there, or that buildings are of masonry construction or material having a minimum fire rating of one hour, the minimum distance may be reduced to 4.5 m;

(iv) all partition walls of multi-unit accommodation shall be constructed of material having a minimum fire rating of one hour;

(v) open space is provided for the exclusive use of the occupants of the holiday accommodation at the rate of 28 m 2 per unit and in addition parking space is provided at the rate of 17 m 2 per unit;

(vi) each room of each unit has a minimum height from floor to ceiling of 2.4 m;

(vii) every room intended for sleeping purposes has at least one door of at least 760 mm in width and 1.95 m in height and is provided with artificial light;

(viii) every room intended for sleeping purposes contains not less than 11 m 3 of air space per adult and 8.5 m 3 of air space per child, calculated for each person who sleeps in that room, and for the purpose of this by-law, any air space more than 3 m above floor level shall be disregarded; Local Government Model By-laws (Holiday Accommodation) No. 18 bl. 13 Ceased on 17 Oct 2005 Version 00-c0-05 page 7 Extract from www.slp.wa.gov.au, see that website for further information

(ix) the entrance of each unit has clearly indicated in indelible lettering the maximum number of persons permitted to occupy the unit; (x) wherever two storey single unit holiday accommodation is provided both ground floor and first floor shall be in the one occupancy; (xi) provision is made for liquid waste disposal in accordance with Model By-laws Series A and the Bacteriolytic Treatment of Sewerage and Disposal of Effluent and Liquid Waste Regulations under the Health Act 1911;

(xii) every electrical apparatus and equipment for lighting or heating or power supply or application of electricity on the land is of a type approved by the State Electricity Commission pursuant to the provisions of the Electricity Act Regulations 1947, and the electrical installation conforms to the Wiring Rules of the Standard Association of Australia; and

(xiii) there are communal toilets, ablutionary, laundry and other facilities to the number and nature prescribed by the Health Act (Caravan Parks and Camping Grounds) Regulations 1974, reckoned as if each unit of holiday accommodation were a site within the meaning of those Regulations but excepting from the reckoning any unit of holiday accommodation that has self-contained toilet, ablutionary and laundry facilities.