How do I start an Airbnb or homestay business in India?
Make sure you are allowed to first: if it is a flat, read your housing society's bylaws and your lease, and check your state's tourism department, since most tourist states register homestays. Then list on Airbnb, where under the split fee most hosts pay 3% and guests pay 14.1% to 16.5% on top (Airbnb is moving every host to a single host-paid fee). The Ministry of Tourism's national standard treats a homestay as 1 to 6 bedrooms (12 beds) with the owner or an operator living there, and offers voluntary Silver (Rs 3,000) or Gold (Rs 5,000) classification, valid two years, through its NIDHI+ portal. If you host foreigners, OCI cardholders included, you must report each one on the Bureau of Immigration's Form C. Serving meals needs an FSSAI Registration, Rs 100 a year at small scale, and GST registration applies once turnover crosses the threshold. What kills most is occupancy: run the numbers on an ordinary month, not peak-season weekends, before you furnish.
Airbnb's own page on what it charges. Under the split fee most hosts pay 3% and guests pay 14.1% to 16.5%; Airbnb is moving every home host to a single host-paid fee, and once switched you cannot go back.
The Ministry of Tourism's national standards for classifying a B&B or homestay: from 1 to 6 lettable bedrooms (12 beds), with the owner or a designated operator living there, classified Silver (Rs 3,000) or Gold (Rs 5,000), valid for two years.
The FSSAI's current table of which food business needs which licence and what it costs a year, revised from 1 April 2026: most businesses up to Rs 1.5 crore turnover need only a Registration at Rs 100, a State Licence costs Rs 5,000 up to Rs 50 crore, and a Central Licence Rs 7,500 above that. Importers, merchant exporters and businesses registered as e-commerce need a Central Licence whatever their size, and hawkers pay nothing.
This is the plain-language answer to "do I have to register yet." It lays out the 40 lakh goods / 20 lakh services limits, the lower special-category-state limits, and a state-by-state table so you can check your own state instead of guessing. It also lists the 11 categories (interstate supply, e-commerce sellers, casual and non-resident taxable persons) where registration is mandatory from rupee one, which is the trap most first-time founders miss.
From
ClearTaxby ClearTax Editorial Team12 min read
Standard limits are 40 lakh turnover for goods and 20 lakh for services, dropping to 20/10 lakh in special category states, computed on aggregate turnover across the same PAN.
Interstate supply and selling on marketplaces like Amazon or Flipkart force registration regardless of turnover, so "I'm still small" does not exempt you.
Aggregate turnover counts taxable, exempt, export and interstate supplies together, so businesses often cross the line sooner than they expect.
The Bureau of Immigration's online system where every accommodator, hotels and homestays included, must report foreign guests, including OCI cardholders.
