You can rent a Montreux apartment short-term while living abroad, but the duties do not travel with you: the commune must be told about the activity at least ten days before the first night, a guest register with ID copies must be kept and a copy sent to the commune every month, and the tourist-tax statement is due by the 15th of the following month. A local representative can do all of that under a written mandate. What cannot be delegated is your name on the authorisation and the consequences of a deadline that was missed.
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The declaration goes to the commune, not to the platform
Most absentee owners assume the platform took care of it. It did not. Letting a furnished apartment or a room to holiday guests in Montreux is subject to a compulsory declaration[1], and the commune is explicit that being listed on Airbnb or any other platform does not replace the obligation to declare the activity[1].
The canton frames the same duty twice: the person who lets or sublets accommodation must announce the activity to the commune where the flat is located, and must keep a register of the persons accommodated[5]. In Montreux the announcement has a timing rule that catches owners who decide in spring and rent in July: it must be made at least ten days before the first night, together with the data needed for the register of lessors[3].
There is a second announcement most owners have never heard of. Before the activity is declared, the project itself goes to the commune's building police, which issues a determination or an authorisation, and that document is what the register-of-lessors service asks for[3]. If your flat is in a condominium, the co-ownership rules sit in front of that step — the mechanics are in short-term lets in a Swiss condominium (PPE).
The monthly deadline that has a price on it
The tourist tax is where distance becomes expensive. Montreux levies a communal tourist tax of CHF 3 per taxable person per night, charged on top of the intercommunal tax[4], and it is the host — the person who operates the accommodation or draws the income from the property — who collects it from guests in the name and on behalf of the commune[4]. The same regulation covers platform bookings explicitly, whatever the reservation channel.
Collection is only half of it. Each month the host files a statement of the tax collected, and it must reach the commune, statement attached, by the 15th of the following month[4]. Miss it after a reminder and the commune can assess the tax on its own figures, with administrative costs of CHF 500[4]. Deliberately under-declaring is treated as tax evasion, punishable by a fine of up to five times the amount evaded and at least CHF 800[4].
The guest register runs on a parallel clock. The host keeps a register that allows the persons accommodated to be checked — a copy of an identity card or passport — and records the precise periods of accommodation, with arrival and departure dates[3], and sends a copy of that register to the competent communal authority every month[3].
| What | When it is due | Who is liable | If it slips |
|---|---|---|---|
| Declaration of the letting activity to the commune | At least 10 days before the first night | The lessor (or a representative under a written mandate) | The letting runs unregistered; the commune can regularise it on its terms |
| Guest register (ID copy, arrival and departure dates) | Continuous, per stay | The lessor | Nothing to show a control, and nothing to send monthly |
| Copy of the guest register to the commune | Monthly | The lessor | An incomplete file at the moment it is checked |
| Tourist-tax statement and payment | By the 15th of the following month | The host collecting the tax | Assessment on the commune's own figures, CHF 500 costs |
| Change-of-use authorisation (QP 53), if letting exceeds 90 days a year | Before the first night beyond the threshold | The owner | Letting without the authorisation the law requires |
Three sentences to put in the mandate. The announcement must be made at least ten days before the first night[3]; a copy of the guest register goes to the communal authority every month[3]; the tourist-tax statement must arrive by the 15th of the following month[4]. An owner who reads those three dates in a management contract knows exactly what to audit, and a manager who cannot show the filed statements has not done the job.
The 90-day line and the QP 53
Everything above applies from the first night. A separate rule applies once the letting gets serious. In Vaud, an owner who previously let a dwelling in the traditional way and now wants to let it through a collaborative platform for a planned duration of more than 90 days per calendar year — consecutive or occasional — must first obtain an authorisation for change of use[6]. The reasoned request goes to the commune on the cantonal form, Questionnaire particulier n° 53, the QP 53[6].
This is the one item on the list that a manager can prepare but not decide. The authorisation attaches to the dwelling and to its owner, the commune may require a public enquiry, and the answer arrives on the commune's timetable rather than on your booking calendar. If your plan is to let a Montreux flat for most of the year from another country, the QP 53 is the first file to open, not the last.
What a local representative can and cannot do
Swiss practice already assumes an owner may act through someone else: the cantonal tourist-tax regulation provides that a recourse is accompanied, where applicable, by the representative's power of attorney[4]. A written mandate is therefore not a workaround — it is the normal instrument, and it is what lets a manager announce the activity, keep the register, file the monthly statement and answer a control while you are on another continent.
What the mandate should cover, in plain language:
- Announcements and filings — the declaration to the commune, the register of lessors, the monthly register copy, the tourist-tax statement, and the correspondence that follows from them.
- Access — key handover, code rotation after every stay or every lost key, and a named person who can be at the door within the hour.
- Guest handling — screening, check-in, the identity documents the register requires, and the departure inspection.
- Suppliers — cleaning and linen, maintenance, and the right to authorise a repair up to a stated ceiling without calling you at 2 a.m.
- Reporting — a monthly pack: register extract, filed tourist-tax statement, invoices, incidents, occupancy and revenue.
What stays with you is shorter and heavier: the change-of-use authorisation in your name[6], the tax position on the rental income — covered in tax for non-resident owners of Swiss property — the insurance declaration that the flat is let commercially, and the decision to keep letting at all.
Making the flat run without you in the country
The compliance calendar is only the visible half of remote ownership. The other half is the building: a leak that starts on a Tuesday, a guest locked out at midnight, a boiler that fails the week you are away. Three habits remove most of the risk.
Make access boring. A keypad or connected lock with a code per stay means no key ever has to be posted, and rotating the code after a lost set costs nothing. Keep one physical spare with the manager, not with a neighbour who may be away.
Buy sensors, not cameras. Water-leak and temperature sensors cost less than one emergency callout and they report to someone who can act. Interior cameras are prohibited by Airbnb's own rules, and the data-protection limits around any device that captures guests are set out in cameras, noise monitors and guest data.
Inspect on a schedule, not on instinct. A quarterly walkthrough with photographs, taken by the person who is there, catches the wear that guests never report: the mattress, the shower seal, the paint behind the sofa. Between walkthroughs, the monthly pack is your instrument panel — if the register copy, the tax statement and the revenue line arrive together and reconcile, the property is being run; if one of them is missing, that is the warning.
Owners who do this from abroad rarely fail on strategy. They fail on a form that needed a signature ten days before a booking, or a statement that was due on the 15th while the flat was empty and nobody was thinking about it. Delegating is not the same as disengaging: the mandate moves the work, and the monthly pack keeps the accountability where it belongs.
Can I rent my Montreux apartment short-term while living abroad?
Yes, but the activity must be declared to the commune where the flat is located, at least ten days before the first night, and a guest register must be kept and copied to the communal authority every month[3]. Most owners act through a local representative under a written mandate; the tourist-tax regulation expressly contemplates a representative's power of attorney[4].
Does listing on Airbnb satisfy the commune's declaration requirement?
No. The commune states that registration on Airbnb or any other platform does not replace the obligation to declare the activity[1], and that a platform's automatic collection of the tourist tax does not replace the declaration procedure with the commune[2].
How much is the tourist tax in Montreux, and when is it paid?
The communal tax is CHF 3 per taxable person per night, in addition to the intercommunal tax[4]. The host collects it from guests in the name of the commune and files a monthly statement that must arrive by the 15th of the following month[4].
What happens if the monthly tourist-tax statement is late?
If the required information is not provided after a reminder, the commune can assess the tax itself, with administrative costs of CHF 500[4]. Intentionally supplying information that reduces the tax, or doing nothing to avoid assessment, is punishable by a fine of up to five times the amount evaded and at least CHF 800[4].
Do I need an authorisation to let for more than 90 days a year?
In Vaud, an owner who wants to let a dwelling through a platform for a planned duration of more than 90 days per calendar year must first obtain an authorisation for change of use, requested from the commune on the QP 53 form[6].
Bahram Khanlarov
10+ years in hospitality. BBA Hospitality (Glion), MSc Tourism (FHGR), MSc Data Science (HSLU).
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- Commune de Montreux, Logements de vacances — letting a flat or room to holiday guests is subject to a compulsory declaration; a listing on Airbnb or any other platform does not replace the obligation to declare. Consulted 24 October 2026.
- Commune de Montreux, Démarche simplifiée pour déclarer un logement ou une chambre de vacances (14 September 2026) — publishing an advert on Airbnb or another platform does not suffice to declare a holiday dwelling, and automatic collection of the tourist tax by some platforms does not replace the declaration procedure with the commune. Consulted 24 October 2026.
- Commune de Montreux, Office du commerce et des manifestations, B&B et logements de vacances : bases légales et démarches administratives (2026 edition) — art. 74c LEAE: announcement at least ten days before the first night, guest register with identity-document copy and exact arrival/departure dates, monthly copy of the register to the communal authority; building-police determination required upstream. Consulted 24 October 2026.
- Commune de Montreux, Règlement relatif à la taxe communale de séjour (8 November 2017) — CHF 3 per taxable person per night on top of the intercommunal tax (art. 5); host collects in the name and on behalf of the commune (art. 6); monthly statement due by the 15th of the following month (art. 7); CHF 500 administrative costs on assessment (art. 9); fine of up to five times the amount evaded, minimum CHF 800 (art. 13); representative's power of attorney in recourse proceedings (art. 16). Consulted 24 October 2026.
- État de Vaud, Police cantonale du commerce, Informations relatives aux locations de type Airbnb — duty of lessors to announce themselves to the communal authorities (art. 4a, 74c LEAE) and to keep a register of guests (art. 74c al. 3 and 4 LEAE). Consulted 24 October 2026.
- État de Vaud, Hébergement sur des plateformes d'économie collaborative de type Airbnb — letting through a platform for a planned duration of more than 90 days per calendar year requires prior authorisation for change of use, requested from the commune on Questionnaire particulier n° 53 (QP 53). Consulted 24 October 2026.
General information on declaring and running a short-term rental from abroad, not legal or tax advice. Communal practice, cantonal rules and your building's regulations govern your individual case.