Airbnb accommodation

What is Airbnb accommodation?

Airbnb is an online marketplace and hospitality service, allowing you to lease or rent short-term lodging including holiday rentals, apartments, homestays, hostel beds, or hotel rooms.

In the Logan Planning Scheme Airbnb accommodation may be defined as either:

  • Home based business - if the owner resides in the house or unit
  • Short-term accommodation - if the owner does not reside in the house or unit.

Do I need approval from Council?

Whether or not planning approval (lodging a development application) is required depends on the use and the location (zone).

Take our Airbnb accommodation self-assessement

To check the zone for a property use the Property Report in the Logan PD Hub.

Home based business - where you (the owner) live in the house or unit

Providing you (the owner) live in the house or unit where the Airbnb service is offered, the following apply.

Planning approval (lodging a development application) is not required in the residential zones specified if you meet all of these criteria:

  • You use no more than 3 bedrooms for the guest accommodation
  • You only serve meals to to paying guests
  • You provide a minimum of one parking space per bedroom to be utilised for guest accommodation in addition to the two spaces required for the dwelling
  • No more than three guest motor vehicles are parked on site at one time. 
  • The rented area must be less than 50 square metres if located in the less if in Low-medium density or Medium density residential zones.

The specified residential zones to which this applies are:

  • Emerging community zone
  • Environmental management and conservation zone
  • Low density residential zone
  • Low-medium density residential zone (LMDR)
  • Medium density residential zone (MDR)
  • Rural zone
  • Rural residential zone

Planning approval is required if either:

  • the accommodation is located in other zones, not listed above
  • the above criteria are not met.

In this case  you will need to lodge a development application with Council to seek planning approval.

Short-term accommodation - where you (the owner) do not live in the house or unit

If you (the owner) do not live in the house or unit, then planning approval is required in all residential zones.

You will need to lodge a development application with Council, which will be:

  • Code assessable in the Low-medium density residential zone (Apartment precinct) and Medium density residential zone
  • Impact assessable (which requires public notification) in all other residential zones. 

How do I obtain approval from Council?

To seek planning approval (and obtain a development permit) for an assessable Home based business or Short-term accommodation, you must lodge a development application for a Material Change of Use with Council electronically, in person, via post or via email.

To find out more about application lodgement, forms, methods and requirements see Development applications.

More Information

To find out more about Airbnb accommodation contact us or visit in person. To read more about accommodation types and applications, see: