Every requirement, in one place, across 13 pillars and 139 line items — consolidated from the national statutes, the draft Code of Good Practice, municipal by-laws and industry standards. This is the syllabus an assessment is built on.
Not everything on this page is law, and the difference matters. These items are drawn from sources with very different standing — binding statute, a draft code published for comment, and industry standards nobody is legally obliged to meet. Every line below is marked. Read the marks before you rely on any of it.
In force today. A statute, regulation, SANS standard or municipal by-law. Failure carries a legal consequence — in one case, imprisonment.
From the Code of Good Practice, Gazette 54320 of 13 March 2026. Published for comment, and it describes itself as non-binding pending an amendment to the Tourism Act. The words “shall” and “must” do not appear in it. Good practice, not obligation.
Industry standard or proposed accreditation criteria. No legal force. This is what a well-run property does, and what an accreditation scheme can reasonably ask for.
The single biggest source of complaint, and the reason by-laws get written in the first place.
Fire, gas, medical, child and pool. The part of the framework where failure is measured in injury rather than in fines.
What the guest is owed, and what the operator may not do.
Mostly still ahead of the sector. Almost nothing here is in force nationally yet.
Where the property is allowed to operate. The most municipality-dependent pillar in the framework, and the one with no national answer.
The layer that is already fully in force, nationally, with no municipal variation.
Cleaning standards, biohazard handling, and the two record-keeping duties most often missed.
The most common single gap on a short-term rental: a residential homeowner policy excludes commercial letting.
What happens when something goes wrong — and the South Africa-specific failures every operator should plan for.
The pillar that turns every other pillar into something an auditor can actually verify.
If the listing says it, the property has to have it. This is where most disputes actually start.
Voluntary throughout, and increasingly what separates a graded property from an ungraded one.
Voluntary in law. Close to mandatory in practice for anyone selling through trade channels.
This consolidates the Code of Good Practice for Short-Term Rentals (Gazette 54320, 13 March 2026); a national and per-province compliance checklist; the Cape Town STR Compliance Framework submitted to the City for validation; depth references behind the hotel and guest-house categories; a proposed private accreditation standard; and STRLCS’s own industry response to the gazette.
Two things it deliberately does not do. It does not state prices, fees or levies — those vary by municipality and several are not yet gazetted. And it does not give room counts or occupancy caps, because there is no national room cap: some municipalities set two rooms, some ten, and several of the newer schemes removed room limits entirely in favour of parking ratios and case-by-case consent.
Zoning is the one item that cannot be generalised. Cape Town treats short-term letting as residential use. Johannesburg treats it as a consent use. eThekwini already requires a displayed four-year certificate. Any assessment has to resolve zoning against the specific municipality, and no framework can shortcut that.
See the instrument register for the underlying legislation, or tell us if something here is out of date.
Someone still has to attend the property and confirm which of these are actually in place. That is what an assessment is.