1 – What Nice Actually Requires of Short-Term Rentals in 2025
Nice combines several overlapping regulatory frameworks: national rules from the Le Meur Law, local regulations through the metropolitan urban plan, and enhanced municipal inspections. Here is what concretely applies.
1.1: Primary Residence — The 90-Day Limit Is Non-Negotiable
If the property you manage is the owner's primary residence, short-term rental is capped at 120 days per year at the national level. Nice applies this rule without exception. And with the Le Meur Law, certain municipalities now have the option to lower this threshold to 90 days.
In concrete terms, what does this mean? From day 91 (or day 121 depending on the applicable threshold), the property can no longer be rented short-term for the current calendar year. Platforms are required to block the calendar once the quota is reached, provided the registration number is correctly entered.
The trap: if you manage the property across multiple platforms without reliable synchronization, the night count is tracked per channel. No one automatically centralizes the total. That's on you to monitor. If you exceed the limit, it's the owner who gets fined, and it's your credibility as a manager that takes the hit.
To track this count without a shaky spreadsheet, you need a PMS that aggregates nights across all channels. That's exactly what a tool like Biloki enables, connected to over 120 platforms in real time.
1.2: Secondary Residence — Change of Use and Compensation
Nice is one of the cities that actually enforces compliance. The city council has sworn officers who check online listings, cross-reference data with the change-of-use authorization registry, and can identify violations remotely.
The amounts: up to €5,000 in fines for failure to declare, up to €10,000 per listing without a registration number, and up to €50,000 for operating without a change-of-use authorization on a secondary residence. These amounts are those set out in current legislation. Daily penalty payments may be added on top.
For a multi-property manager, the risk is multiplicative. If 5 of your properties are in violation, it's not one fine you're facing. It's five. And beyond the financial aspect, a negative inspection can trigger a broader audit of your entire portfolio. The city council then looks at all your properties, not just the one that was reported.
The question more and more owners are asking their manager: "Are you certain my property is compliant?" If you can't answer with a clear, up-to-date file, you lose the mandate.
1.3: Registration Number — The Foundation of the Entire Framework
Since the Le Meur Law, the registration number for short-term rentals has become the cornerstone of compliance. In Nice, online declaration is mandatory, and the city actively verifies that listings are compliant.
This number must appear on every published listing across all platforms. Without it, OTAs are required to remove the listing. In practice, Airbnb and Booking began enforcing these rules more strictly throughout 2025.
For a manager overseeing 15, 30, or 50 properties, tracking these numbers, their validity, and their correct display on every channel becomes a full-time job. A single oversight on one listing can trigger a report, followed by an inspection, and potentially a fine of up to €10,000 per non-compliant listing.
The registration number is not just an administrative detail. It is your key to the market. To understand the full implications, check out our dedicated guide: Mandatory registration number: what this practically means for short-term rentals.
2 – What These Rules Actually Cost You When You Don't Have a Handle on Them
The rules are one thing. The impact on your day-to-day operations is another. Here's what happens when compliance isn't properly structured.
2.1: Properties Blocked in Peak Season Without Warning
Imagine this: you manage 8 primary residences in Nice. It’s the end of July. For three of them, the night count is approaching 85 days. You only realize this when you get an Airbnb notification saying your calendar will be blocked in 5 days.
During peak season on the French Riviera, losing availability for a property means losing between €150 and €400 per night, depending on the unit. Across three properties, you could be letting €5,000 to €8,000 in revenue slip away in just one week. And the owner won't understand why their property isn't earning anything while tourists are flooding the area.
This scenario happens every summer to managers who track their nights in an Excel spreadsheet they update "when they have time." The problem isn't the rule itself. It's the lack of a tool that centralizes the count in real-time across all channels.
With a PMS connected to your channel manager, the counter runs automatically. You can set an alert at 70 days or 80 days and adjust your pricing strategy to maximize revenue on the remaining nights. Besides, if your pricing isn't dialed in, those last available nights might end up being sold at a discount. We cover this in the 7 pricing mistakes that hurt property management profitability.
2.2: Fines Are No Longer Theoretical
Nice is one of the cities that actually enforces compliance. The city council has sworn officers who check online listings, cross-reference data with the change-of-use authorization registry, and can identify violations remotely.
The amounts: up to €5,000 in fines for failure to declare, up to €10,000 per listing without a registration number, and up to €50,000 for operating without a change-of-use authorization on a secondary residence. These amounts are those set out in current legislation. Daily penalty payments may be added on top.
For a multi-property manager, the risk is multiplicative. If 5 of your properties are in violation, it's not one fine you're facing. It's five. And beyond the financial aspect, a negative inspection can trigger a broader audit of your entire portfolio. The city council then looks at all your properties, not just the one that was reported.
The question more and more owners are asking their manager: "Are you certain my property is compliant?" If you can't answer with a clear, up-to-date file, you lose the mandate.
2.3: The Invisible Cost — Mental Load and Wasted Time
Beyond the fines, there is everything you don't bill for: the hours spent checking requirements for each property, the back-and-forth with the town hall, researching regulations that change every six months, and emailing owners to request missing documents.
A manager handling 25 properties in Nice who does their compliance manually easily spends 4 to 6 hours a week on it. That is time that isn't going toward acquiring new mandates, optimizing pricing, or improving the guest experience.
This wasted time has a direct opportunity cost. While you are checking registration numbers in a file, your competitor who has automated these checks is signing a new mandate. Compliance should be a process integrated into your management tool, not a side task you do "when you can."
In fact, this is one of the most underrated workflows in property management automation. We detail the others in our article on the 5 workflows that save you time.
3 – A Concrete Compliance Plan for Your Nice Properties
The rules are set out. The risks are clear. Now, here's how to structure your compliance operationally, without it taking over your life.
3.1: Audit Every Property in Your Nice Portfolio
The first step, and there are no shortcuts: go through each property one by one and verify its regulatory status. Is it a primary or secondary residence? Has a change-of-use authorization been obtained? Is the registration number active and displayed on all platforms? Is the nightly rental count up to date?
Create a file for each property with these four pieces of information. It takes half a day for a portfolio of 20 properties. It is a one-time investment that protects you for the entire year.
For every secondary residence without a valid authorization, you have two options: initiate the change-of-use procedure (keeping in mind that it can take several months and is nearly impossible in some neighborhoods), or switch the property to medium-term rental (more than 90 days) to fall outside the scope of short-term rental regulations.
This decision must be made property by property, in consultation with the owner. It is also the time to reassess the actual profitability of each unit. Some properties are no longer viable for short-term rentals given the constraints in Nice. For this analysis, our article on the profitability of short-term rentals in 2026 sets out the right criteria.
3.2: Centralize Monitoring in a Single Tool
The audit is the starting point. Ongoing monitoring is what truly protects you. And that monitoring cannot rely on your memory or a shared file that nobody updates.
What you need: a PMS that links each property to its regulatory status, its registration number, its real-time night counter, and that generates alerts when a threshold is approaching. Biloki does exactly that. Each property has its complete file, and the night count increments automatically with every confirmed booking, regardless of the source platform.
For primary residences, you configure an alert at 70% of the quota (63 days out of 90, or 84 days out of 120). When the alert triggers, you adjust: either you raise the price of the remaining nights to maximize revenue, or you block the calendar if the owner prefers to keep nights for personal use.
For secondary residences, the tool centralizes the expiry date of the change-of-use authorization and notifies you before renewal is due. A minor detail? Not at all. Forgetting to renew an authorization means falling back into non-compliance overnight.
3.3: Preparing for What's Next — What Will Change Again
Nice's regulatory framework is not fixed. The trend is toward tightening. Several signals to watch for 2025 and 2026.
First, neighborhood quotas will likely tighten further. The most tourist-heavy areas of Nice are already close to saturation in terms of authorizations. If you're considering taking on new mandates in Vieux Nice, the port area, or Cimiez, check the available quota before committing.
Next, cooperation between the city council and platforms will intensify. Airbnb already shares night count data with municipalities that request it. Nice is among the most active cities on this front. Enforcement no longer relies solely on neighborhood complaints. It is becoming systematic and automated on the municipal side.
Finally, the taxation of furnished tourist accommodations is evolving in a less favorable direction. Tax allowances are being reduced. This is not the subject of this article (we refer you to official texts and an accountant for anything tax-related), but it directly impacts the profitability equation for your owners. Anticipating these developments positions you as a manager who protects the interests of your principals, not just someone who fills calendars.
Compliance in Nice: The Choice Is Simple
Nice in 2025 remains a highly attractive market for short-term rentals. But it's also a market where the rules are precise, inspections are real, and financial penalties are heavy.
You can continue managing your compliance on the fly, hoping no one checks. Or you can structure your portfolio now: audit each property, centralize monitoring in a reliable tool, and turn compliance into a commercial argument with your owners.
The managers who will secure the best mandates in Nice over the coming months are those who can say, with evidence to back it up: "Your property is compliant, and it will stay that way."
Biloki centralizes the regulatory management of each property alongside daily operational oversight. One tool, everything in one place. Try it free for 14 days.
