Denmark has quietly handed authorities sweeping new powers to crack down on illegal Airbnb rentals, including six-figure fines and the ability to block bookings, just as short-term letting surges faster than officials can track it.
A broad political agreement at Christiansborg now gives Danish authorities the tools they have long demanded to fight what politicians call skyggehoteller, or shadow hotels. The deal introduces a legal duty for platforms, owners and landlords to hand over detailed rental data when requested. Authorities can issue binding orders to Airbnb and similar platforms to block bookings or remove listings that breach the law.
The timing is not accidental. Hotel lobby HORESTA reported an explosive increase in short-term rentals earlier this year, warning that many homes are being rented out above the permitted 70-day annual cap without real control. The group says much of the market operates outside effective oversight, undermining traditional hotels and shrinking the housing stock available to locals.
The Fines Are Real
The new penalties are designed to hurt. Owners who rent out their home for more than 180 days beyond the legal limit face fines of 100,000 kroner. Properties run as unlicensed hotels can be hit with 50,000 kroner per unit per year. Even platforms that refuse to cooperate with data requests will be fined 25,000 kroner.
For expats, this matters in ways that go beyond headline numbers. Many foreign residents do not follow Danish housing law closely. Some assume Airbnb rules work the same way they do back home. They do not.
The 70-Day Rule You Need to Know
Current national rules cap short-term letting of your entire primary home at 70 days per calendar year. Some municipalities can raise this to 100 days if the platform reports your income directly to Skatteforvaltningen. That sounds straightforward until you factor in tenancy agreements, landlord consent and the Holiday Homes Act.
Tenants subletting via Airbnb without written landlord permission can trigger eviction. Under the new rules, authorities must now inform property owners if they investigate a tenant’s illegal subletting. That gives landlords more ammunition to act and exposes tenants to legal risk they may not have understood when they listed their spare room.
I have watched this enforcement gap widen over the years. Walk through Vesterbro or Nørrebro in Copenhagen and you will see entire apartment buildings that feel more like hotels than neighborhoods. Residents complain about rolling suitcases at midnight and strangers fumbling with lockboxes in stairwells.
Who Backs This and Why
The agreement drew support from across the political spectrum, including the government, Venstre, Conservatives, Liberal Alliance, SF, Dansk Folkeparti, Radikale Venstre, Enhedslisten, Danmarksdemokraterne and Alternativet. Business groups like Dansk Erhverv and property organization EjendomDanmark backed the move, arguing it levels the playing field between regulated hotels and unregulated rentals.
Tenants’ organization LLO welcomed the deal but argues it does not go far enough. The group wants Copenhagen and other tight housing markets to cut the cap from 70 days to 40 days per year. As noted by LLO, the most crucial element is that authorities actually start performing supervision and gain access to data.
What This Means for You
If you rent out a room, your apartment or a house short-term in Denmark, you now need to assume authorities can and will access your rental data. Check your local day limit with your kommune. Ensure you have landlord permission if you are a tenant. Declare all rental income in your tax return.
The new information duty means platforms, owners and hosts must supply relevant data in specific investigations. Hoping your activity stays under the radar is no longer a viable strategy. With municipalities now able to take over local supervision of primary-home rentals, cities like Copenhagen can tailor enforcement to local housing pressures.
For expats on residence permits tied to employment or study, repeated short-term rental activity could be interpreted as unregistered commercial business. That is a grey area in Danish migration law, but one that can attract unwanted attention. Non-residents face even tighter restrictions on owning holiday homes and using investment properties for short-term letting.
Denmark is following the path of Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris, all of which have imposed day limits and heavy fines on illegal tourist rentals. The difference here is that enforcement is finally catching up with political promises. That should worry anyone who thought the old rules were more suggestion than law.
