Batumi Short-Term Rental: Tax, Costs and Data (2026)
Batumi short-term rental income can be taxed in Georgia under a dedicated fixed-rate option that the Tax Code of Georgia allows until 1 January 2028: GEL 10 per square metre of letting space for each calendar month, for an individual who applies to the tax authority and stays within the conditions set out in the Code. All rules, prices and statistics in this guide are stated as of 27 October 2026. They draw on the consolidated Tax Code published on the Legislative Herald of Georgia on 15 October 2026, the official exchange rate of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) for 27 October 2026, which is GEL 2.5966 per US dollar, and the inbound tourism tables of Geostat, the national statistics office.
The guide covers the legal and practical side of a Batumi short-term rental in the order an owner meets it. It explains how the Code defines short-stay letting, what the fixed tax costs and when it is paid, how the 5%, 20% and 1% rates differ, and when VAT and tax residence matter. It then sets out platform fees and payouts, shows when visitors arrive in Adjara, compares occupancy and nightly-rate data from two named providers, describes the rental-pool terms that two aparthotel operators or developers state, and ends with a worked net example whose assumptions are labelled one by one. Nothing here is a forecast or a return promise, and prices are shown in US dollars with lari conversions at the NBG rate above.
Batumi Short-Term Rental: Key Facts at a Glance
| Question | Position on 27 October 2026 | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Is there a special tax option for short stays? | Yes. Until 1 January 2028 an individual letting living space for short periods can apply for a fixed income tax of GEL 10 per m2 per calendar month | Tax Code, Article 309, paragraphs 24 to 26 |
| What limits does that option carry? | No voluntary VAT registration, and transactions of no more than GEL 100,000 (about $38,512) in any 12 continuous calendar months | Tax Code, Article 309(24); PwC Tax Summaries |
| When is the fixed tax paid? | Four dates a year: 15 April, 15 July, 5 October and 15 January | Tax Code, Article 309(27) |
| What is the rate for ordinary residential rent? | 5% of income when the individual makes no deductions and the space is let for residential purposes | Tax Code, Article 81(2) |
| What is the general personal income tax rate? | 20%, unless the Code provides otherwise | Tax Code, Article 81(1) |
| What is the small-business rate? | 1% of income, rising to 3% once gross income passes GEL 500,000, for an entrepreneur individual granted the status | Tax Code, Articles 88 to 90 |
| When is VAT registration compulsory? | After taxable transactions exceed GEL 100,000 in any 12 consecutive calendar months; the standard VAT rate is 18% | Tax Code, Articles 165 and 166 |
| Who counts as tax resident? | A person who stays 183 or more days in any continuous 12-calendar-month period ending in the tax year | Tax Code, Article 34(2) |
| What must guests carry? | Health and accident insurance of at least GEL 30,000 for tourists entering from 1 January 2026 | Georgian National Tourism Administration, Government Resolution N602 |
| How seasonal is Adjara? | Monthly average visits of 424,800 in the third quarter of 2025 against 100,600 in the first quarter | Geostat Inbound Tourism Survey, updated 30 July 2026 |
| What do platform data show for Batumi? | AirROI: 3,813 listings, 35.5% occupancy, GEL 153 average daily rate. Airbtics: 3,647 listings, 54% median occupancy, $46 average daily rate | AirROI (1 October 2026); Airbtics (16 October 2026) |
Two features of the table frame the rest of the guide. The tax side is written in a single statute that is available in English, so most of the legal points can be checked against article numbers. The market side is different: the guide uses the national statistics office for visitor flows and two commercial data providers for listing-level figures, which is why those figures differ.
How the Tax Code Treats Short-Term Letting of Living Space
The Tax Code does not use the phrase “Airbnb” or “short-term rental”. It refers instead to activity code 55.2 of the national commodity nomenclature, which covers holiday and other short-stay accommodation, and to a natural person who lets “living space owned by him/her for a short period”. That wording sits in the transitional provisions at the end of the Code, in Article 309, and it creates a special track for such individuals. The same Code keeps its ordinary income tax rules in Article 81, where the rate is 20% of taxable income unless another provision applies.
Three details of the wording matter for a Batumi short-term rental owner. First, the track is for a natural person who owns the space; the Code speaks of living space owned by the person. Second, the object of taxation is the living space itself, measured in square metres, and not the nightly income. Third, the track depends on an application to the tax authority, so it does not apply automatically to someone who simply lists a flat on a platform. The Minister of Finance sets the procedure for moving to the fixed tax and for reporting, according to paragraph 31 of the same article.
The provision has been extended before. An earlier consolidated version of the Code, published on 13 December 2023, ran the track until 1 January 2026, and PwC Tax Summaries, reviewed on 2 September 2026, still describes that period. The version of the Code published on 15 October 2026 reads “until 1 January 2028”. A Batumi short-term rental owner reading older guides may therefore meet an end date that has since moved, which is the reason this guide gives the version date next to each rule.
Because the track is transitional and has an end date, it is worth reading the dates as part of the rule. Income earned before 1 January 2028 can be taxed under it; the Code text reviewed here says nothing about what applies afterwards, and later amendments may change that. The end date moved from 1 January 2026 to 1 January 2028 between the two versions of the Code compared here, so the as-of date in this guide is part of the information.
The Fixed Income Tax for Short-Term Letting, Step by Step
Paragraphs 24 to 32 of Article 309 describe the fixed tax in a sequence that can be followed as steps. The wording below paraphrases the Code as consolidated on 15 October 2026.
Step 1: check the conditions
The Code names two conditions. The individual must not be voluntarily registered as a VAT payer, and the total value of transactions in this activity over any 12 continuous calendar months must not exceed GEL 100,000. The English text joins the two with the word “or”, while the PwC Tax Summaries description of the same rule lists them as conditions that all apply. In either reading, an owner whose annual letting income is a few tens of thousands of lari sits well inside the cap. At the NBG rate of GEL 2.5966 per dollar, GEL 100,000 is about $38,512.
Step 2: apply to the tax authority
Paragraph 28 states that the transition to the fixed tax happens on the taxpayer’s application. The period of levy can be a full calendar year or one or more calendar months, and the months do not have to be consecutive. An owner who lets only in the summer months can therefore, on the Code’s wording, apply for those months only. What happens to income earned in the months outside the chosen period is governed by the general rules of the Code, and the Code text reviewed here does not restate them in this article.
Step 3: calculate the amount
The tax is GEL 10 per square metre of the letting space in each calendar month. The Code adds that the Government of Georgia may reduce or increase this rate for a particular location or season if the local self-government authority applies. The text reviewed here does not show a Batumi-specific change, so the base figure is the one used in this guide. For a 35 m2 apartment the monthly tax is 35 multiplied by 10, which is GEL 350, or about $134.79 at the NBG rate. For a full year it is 12 multiplied by GEL 350, which is GEL 4,200, or about $1,617.
The Code also states that the assessed fixed tax is not recalculated afterwards. In other words, the amount does not rise if a month turns out busier than expected, and it does not fall if the flat stays empty. The tax therefore behaves like a fixed annual cost for the chosen months, which is why the break-even calculation later in this guide treats it as a fixed line.
Step 4: pay on the four dates
Payment follows the calendar quarter in which the months fall. The table below sets out the deadlines in Article 309(27).
| Period covered | Pay no later than | Amount for a full quarter, 35 m2 unit |
|---|---|---|
| 1 January to 31 March | 15 April | GEL 1,050 (about $404) |
| 1 April to 30 June | 15 July | GEL 1,050 (about $404) |
| 1 July to 30 September | 5 October | GEL 1,050 (about $404) |
| 1 October to 31 December | 15 January | GEL 1,050 (about $404) |
The amounts assume that all three months of a quarter are covered by the election and are calculated at GEL 350 a month and the NBG rate of 27 October 2026. The third-quarter date of 5 October falls earlier in the month than the other three, which is a detail that is easy to miss when a calendar is built from a general rule of thumb.
Step 5: note what changes while the fixed tax applies
Paragraphs 29 to 32 list the effects. The ordinary tax privileges of the Code do not apply to the fixed income tax. The individual is released from the obligation to use a cash register. A person engaged in hired labour for this letting is exempt from income tax on that pay, and the host is correspondingly released from the tax agent’s obligation. Letting of living space for a short time during the fixed-tax period is not treated as a VAT taxable transaction. A lessee who sublets the same space for the same activity during that period is exempt from profit or income tax on the short-stay income, and also from the cash register duty.
Other Income Tax Routes Compared With the Fixed Rate
The fixed tax is one of several rates in the Code that an owner may meet. Which one applies to a given arrangement depends on facts such as the purpose of the letting, whether deductions are claimed and whether the individual holds a special status. The table lists the routes and the Code articles that define them, and the arithmetic columns apply each rate to the gross revenue of the first scenario in the worked example later in this guide, GEL 19,825.
| Route | Rate and base | Basis | Tax on GEL 19,825 gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed tax for short-stay letting (code 55.2) | GEL 10 per m2 per calendar month, 35 m2, 12 months | Article 309(24) to (32) | GEL 4,200 |
| Residential rent, no deductions | 5% of income when space is let for residential purposes | Article 81(2) | GEL 991 |
| Small business status | 1% of income; 3% once gross income passes GEL 500,000 | Articles 88 to 90 | GEL 198 |
| General rate | 20% of income less deductions allowed by the Code | Articles 80 and 81(1) | GEL 2,714 if all listed costs except tax were deductible |
| Micro business status | No income tax on business income; gross income up to GEL 30,000 (about $11,554) and no hired labour | Articles 84 to 86 | GEL 0, if the status applies |
The arithmetic in the last column shows how the rates compare mechanically; it does not say that any route is open to a particular owner. For the 5% line, Article 81(2) refers to renting out residential space “for residential purposes” and to an individual who makes no deductions, and the Code addresses short-period letting under code 55.2 in its own provision. For the small-business line, Article 88 lets the Government, in agreement with the Parliament’s Financial-Budget Committee, bar certain activities from the status and exclude certain income types from the GEL 500,000 limit, so the list of eligible activities sits in a Government decision and not in the Code. For the general line, the Code allows deductions, and the 20% figure in the table assumes that the platform fee, cleaning, utilities and service charge from the worked example were all deductible, which depends on documents the owner holds.
The small-business status carries obligations of its own. A holder keeps a special book of records, and under Article 93 files the return and pays the tax by the 15th day of the month following the accounting month. The status is revoked if gross income exceeds GEL 500,000 in each of two calendar years. The micro-business status is lost on registration as a VAT payer, according to Article 85. These points matter mainly to owners who combine letting with other activities, because the status attaches to the individual and not to a single flat.
The PwC Tax Summaries pages for Georgia, reviewed on 2 September 2026, restate the 20% flat personal income tax, the 5% residential rent rate, the 1% and 3% small-business rates and the micro-business exemption. They add that resident individuals are exempt from tax on income that has no Georgian source, which leaves rent from a Batumi flat outside that exemption because the property is in Georgia. The companion guide on property tax in Georgia covers the annual property tax and the sale of property, which this guide leaves aside.
VAT, Tax Residence and Filing Points for Batumi Short-Term Rental Income
VAT has its own threshold. Article 165 of the Code requires a taxable person to apply for VAT registration within two business days of exceeding GEL 100,000 of taxable transactions over any 12 consecutive calendar months, and Article 166 sets the standard rate at 18%. For a single apartment the threshold is far above a typical year of letting: the first scenario in the worked example has gross revenue of GEL 19,825, which is about one fifth of the threshold. The threshold matters more for owners who hold several units, for operators that sublet, or for those who add services around the stay. While the fixed tax applies to an individual, letting living space for a short time is not a VAT taxable transaction under Article 309(32).
Tax residence follows a day count. Article 34 treats a natural person as a Georgian resident for the whole tax year if the person has actually stayed in Georgia for 183 or more days in any continuous 12-calendar-month period ending in that tax year. Time spent outside Georgia for treatment, leisure, a business trip or education counts as time in Georgia under paragraph 3 of the same article. Article 79 makes resident natural persons income tax payers, and also makes non-resident individuals payers on income from a Georgian source. Article 104 of the Code lists, among Georgian source income, income from immovable property located in Georgia and used for economic activity, as well as services related to such property or delivered in Georgia in the sphere of tourism and recreation. For a foreign owner of a Batumi flat the question is therefore mainly which of the Code’s mechanisms applies.
A foreign owner may also ask whether the home country taxes the income. That depends on the country and on any double-tax treaty with Georgia, and it falls outside the Georgian Tax Code, so this guide does not answer it. A single plain sentence is enough here: rules differ from person to person, and the Georgian provisions above describe only the Georgian side.
Filing dates for the fixed tax are the four payment dates already shown. Owners on the general 20% route and those on the small-business route have different calendars, and the Code gives the small-business monthly return date as the 15th of the following month. The guide on living in Georgia as a foreigner collects the wider tax picture for residents, including the personal income tax and pension points that apply to people who work in Georgia.
Platforms, Fees and Payouts
Both data providers used in this guide track Airbnb listings, and Airbnb’s help centre describes two fee structures. Under the split-fee structure most hosts pay a service fee of 3% of the nightly price and any host-charged fees, while guests pay between 14.1% and 16.5% of the booking subtotal. Under the single-fee structure the host pays the whole fee, typically 15.5%, with most others between 14% and 16%. The help page says the split-fee structure is being phased out as hosts move to the single fee, and it states that fees shown are VAT inclusive where VAT applies. The worked example later uses the single fee of 15.5% as a conservative input because it is charged to the host and reduces the payout directly.
Payouts have their own rules. Airbnb’s payout page lists the methods it supports: Fast Pay, pay to card, Payoneer, PayPal, Western Union, ACH direct deposit in the United States and Puerto Rico, international wire and bank account. After a payout is released, the page gives processing times of 3 to 5 business days for a bank account and 3 to 7 business days for an international wire. It also says that a payout can be held for review and delayed up to 45 days after guest check-in. The page does not list countries, so which methods a Georgian owner can select is a question for the platform account itself.
| Payout method | Time after release | Note on the platform page |
|---|---|---|
| Fast Pay and pay to card | 30 minutes or less | Eligible regions only |
| Payoneer prepaid card | Within 24 hours | Listed method |
| PayPal and Western Union | About one business day | Listed methods |
| Bank account | 3 to 5 business days | Country availability is not listed on the page |
| International wire | 3 to 7 business days | Financial institutions may charge extra fees |
Guests arriving in Georgia face a rule that hosts often mention in listings. The Georgian National Tourism Administration states that all tourists entering Georgia from 1 January 2026 need health and accident insurance with cover of at least GEL 30,000, from a Georgian or foreign insurer, valid for the whole stay including the arrival and departure dates. The page lists exemptions for holders of diplomatic or special visas and passports, accredited diplomatic and international staff with their families, persons covered by international agreements and international freight and passenger drivers. The rule binds the traveller, and the page does not assign any duty to the host.
Three practical points follow from the Tax Code and the platform pages. Income received on a platform is still income of the owner, and the fixed tax or any other regime applies to it in the same way as to a direct booking. The platform’s own fee is a business cost and appears in the worked example as a deduction from gross revenue. And a payout in a foreign currency, if the owner chooses that route, is received at the exchange rate of the paying institution, which differs from the NBG official rate used in this guide for conversions. The NBG official rate is the reference for the arithmetic only.
Who Visits Adjara, and When
Geostat’s Inbound Tourism Survey covers international visitors aged 15 and older and reports the regions they visit. Adjara, the autonomous republic in which Batumi lies, is one of the regions in the tables, and the survey notes that a single visit can include more than one region, so the regional rows add up to more than the national total. The figures below are monthly averages for each quarter, in thousands of visits, as updated on 30 July 2026. Source data for the national count come from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia.
| Quarter | Adjara 2024 | Adjara 2025 | Adjara 2026 | Tbilisi 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January to March | 121.6 | 100.6 | 102.0 | 221.9 |
| April to June | 189.7 | 209.9 | 207.1 | 309.4 |
| July to September | 393.2 | 424.8 | not yet released | 435.4 |
| October to December | 142.1 | 155.6 | not yet released | 288.9 |
Three readings follow from the table. First, the summer peak is steep in Adjara: the third quarter of 2025 had a monthly average of 424,800 visits, which is 4.2 times the 100,600 of the first quarter, while Tbilisi’s third quarter was 2.0 times its first. In 2024 the Adjara ratio was 3.2. Second, the third quarter of 2025 in Adjara was close to Tbilisi’s 435,400, which is the quarter in which the coast draws about as many visits as the capital. Third, the 2026 figures so far are close to 2025: the first quarter is 1.4% higher and the second quarter 1.4% lower than a year earlier, by the table’s own numbers. These are descriptions of published counts and not a projection of the third quarter of 2026.
The same survey gives national profiles. In 2025 the monthly average was 571,400 visits by inbound visitors aged 15 and older. By purpose, holiday and leisure accounted for 287,500 visits (50.3%), visits to friends and relatives for 136,800 (23.9%), transit for 74,000 (12.9%), business for 35,000 (6.1%) and shopping for 28,200 (4.9%). By citizenship, Russia accounted for 131,600 (23.0%), Türkiye for 104,100 (18.2%), Armenia for 79,000 (13.8%), the European Union as a group for 37,900 (6.6%), Israel for 33,500 (5.9%) and Azerbaijan for 24,300 (4.3%). These are national numbers and not Batumi numbers, so they describe who crosses the border and not who books an apartment on the coast.
| Indicator, 2025 monthly average | Value | Share of 571,400 visits |
|---|---|---|
| Holiday, leisure, recreation | 287,500 | 50.3% |
| Visiting friends and relatives | 136,800 | 23.9% |
| Transit | 74,000 | 12.9% |
| Visitors from Russia | 131,600 | 23.0% |
| Visitors from Türkiye | 104,100 | 18.2% |
| Visitors from Armenia | 79,000 | 13.8% |
| Visitors from Israel | 33,500 | 5.9% |
Geostat also reports visitor spending. For 2025 the monthly average accommodation spending of inbound visitors was GEL 317.0 million, which is 25.4% of total monthly average spending of GEL 1,249.8 million, and compares with GEL 400.7 million for accommodation in 2024. The average stay was 5.63 nights in 2025, against 5.54 in 2024, and in the first quarter of 2026 it was 5.87 nights. The tables do not break these figures down by region or by type of lodging, so they describe the national market for beds in all forms and not the private-apartment segment alone.
Occupancy and Nightly Rates: What Two Data Providers Report
The Geostat tables above count visitors, not apartment bookings, so occupancy and nightly rates in this guide come from two commercial providers. Both derive their figures from platform listing and calendar data, and their definitions and periods differ, so the numbers should be read side by side and not mixed.
| Metric | AirROI, Batumi | Airbtics, Batumi |
|---|---|---|
| Page date and period | Updated 1 October 2026; 12 months, October 2025 to September 2026 | Updated 16 October 2026; 12 months, September 2025 to August 2026 |
| Active listings | 3,813 | 3,647 (up 67.9% on a year earlier) |
| Occupancy | 35.5% | 54% (median) |
| Average daily rate | GEL 153 per booked night (about $58.9 at the NBG rate) | $46 (about GEL 119) |
| Revenue | GEL 10,108 average per listing, up 10.3%; RevPAR GEL 58 | About $9,000 median per year, down 3.9% |
| Average stay and lead time | 8.4 nights; 29 days | Not stated |
| Busiest and slowest months | August (occupancy 48.8%, rate GEL 195) and January (32.1%, GEL 145) | Peak in August; weakest in November and February |
AirROI states that it measures in US dollars and converts to lari on its page at GEL 2.69 per dollar, a rate it describes as typical for the period, which differs from the NBG rate of 27 October 2026. The lari figures in this guide are therefore quoted as AirROI shows them, and the dollar equivalents in the table use the NBG rate of GEL 2.5966 so that every conversion in the guide rests on one official reference. Airbtics reports medians and says it tracks weekly calendar snapshots of booked, open and unavailable nights; AirROI describes listing-level booking and calendar data updated monthly.
The two providers disagree on occupancy by 18.5 percentage points. That is not necessarily an error. A median occupancy across listings and an average across all available listing-nights are different measures, and a market where listings grew 67.9% in a year, as Airbtics reports, will have many listings that were open for only part of the period. The summary for owners is that the published range for annual occupancy in Batumi runs from about a third to a little over a half, and that the nightly rate in the same sources runs from $46 to about $59 depending on the provider.
A third source measures something else again. Galt & Taggart’s Batumi Residential Real Estate 2025 Review and 2026 Outlook, as reported by Investor.ge on 20 April 2026, gives a rental yield of 8.8% in 2024 and 7.4% in 2025 and an average daily rental rate of about $35.6 in 2025, described as broadly flat. The summary does not say whether the yield is gross or net, nor which stock the daily rate describes, so it cannot be set against the AirROI and Airbtics rates line by line. It is cited here because it is the bank-sector view of the market, and because the move from 8.8% to 7.4% is a reported change in a stated source. The prices post on Batumi apartment prices per square metre places the same review beside our listing prices.
Reading Batumi Short-Term Rental Data: Definitions and Limits
Three terms recur in platform data, and a reader who knows how they are built can judge the numbers above. Occupancy is the share of available nights that were booked. Average daily rate, usually shortened to ADR, is the average price paid per booked night, and it excludes nights that were not booked. RevPAR, revenue per available night, equals occupancy multiplied by ADR, and so measures revenue spread over every available night. With AirROI’s own inputs the product is 0.355 multiplied by GEL 153, or about GEL 54, and the page reports GEL 58, a gap that the rounding of occupancy and the way the provider averages across listings can explain.
These definitions show why two apparently conflicting numbers can both be right. A listing that is open for sale on the platform all year but blocked by its owner for four months can show a lower occupancy than a listing that opens only in the season. A median is not pulled up by a few high-priced units, while an average is. A provider that counts only listings with at least one booking will show a higher rate than one that includes every listing. The Airbtics statement that studios record the highest occupancy, at 56%, is consistent with this: unit type changes the picture as much as location does.
Seasonality applies on top of the annual figures. In AirROI’s monthly series, August 2026 revenue per listing was GEL 3,304 and January 2026 was GEL 1,204, a ratio of 2.7. The Geostat visit counts in the previous section show a ratio of 4.2 between the third and first quarters for Adjara as a whole. The two ratios are not the same measure, and the smaller revenue ratio is what a market would show if rates fall less than visits do in winter, but the sources do not establish that. What they do show is a pattern in which the third quarter carries a large share of annual demand.
Several limits apply to all of the data. Platform listings are not the whole market: bookings through other channels, through direct contacts and through aparthotel operators do not appear. Calendar-based occupancy treats a night that an owner blocks as unavailable, and data of this kind cannot distinguish a personal-use block from a failed sale. And no source above is an audited accounting record of a particular apartment. Any single flat can sit well above or below the market figures, depending on its floor, view, condition, photographs, reviews and price strategy.
Aparthotel Rental Pools and Management Contracts
Some of the Batumi projects on our site are sold as aparthotels, in which the owner holds title to an apartment and the hotel operator lets it with the other units. The terms vary by project, so this section describes only what two projects on our listings state, each attributed to the developer on the listing page, and sets out the clauses that any such contract covers.
The Mardi Aquapark listing, in Makhinjauri, Batumi, names Accor under its Mercure brand as operator and gives the developer’s stated terms: each apartment joins Accor’s hotel rental pool under a 10-year management contract, revenue is split 60% to the owner and 40% to Accor, and Accor covers operating expenses. Owners also receive three free weeks a year of resort access. The listing gives the developer’s completion date as the fourth quarter of 2028, and it states that no income, occupancy or price-growth figure is published and that the signed contract governs. The Wyndham Grand Residences Batumi Gonio Aqua listing describes a different structure: a local developer builds and sells, and the Wyndham name and standards are licensed in. That listing gives no rental-programme terms, which shows that a brand name alone does not tell a reader what the contract says; terms differ between schemes.
A rental-pool or management contract is a private agreement and is not set by the Tax Code, so the checklist below lists clauses and the questions each clause answers. It is a reading aid and not legal advice.
| Clause | Question it answers | Why it matters for the net result |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue definition | Is the split taken on gross room revenue or on revenue after commissions and costs? | A 60/40 split on gross revenue and a 60/40 split on net revenue give different owner amounts |
| Operating expenses | Which costs does the operator bear: cleaning, utilities, linen, platform commissions, maintenance? | Costs outside the operator’s share are deducted from the owner’s side |
| Term and renewal | How long does the contract run, and how does it end or renew? | A 10-year term sets how long the unit stays in the pool |
| Owner use | How many nights can the owner occupy, and at what notice? | Nights used by the owner are nights not let |
| Service charge | What is charged per m2, who sets it, and what does it cover? | It is a fixed cost whatever the occupancy |
| Reporting and payment | How often are statements issued, and when are funds paid? | Timing sets the owner’s cash flow and the tax calendar |
| Tax responsibility | Who files and pays the owner’s income tax on the owner’s share? | The Tax Code places the obligation on the person who receives the income |
| Resale | Does the pool contract pass to a buyer, and with what consent? | It affects the saleability of a unit |
The checklist ties back to the legal sequence for a purchase, which the sibling guides off plan property in Batumi and how to buy property in Georgia describe: ownership is registered with the National Agency of Public Registry, and a rental-pool contract is a separate document from the sale contract. The legal-tips post on what to read before signing in Georgia adds the document checks that come before any rental arrangement.
Worked Net Example for a Batumi Short-Term Rental
The example below applies the fixed tax, the platform fee and a set of costs to a 35 m2 apartment, using the occupancy and rate of each data provider in turn. Some inputs are published figures, and the others are illustrative inputs chosen only to make the arithmetic visible; they are labelled as such, and a reader can replace them with quotes for a real unit. Nothing in the example is a forecast, an expected return or a statement about any listing.
| Input | Value used | Type and source |
|---|---|---|
| Apartment size | 35 m2, furnished | Illustrative input |
| Scenario A occupancy and rate | 35.5% and GEL 153 per booked night | Published: AirROI, Batumi, October 2025 to September 2026 |
| Scenario B occupancy and rate | 54% and $46, which is GEL 119.44 at GEL 2.5966 | Published: Airbtics, Batumi, September 2025 to August 2026 |
| Platform fee | 15.5% of gross revenue | Published: Airbnb help centre, typical single fee |
| Average stay | 8.4 nights, which sets the number of stays | Published: AirROI; used for both scenarios |
| Cleaning and laundry | GEL 35 per stay | Illustrative input |
| Utilities and internet | GEL 150 per month, GEL 1,800 a year | Illustrative input |
| Building service charge | GEL 2 per m2 per month, GEL 840 a year | Illustrative input |
| Income tax | Fixed tax, GEL 10 per m2 for 12 months, GEL 4,200 | Published: Tax Code, Article 309 |
The calculation runs in four steps. Booked nights equal 365 multiplied by occupancy: 129.6 nights in scenario A and 197.1 in scenario B. Gross revenue equals booked nights multiplied by the rate: 129.575 multiplied by GEL 153 gives GEL 19,825 in A, and 197.1 multiplied by GEL 119.44 gives GEL 23,542 in B. The platform fee is 15.5% of gross revenue. The number of stays is booked nights divided by 8.4, which gives 15.4 stays in A and 23.5 in B, and each is multiplied by the cleaning cost.
| Line, per year | Scenario A, GEL | Scenario B, GEL |
|---|---|---|
| Gross revenue | 19,825 | 23,542 |
| Platform fee, 15.5% | -3,073 | -3,649 |
| Cleaning and laundry | -540 | -821 |
| Utilities and internet | -1,800 | -1,800 |
| Building service charge | -840 | -840 |
| Fixed income tax, 35 m2, 12 months | -4,200 | -4,200 |
| Net before the owner’s own time and furnishing costs | 9,372 (about $3,609) | 12,232 (about $4,711) |
Gross revenue in A is about $7,635 and in B about $9,067 at the NBG rate. The net figures are what remains after the listed costs and not a rate of return: the example deliberately does not divide them by a purchase price, because the inputs are illustrative and the purchase price, financing and furnishing costs are not part of the arithmetic.
The structure of the costs is more informative than the totals. The fixed lines are the tax, the utilities and the service charge, which together come to GEL 6,840 a year. The variable lines are the platform fee at 15.5% of the rate and the cleaning cost per stay, which at the example’s inputs is GEL 35 divided by 8.4 nights, or about GEL 4.17 per booked night. At the scenario A rate of GEL 153, each booked night therefore adds 153 multiplied by 0.845, which is GEL 129.29, less GEL 4.17, which is GEL 125.12, towards the fixed lines. Dividing GEL 6,840 by GEL 125.12 gives 54.7 booked nights, which is 15.0% occupancy. Below that level the example shows a loss, and above it each additional 10 percentage points of occupancy, which is 36.5 nights, adds about GEL 4,567 to the net.
Two further comparisons follow from the structure. If the unit sat in an aparthotel pool with the 60/40 split that the Mardi Aquapark listing states, and if the split applied to gross revenue as in the checklist table, the owner’s share in scenario A would be 60% of GEL 19,825, which is GEL 11,895, before any owner-side tax and service charge. That is an illustration of how a split is read and not a statement about any pool’s results. Second, the fixed tax is the largest single cost line in both scenarios, at GEL 4,200, which is 21% of gross revenue in A and 18% in B; the same arithmetic under the 5% rate would be GEL 991 and GEL 1,177, but, as explained above, the Code addresses short-stay letting in its own provision, so the comparison shows the effect of the choice of regime and not the availability of the 5% rate.
Aparthotel-Style Listings on Our Site
The table below lists the Batumi projects on our site that are sold with a hotel brand or hotel-style services, with the price, size and status taken from the listing pages on 27 October 2026. The listing pages are the reference for each entry; prices are asking prices for the smallest or entry unit and are not the appraised value used for residence-permit purposes.
| Listing | Price per listing page | Size per listing page | Status per listing page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mardi Aquapark | Price on request; developer states studios from EUR 72,000 | 31.4 to 41.75 m2 on the page; developer states studios from 28 m2 | For sale; year built shown as 2028; Accor operator under the Mercure brand |
| Novotel Living | Price on request | 28.1 to 79.4 m2 | For sale; Accor, Novotel Living brand; developer Mardi Holding |
| Delux Horizon | From $65,000 | About 28 to 57 m2 | For sale; described as turnkey and furnished; 37 storeys on the first line from the sea |
| Wyndham Grand Residences Batumi Gonio Aqua | From $134,566 ($4,313 per m2) | From 31.2 m2 | For sale; year built shown as 2025; Wyndham-licensed brand |
These entries show why the net example uses a 35 m2 unit: the smallest units in the table sit between 28 and 41.75 m2, and Airbtics reports its highest occupancy, 56%, for studios. On the fixed tax, a 28 m2 studio costs GEL 280 a month and a 57 m2 one-bedroom GEL 570 a month, since the Code ties the amount to area. Listing pages carry no income figure that this guide relies on, and none is used in the example. The Batumi city page at Batumi properties and the Georgia country page list the wider range of projects, and the comparison of what $100,000 buys in six markets places Batumi unit prices beside other countries.
Setting Up a Batumi Short-Term Rental: Documents and Step Checklist
The sequence below turns the rules above into steps. It lists documents and offices and does not represent that any step is compulsory beyond what the Code and the platform pages state.
- Title evidence. Ownership of the apartment is registered with the National Agency of Public Registry, and the Code ties the fixed tax to the square metres of letting space.
- Taxpayer registration with the tax authority. Article 309(31) and Article 81(5) of the Code leave the procedures for the fixed tax and for the register of persons renting out residential space to the Minister of Finance.
- Choice of regime. The options in the comparison table are the fixed tax, the 5% rate, the 1% small-business status and the general 20% rate, each with its own conditions and calendar.
- Application for the fixed tax, if that track is chosen, stating the months of the period, since the Code allows a full year or any months.
- Calendar of payments: 15 April, 15 July, 5 October and 15 January for the fixed tax, or the 15th of each month for small-business returns.
- Platform account, payout method and fee structure, as described in the platform section.
- Guest information, including the health and accident insurance rule for tourists entering from 1 January 2026.
- Records: platform statements, cleaning receipts, utility bills and service-charge invoices, which are the documents behind any deduction under the general route.
- Contract review for an aparthotel unit, using the clause table above.
The sequence for buying the apartment itself, including the registry extract and the payment of fees, is in the purchase guide, and the question of who may own what is in can foreigners buy property in Georgia. Remote buyers can read buy property in Georgia from abroad for powers of attorney and bank accounts. For prices and market indicators beyond the coast, the sibling guides Tbilisi real estate prices, the Georgia real estate market, Georgia Black Sea coast property and mortgages in Georgia for foreigners carry the figures on each topic.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a special tax for a Batumi short-term rental?
Yes. Article 309 of the Tax Code lets a natural person who lets living space for short periods, under activity code 55.2, apply for a fixed income tax of GEL 10 per square metre per calendar month. The text consolidated on 15 October 2026 applies this until 1 January 2028. It depends on an application and on the conditions on VAT registration and the GEL 100,000 cap described above.
How much is the fixed tax for a 35 m2 apartment?
GEL 350 a month, which is GEL 4,200 for twelve months, or about $1,617 at the NBG rate of GEL 2.5966 per dollar on 27 October 2026. The Code allows the period to be a full year or any chosen months, and it allows the Government to adjust the rate by location or season on a municipality’s application.
Does the 5% rate apply to Airbnb income?
Article 81(2) sets 5% for income from renting out residential space for residential purposes by an individual who makes no deductions. The Code addresses short-period letting under code 55.2 in its own provision, so whether the 5% line fits a given Batumi short-term rental depends on the facts of the letting, and the Code’s text is the reference.
When must an owner register for VAT?
Article 165 requires registration within two business days after taxable transactions exceed GEL 100,000 in any 12 consecutive calendar months, about $38,512. The standard rate under Article 166 is 18%. While the fixed tax applies, letting living space for a short time is not a VAT taxable transaction under Article 309(32).
Does a foreign owner pay tax in Georgia on Batumi rent?
Article 79 makes non-resident individuals taxpayers on income from a Georgian source, and Article 104 lists income from immovable property in Georgia used for economic activity among such income. A person who stays 183 or more days in any continuous 12-month period ending in the tax year is a resident under Article 34. Whether another country also taxes the income is outside the Georgian Code, and rules differ by person.
What occupancy do data providers report for Batumi?
AirROI reports 35.5% occupancy and a rate of GEL 153 for October 2025 to September 2026. Airbtics reports 54% median occupancy and a $46 rate for September 2025 to August 2026. The gap comes from different methods, periods and definitions, and the Batumi short-term rental figures should be read as a range.
How seasonal is the market?
Geostat’s Inbound Tourism Survey shows Adjara with a monthly average of 424,800 visits in the third quarter of 2025 and 100,600 in the first quarter. AirROI’s monthly series for Batumi shows August 2026 occupancy of 48.8% and January 2026 occupancy of 32.1%.
What do aparthotel rental-pool contracts typically state?
They state a term, a revenue split, who bears operating costs, owner-use nights, a service charge and reporting dates. The Mardi Aquapark listing gives the developer’s stated terms of a 10-year contract with a 60% owner and 40% operator split. For any Batumi short-term rental in a pool, the signed contract governs.
Do guests need insurance to visit Georgia?
The Georgian National Tourism Administration states that tourists entering from 1 January 2026 need health and accident insurance of at least GEL 30,000 covering the whole stay, with listed exemptions for diplomatic holders and a few other groups.
Does letting an apartment affect a residence permit?
The Public Service Development Agency describes the property-based short-term residence permit as requiring non-agricultural property with a market value exceeding USD 150,000 equivalent in GEL, set by a certified assessor. Our residence permit guide states the same threshold from 1 March 2026 and does not list letting among the conditions.
Last checked: 27 October 2026. Sources: Tax Code of Georgia, Legislative Herald (version of 15 October 2026); National Bank of Georgia official USD rate for 27 October 2026; Geostat inbound tourism; Geostat visits by region; Geostat monthly visits; Geostat nights; Geostat purpose of visit; Geostat citizenship; Geostat expenditure; Georgian National Tourism Administration; Public Service Development Agency; PwC Tax Summaries, income determination; PwC Tax Summaries, taxes on personal income; AirROI Batumi; Airbtics Batumi; Investor.ge, Galt & Taggart Batumi review; Airbnb help, service fees; Airbnb help, payouts; listing pages of this site as of 27 October 2026.
