Funchal Apartments: The Rules Behind Every Listing

What the Law Requires

Alojamento Local registration in Portugal is a prior communication filed through the Balcao Unico Eletronico. Once accepted, it issues a registration number, the only valid title to advertise and open the unit to guests, and any platform listing the accommodation is legally required to display that number. Funchal's council inspects a new registration within 60 days of the initial filing. If a listing does not show a registration number at all, that is a warning sign worth acting on before you book.

No separate Madeira regional AL register exists. A Funchal apartment's registration runs through the same national Balcao Unico Eletronico process and lands in the same national register as a listing anywhere else in Portugal, coordinated locally through Madeira's own SIMplifica service portal.

Checking It Yourself, for Free

The Registo Nacional de Turismo, run by Turismo de Portugal, lets anyone search a registration number for free at rnt.turismodeportugal.pt, using the Pesquisa_AL.aspx tool specifically for Alojamento Local units, searchable by name, address, type or municipality. This is the same register a hotel is checked against on Funchal hotels, just a different search tool for the AL category. Run the check before you pay a deposit, not after you arrive to find the door does not match the listing.

Hosts must register guest identity through the SIBA portal, the Sistema de Informacao de Boletins de Alojamento, and submit an accommodation bulletin for foreign citizens within 3 working days of arrival, under Lei 23/2007. In practice this means you should expect to show a passport or ID at check-in, even for a self-service apartment, and a host who never asks for ID is skipping a legal step, not offering you convenience.

Bring the same identification document you booked with. If the listing offers a lockbox with no ID request anywhere in the process, that is worth a question to the host before you rely on it, since the identification rule applies regardless of how the keys are handed over.

Funchal's tourist tax is $2.29 (€2.00) per person per night, capped at 7 consecutive nights for a maximum of $16.04 (€14.00), in force since 1 October 2024. It applies to Alojamento Local units on exactly the same basis as classified hotels, regardless of which booking platform you used. The accommodation collects it and issues a receipt. Expect to settle it at the property, since no official page states whether platforms collect it on the host's behalf.

What an apartment can save you is on food, since even a basic kitchenette lets you cover some meals from a supermarket rather than a restaurant three times a day, a saving that usually outweighs any difference in the nightly rate against a comparable hotel room. Full detail on the tax and how it compares across categories is on where to stay in Funchal.