Vacation rentals in Michoacán, Mexico, where every house is going to need its own registration number
If you manage vacation rentals in Michoacán, the tourism law amendment published on February 12, 2026 tells you to enter every house in a state host register, put its number on every listing and report the nights booked each January and July. The regulations that explain how to do all that were still being drafted in September, and the state tourism secretary said enforcement might not start until 2027. Upbridge's AI operations assistant, Cleo, works over WhatsApp with vacation rental operators and cleaning companies and organizes the cleanings and the inventory for each place.
The rules here
The Michoacán congress website wasn't answering on October 23, 2026, so we read the February 12 issue of the state gazette and the copy of the revenue law that the state government itself publishes.
| Topic | What it says | Status | Since | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host register | Anyone renting out a house, an apartment or a room by the night signs up to the Padrón de Anfitriones and gets a certificate and a registration number for each property, renewed every year. Signing up takes a tax ID (RFC), a current tax status certificate, proof of ownership or possession and a civil protection safety report for each property. Once the state opens the online system, hosts have 90 days to register. | In force, not enforced | February 13, 2026 (Decree 258) | State gazette |
| What each house needs | The registration number goes on every listing. Inside the property, where guests can see them, go the emergency numbers, a phone number to reach the host and the certificate. The next-door neighbors have to be told the house is let to tourists and given a number to call. Each January and July the host tells the state tourism office how many times each house was booked and for how many nights. | In force, not enforced | February 13, 2026 (Decree 258) | State gazette |
| Platforms | Platforms sign up to their own register, sign an agreement to withhold the lodging tax and must take down any listing without a valid number. | In force, not enforced | February 13, 2026 (Decree 258) | State gazette |
| Fines | In June 2026 the congress voted 27 in favor of fines of 500 to 1,000 UMA and put both registers solely in the hands of the state tourism office, MiMorelia reported. We found no sign of that reform in the state gazette, and until it is published it doesn't bind anyone. | Bill, not law | Passed by congress, June 2026 | MiMorelia |
| Lodging tax | The state revenue law charges 3% on cabins, villas, guesthouses and anywhere else that provides lodging, including stays booked through a platform. It is filed monthly by the 17th, with an annual return due by March 31, and you register at the state revenue office within 30 working days of starting. Airbnb withholds it under an agreement with the state government announced in December 2024, and its help center says it also charges the tax on the cleaning fee. | In force | Published December 27, 2021 (Decree 120) | Michoacán revenue law |
The missing piece is the regulations. In September 2026 the state tourism secretary, Roberto Monroy García, told Changoonga there was about a month and a half of work left on them (by October 23 we hadn't found them published), that they would ask for a civil protection report, an operating license and the neighbors' consent, and that enforcement might not start until 2027.
The copy of the revenue law we could open is the December 2021 text, and it has no article that makes platforms withhold the tax. So Airbnb's withholding rests on the agreement it signed with the state. What the federal tax office withholds for income tax and VAT is a separate matter, covered on the national page.
This is not legal or tax advice, and Upbridge does not file anything for you: no registrations and no tax returns.
How it works on the ground
More than half the business is in the capital. Of the 2,870 active listings AirROI counts in Michoacán, 1,590 are in Morelia, at 29% occupancy. Pátzcuaro comes next with 392 and Uruapan with 233. In almost every market December is the best month and February the slowest, which makes February the time to repaint, replace mattresses and do the deep cleans.
The January and July report will ask how many times each house was booked and for how many nights. If that count currently lives in someone's head or across three different calendars, it's worth keeping it per house from now on, before the state system opens.
The emergency numbers, the host's phone number and the certificate have to be on display inside the house. In practice that means whoever cleans checks the sign is still up on every turnover, the same way they check the towels.
Morelia's airport is about to be under construction. Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico will spend 1 billion pesos between November 2026 and 2028 to go from four boarding gates to six, Crónica reported. The airport already has routes to Chicago, Dallas, Houston and seven California cities, so it's the way into the state for anyone flying from there, and your guest guide should explain how to get from the airport to the house.
Where Upbridge fits
For the nights report, we connect the calendar you already use, whether that's Guesty, Hostaway, Lodgify, Uplisting or an iCal feed, and each checkout becomes a cleaning task at the right house. That way you know how many stays each house had in the half-year without piecing it together afterwards.
With photo checklists you can make a photo of the emergency sign and the certificate a required step for whoever cleans. When they finish you get a report with the time of every photo.
With per-property inventory, what each stay uses comes off the count, and when something runs low you get an alert in the app, by email and on WhatsApp, which you notice quickly in a house that has guests every weekend.
If you manage vacation rentals or run a cleaning company in Michoacán, in Morelia, around the lake or in Uruapan, Upbridge can help with what happens between one checkout and the next arrival, from the photos of each clean to the alert that the coffee has run out.
If you run a cleaning company in Michoacán
More than half the state's listings are in Morelia, and December is the month that brings the most work across the state. The cleaning company account puts every owner's iCal or PMS on one calendar so you can split the houses by area. Each client stays yours, and we take no cut of any job.
Cities and areas
Pátzcuaro
AirROI counts 392 active listings there, 32% more than a year earlier, but at 17% occupancy. Its page covers the Night of the Dead on the lake, Janitzio and the water level.
Morelia
The capital has 1,590 listings, more than half the state, and AirROI saw no change in revenue per listing on the year before. Its slowest month brings in about two thirds of its best.
Uruapan and Zamora
Uruapan has 233 listings and Zamora 110. Zamora has the highest occupancy of the larger markets, at 33%.
Lázaro Cárdenas and Tlalpujahua
On the coast, Lázaro Cárdenas has only 52 listings, at 31% occupancy, and its revenue rose 19%. Tlalpujahua, in the east, has 76 listings, and its revenue fell 19%.
Other states
Jalisco and Guanajuato to the north, Colima to the west and Guerrero to the south.
Questions about running rentals in Michoacán
Who has to sign up to the Michoacán host register?
Anyone who rents out a house, an apartment or a room by the night, under the tourism law amendment published on February 12, 2026. Every house rented by the night gets a certificate and a yearly registration number, and that number has to appear on every listing. In September 2026 the regulations were still being drafted.
What is the lodging tax in Michoacán?
3%, under article 14 of the state revenue law, filed monthly by the 17th. Airbnb withholds it under an agreement with the state announced in December 2024.
How large are the fines for rentals in Michoacán?
The amendment the congress passed in June 2026 sets fines of 500 to 1,000 UMA, according to MiMorelia. The tourism secretary said in September that enforcement might not start until 2027.
Sources
Checked on October 23, 2026
- Periódico Oficial del Estado de Michoacán, 13th section of February 12, 2026, Decree 258 amending the state tourism law, articles 4, 115 and 115 Quater to 115 Undecies (in Spanish). This is the gazette's digital reference copy. We read it on experienciapatzcuaro.com, a local site, because the gazette's own website didn't respond on October 23, 2026.
- MiMorelia, "Michoacán endurece reglas para hospedajes y plataformas turísticas", June 24, 2026.
- Changoonga, J. Alberto Infante, "Hoteles vs. Airbnb: Sectur Michoacán alista piso parejo para plataformas de hospedaje", September 13, 2026.
- Government of Michoacán, Ley de Hacienda del Estado de Michoacán de Ocampo, lodging tax chapter, articles 13 to 19, text published December 27, 2021.
- Airbnb Newsroom, "Michoacán, el nuevo estado donde Airbnb paga Impuesto sobre Hospedaje", December 18, 2024.
- Airbnb Help Center, occupancy taxes, Michoacán entry, checked October 23, 2026.
- AirROI, Airbnb data for the state of Michoacán, twenty markets, October 2025 to September 2026, updated October 1, 2026.
- Crónica, Eidalid López, "Invertirán mil millones de pesos en el aeropuerto de Morelia para impulsar el turismo", October 16, 2026.