Register a prescribed accommodation business

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All prescribed accommodation businesses must be registered with Council before they start operating. This is a requirement under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 (the Act).

What is a prescribed accommodation business?

Prescribed accommodation provides accommodation for 4 or more people (not including family members) in exchange for payment.

These properties usually have:

residents sharing common areas such as bathrooms, kitchens and laundries
a rooming house operator who manages the property, but doesn’t live there
each resident with their own lease or occupancy agreement.

Prescribed accommodation businesses include:

rooming houses and student dormitories
hotels and motels
hostels
holiday camps
labour hire accommodation
caravan parks.

Before you register

Check if you need other approvals

You may need other approvals depending on the type of accommodation and any changes you plan to make.

Planning and building requirements

You may need a planning permit, building permit or both before you can operate or make changes to the premises. Contact our Building services team or Planning services team to work out if you need a permit.

Food registration

If you will prepare, handle or provide food to guests or the public, you may also need to register your food premises with Council before you can operate. You can find information about food business registration requirements on our Food businesses page.

Rooming house operator licence

If you plan to operate a rooming house, you must hold a rooming house operator licence as required under the Rooming House Operators Act 2016. Before operating a rooming house, you must get a licence from Consumer Affairs Victoria.

How to register your business

You need to submit an Application for Plan Assessment of Accommodation Premises form to register your prescribed accommodation premises.

You must include the following documents with your form:

A detailed floor plan showing the layout of your premises.
How you propose to use each room.
The dimensions of each bedroom in metres.
The maximum number of people that will be living in each room.

You will also need to prove that you have a current:

occupancy permit confirming the building meets relevant requirements
rooming house operator licence issued by Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV).

Our Environmental Health Officer will review your application and contact you.

Specialist Disability Accommodation is exempt and doesn’t need to be registered with Council.

Renew your registration

Prescribed accommodation businesses must renew their registration with Council before 31 December each year. We send registration renewal notices to business owners towards the end of the calendar year.

Buying or selling an existing business

If you are buying or selling an existing prescribed accommodation business, you can request an Environmental Health Officer to inspect the premises. This inspection can help find out if the premises complies with the requirements of the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 and other regulations before the sale is finalised.

This is called a “premises enquiry”. You can request either a 4 or 10 business day turnaround for the inspection report.

Apply for premises enquiry

To transfer an existing business registration, you need to complete an Application to transfer the registration of an accommodation premises form.

Application to transfer the registration of an accommodation premises

Fees and charges

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Accommodation registration fees

About fees

Registration fees:

are paid on an annual basis from 1 January – 31 December
can be applied on a half-yearly pro-rata basis depending on when your application and payment are received
are valid until 31 December regardless of when you apply during the year.

Make sure you pay the appropriate fee when you lodge your application, otherwise it may delay the processing.

These charges are GST exempt.

Type of accommodation	Annual registration fee
Hotels and Motels - up to 100 guest capacity	$885
Hotels and Motels - over 100 guest capacity	$1,455
Rooming House/Student accommodation - up to 12 residents	$885
Rooming House/Student accommodation - over 12 residents	$1,455

We have recently undertaken a comprehensive review of our costs across all health licenses. This is the first major review in a number of years and may have led to a noticeable change in license fees.

Other fees and charges

The following legislative fees and charges are applicable from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027.

These fees are GST inclusive.

Service	Fee
Transfer of Public Health and Wellbeing Act registration	50% of annual registration (see table above)
Premises enquiry inspection – prior to transfer (4 working day turnaround)	$425
Premises enquiry inspection – prior to transfer (10 working day turnaround)	$310
Premises enquiry inspection – second and subsequent requests	$140
Establishment fee (single payment for setting up registration) – Public Health and Wellbeing Act	$200
Lodgement fee for new registration application	$80

Need help?

Email [email protected] and we will get back to you.

Or call our Health Services team on 9298 8000.