Guides
Running rental units in Vietnam, written from practice
The questions operators ask most: how to drop the on-site front desk, how guest registration works, whether apartments can be rented short term, and how to bill tenants for electricity correctly.
Operations
How to organize the work when nobody is on duty at the unit.
Running many rental units without an on-site front desk
To remove the on-site front desk, automate six tasks - one booking calendar, door codes per stay, the real status of each unit, cleaning assignment, incident alerts, and recording payments.
Read guideChoosing smart door locks for homestays and rental units
For rental units, what matters is not a good-looking lock or fingerprint opening, but the ability to issue and revoke time-limited codes remotely, keep an access log, report battery level, and connect to your operations software.
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Legal and regulations
Rules operators must follow, updated to the latest documents.
Guest registration for homestays and rental units: deadlines, process, fines
Accommodation providers must register each guest before 23:00 on the day of arrival, or before 8:00 the next morning for guests arriving after 23:00. Missing registrations can be fined 2 to 12 million VND depending on the number of guests. With self check-in, send the door code only after you have all the identity documents.
Read guideCan apartments be rented short term in Vietnam? Rules to end of 2026
The 2023 Housing Law does not define short-term rental, so each locality reads it differently. Ho Chi Minh City moved from a ban to conditional permission from 25 April 2026: register as a tourist accommodation establishment, register guests, follow the building rules. The National Assembly is discussing a draft amended Housing Law that leans toward strict management rather than a ban.
Read guideBilling tenants for electricity in Vietnam: quotas, leases under 12 months, fines
Landlords may only charge tenants for electricity at the residential retail tariff. With a lease of 12 months or more and all occupants declared, billing follows the quota, with 4 people counted as one household. With a lease under 12 months or occupants not fully declared, the tier 3 rate applies. Charging more can be fined 20 - 30 million VND, and the excess must be refunded.
Read guideFire safety for mini apartment buildings and rental houses: rules and actions
Multi-storey, multi-unit houses built for rent must meet fire safety requirements, construction standards and road access conditions for fire engines. Housing in centrally governed cities must have a fire alarm transmitter connected to the fire safety database, with a deadline of 1 July 2027. Remote smoke and heat alerts are an extra layer and cannot replace a code-compliant fire alarm system.
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Costs and efficiency
Measure correctly, bill correctly, and cut small but recurring waste.
Meter readings for rental units: by hand or automatic
Reading by hand costs nothing but takes time and invites disputes; automatic reading needs connected meters but gives daily figures with a history you can use as evidence. Whichever you choose, the unit price and calculation method must be agreed in the lease.
Read guideSaving electricity in rental units: start with air conditioning
Sold rooms are empty almost half the time, because guests go out. A field study in hotels found that controlling air conditioning by occupancy saved about 25% of cooling energy. Three things to do: cut load when the unit is empty, pre-cool before guests arrive instead of running all day, and track power per unit to spot faulty machines.
Read guideMetrics to track when running short-term rental units
In 2025, short-term rental units in Vietnam averaged about 45% occupancy at about 974,000 VND per night, while supply grew by almost 43%. With competition rising that fast, profit comes from measuring each unit correctly: revenue after commission, cost per night, and the time a unit waits to be cleaned.
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Start with a few units, scale once you see the results
NEXT HOME engineers survey your units, propose the hardware setup and install TingStay for your first cluster.