Is license required for homestay operation?
Venu Gopal S
(Querist) 15 August 2012
This query is : Resolved
Will there be any violation of law if I operate a homestay and collect money from the guests? What are the laws and rules governing homestay? When I applied for permission from the village panchayat, they ask me to first alienate that part of the land to nonagriculture and also obtain licence from tourism department.
My property is a coffee estate, which is classified as agriculture land. I have a rest house and a tenthouse therein. It is in the buffer zone of a wildlife sanctuary. My stand is that what tourism dept gives is a rating not a license. Making nonconsumptive use of estate like ecotourism also is part of agriculture income. Am I right?
Sudhir Kumar, Advocate
(Expert) 15 August 2012
In any case you are entering in lodging business. Side by side of cofee planation. It does not appear to be ancillary. You have to get whatever rating the tourism deptt provides.
