Building Wales’ visitor accommodation registration service: Behind the scenes

Post by Gareth, Registration Lead, Welsh Revenue Authority

The Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA) is creating a new online registration service for all visitor accommodation providers who operate in Wales. The Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) (Wales) Act became law in September 2025. From autumn 2026, anyone who charges visitors for overnight stays in Wales will need to register with us.

Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg

This marks an important milestone, but for us at the WRA the real work started much earlier. We’ve been busy behind the scenes to make sure we get this right and deliver a service that’s simple, effective, and supportive of the sector.

We’re sharing our progress as we develop the service because your input helps us build something that works for you. We’ll provide regular updates on this blog to show you how we’re developing and improving the service, and how your feedback helps us design better services to meet your needs.

What have we been doing so far?

Working together to design the service

We’ve been working closely with a wide range accommodation providers from across the sector throughout this process. Since January, we’ve received feedback from over 600 visitor accommodation providers in Wales, including self-catering and furnished holiday lets, hotels, campsites, caravan parks, glampsites, hostels, and resorts.

Together we’re designing a simple, online registration process. The goal is straightforward: make it as easy as possible to register and collect only the essential information we need.

What we’ve discovered from speaking to accommodation providers is that the sector is incredibly diverse. From small family-run B&Bs to large holiday parks, everyone has different needs. Ownership and management can sometimes be complex, and your feedback has helped us understand the needs of different users. This will help us design a service that works for everyone, from multi-national hotel chains to rural family-run furnished holiday lets.

Building and testing the system

We’re building the registration service ourselves, which means we can make changes quickly based on what we learn from speaking with you. We have prototypes of the service that we’ve been testing with the sector and we’re constantly updating our designs based on what you’ve told us.

One challenge we faced early on was assuming we know how people would describe their properties. Our initial approach turned out to be quite different from what worked in practice, so we changed our thinking.

Here are some of the key changes we’ve made based on your feedback:

• Using language that resonates with users, like “touring pitches” for caravan parks
• Simplifying the questions we ask, and how they’re presented
• Offering more accommodation type options so you can categorise your accommodation correctly
• Making it as easy as possible to register more than one property

Listening and Learning

We’ve attended industry events such as the Visit Wales regional tourism forums. These conversations have helped us understand the pressures that visitor accommodation providers are facing and strengthened our desire to design a simple service that meets their needs.

We’ve also met with trade bodies and online booking platforms to understand how registration might affect them and how they can support their members and customers through the registration process.

What’s Next?

We’re committed to working in the open as we develop the service. We’ll share updates on what we’re working on, challenges we face, what we learn and what comes next.  

Have your say

We’d love to hear your thoughts on what we’ve shared so far and we’re always looking for people to test our designs with. If you’d like to share your thoughts or take part in research, contact us at wracommunications@wra.gov.wales.

Please note: Everything we share is work in progress and may change as we continue developing the service based on your feedback and what we learn through testing.