Post by Gareth, Registration Lead, Welsh Revenue Authority
We’ve been looking at how partnerships will register their visitor accommodation with the Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA). From autumn 2026, anyone who takes bookings for overnight stays in Wales will need to register with us.
For this piece of work, we wanted to focus on the journey from start to finish. We needed to make sure what we’re designing meets user needs and captures all the information required by the policy.
Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg
Why partnerships?
During registration, we need to capture who owns or runs the visitor accommodation. Partnership is one of the ownership options, but the meaning is broad. If we do not ask the right questions, the process could become confusing.
In this context, a partnership could be a combination of 2 or more individuals, companies, charities, or other organisations. For example, it could be:
- 2 people running a holiday let together,
- a married couple with a B&B
- several companies jointly managing a holiday park.
In most cases, the policy treats these are partnerships, but the people involved might not think of themselves that way.
The challenge
This variety is one of the biggest challenges we face. We need to design a registration process that feels straightforward for simple structures, like 2 spouses with a holiday cottage, while still working for more complex arrangements involving multiple organisations.
There may also be a gap between how the law defines partnerships and how people see themselves. Someone might legally be in a partnership but simply think of themselves as running a holiday let with their sibling. Through guidance and service design, we will aim to support people to choose the right option. We will test this rigorously over the next few months to make sure we’re offering the right support.
What we did
We had already made progress on the partnership registration journey, but we wanted to step back and check it made sense. We went back to basics and looked at what the legislation says about partnerships and why the policy exists. This was important because:
- our thinking has evolved as we’ve learned more through user research and testing
- new team members have joined who were not here when we first explored this area
- we wanted everyone working from the same understanding
We then held workshops with people from design, policy and our build team. Together, we explored different approaches and tested our assumptions.
We looked at whether as need to ask lots of questions upfront for the user to tell us if they are in a partnership. We also explored an alternative: using filter questions to help the user identify if they are in a partnership. We then talked through how different users might experience the registration process from end to end.
What we learned
By the end of the sprint, we had a few strong options and agreed on a direction, to test 2 options with partnership users as soon as possible and learn from what they say. We’re now building a prototype to test with these real users as early as this week. This will help us find out quickly whether our approach works in practice.
Have your say
We would love to hear your thoughts on what we have shared so far. We are always looking for people to test our designs with. If you would like to share your thoughts or take part in research, contact us at wracommunications@wra.gov.wales.
Sign up to receive updates and get notified when registration opens.
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.