As an experience host, you get to share your passion with travellers from around the world. This article can help you share your passion responsibly. You design and control your experience listing, what service you offer, when and where you host, and what you charge. It is your responsibility to be aware of and comply with all legal and regulatory requirements when hosting your experience.
You can use this article as a starting point for learning about local laws or regulations that may apply to your experience, but it doesn’t constitute legal or tax advice. We’re also not responsible for the reliability or accuracy of the sources we’ve linked to, so we encourage you to double-check the sources and seek your own legal advice. We don’t update this information in real time, so you should always confirm that the laws or procedures haven’t changed recently.
Anyone who provides guiding services for remuneration, including providing any direction, information, description or explanation to tourists while accompanying tourists in or to a place or point of interest in Singapore, requires a Tourist Guide Licence issued by the Singapore Tourism Board. Acting as a tourist guide without a license is a criminal offence under the Singapore Tourism Board Act, and may attract penalties or a fine of up to SGD 5,000 (for the first offence) and SGD10,000 (for subsequent offences).
In addition, the location where you're hosting the experience may have rules or cultural norms applicable to the experience, and you may need formal permission from the location or community where you're hosting.
Your experience must follow all local tourism laws and location requirements, including having any necessary licenses, permits, or permissions that apply to regulated tour guiding or tourist services in your area.
Airbnb reserves the right to request proof of compliance (including proof of any applicable licenses, permits or permissions), or proof that the experience does not involve a regulated tour guiding activity or tourist service. Hosts and experiences may be removed from the platform if they're unable to provide such proof if requested.
Tour guiding is a licensed profession in Singapore. Under the Singapore Tourism Board Act (“STBA”), a Tourist Guide is an individual who personally provides any guiding services to a tourist for remuneration. "Guiding services" refer to the provision of any direction, information, description or explanation to the tourist while accompanying the tourist in or to a place or point of interest in Singapore. As the STBA does not define what constitutes accompanying or a place/point of interest, we encourage you to check with the Singapore Tourism Board (“STB”) or speak to your lawyer to make sure you're following the laws.
Here are some examples of when you're likely to be considered to be acting as Tourist Guide:
In order to obtain a license, you'll have to pass a 6-month tourism course and 2 tourist guide licensing examinations. For more information on the requirements and procedure for securing a license, please refer to the STB Tourist Guide Licensing webpage.
Note that you may attract criminal liability in the form of financial penalty for failing to obtain a Tourist Guide license. The STB carries out active enforcement against unlicensed tourist guides, especially in areas around popular tourist attractions.
If you drive your guests as part of your experience, you might be considered to be operating a Private Hire Car. A Private Hire Car is a “motor car which does not ply for hire on any road but is hired under a contract, express or implied, for the use of such vehicle as a whole”. If this applies to you, you'll need to possess a Private Hire Car Driver's Vocational Licence (“PDVL”) and ensure your car is converted to a chauffeured Private Hire Car. Go to the Land Transport Authority’s (“LTA”) OneMotoring FAQ for more info.
However, you may not be considered to be driving a Private Hire Car or require a PDVL if the ride you’re offering is incidental to and not an integral part of your experience. If the ride is integral to your experience, even if no fee is charged directly on the ride (but the ride is included in the experience), your car may still be considered to be a Private Hire Car that attracts the relevant requirements (including the need for you to possess a PDVL and convert your car to a chauffeured Private Hire Car).
If you're unsure as to whether your experience involves the operation of a Private Hire Car, we encourage you to reach out to the LTA or speak to your lawyer to make sure you're following the laws.
Here's an example where you're likely to be regarded as operating a Private Hire Car:
Here's an example where you may not be regarded as operating a Private Hire Car:
If your experience involves the operation of a Private Hire Car, before driving any guests you must ensure that:
Note that you may attract criminal liability including financial penalties and/or jail for failing to have the requisite public service vehicle license and commercial insurance. You'll also be required to comply with the Road Traffic (Public Service Vehicles) Rules which specify amongst others that Private Hire Cars (unlike taxis) are not allowed to ply the roads for hire or pick up passengers from a taxi stand.
If you're considered to be supplying alcohol to your guests, you'll need to have a liquor license under the Liquor Control (Supply and Consumption) Act. You should be aware that there is potential criminal liability for failure to obtain a liquor license which may include financial penalties and/or jail. Where licensed premises are specified in the liquor license, the liquor license only allows you to supply alcohol at the licensed premise(s).
It may be necessary to have registered a business with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) in order to apply for a liquor license. You can find out more information on liquor licenses and the application process at the Singapore Police Force website on liquor license.
Serving alcohol to your guests is generally a tricky area, so we encourage you to check with the liquor licensing unit of the Singapore Police Force or speak to your lawyer to make sure you're following the laws.
Additionally, you may also wish to consider if the selling of alcohol renders your premises a “Food Establishment” which requires a Food Shop license under the Environmental Public Health Act (“EPHA”). Under the EPHA, “food” includes drinks and a “food establishment” refers to, amongst others, any place or premises used for the sale, or for the preparation or manufacture of food for human consumption.
If your experience takes place at a bar, you're unlikely to run afoul of the law so long as the bar holds a liquor license and the experience takes place during the trading hours permitted by the license.
You may not require a liquor license nor a Food Shop license if your experience is BYOB or guests bring their own alcohol, but we encourage you to confirm your position with the National Environment Agency and the liquor licensing unit of the Singapore Police Force.
Under the Customs (Home-Brewing of Fermented Liquors) (Exemption) Order, home-brewers can make their own beer and other fermented liquors for their personal use, and not for sale, if they fulfill the following conditions:
You can teach guests how to brew beer or other fermented liquors as long as you comply with the above conditions. If you do not fulfill the above conditions, you'll be considered to be engaging in commercial manufacturing of dutiable goods and will require a manufacturing license under the Customs Act. More information can be found on the Singapore Customs website.
Additionally, if you intend to supply your self brewed/produced beer or other fermented liquors to any guests, you'll also need to have a liquor license.
Please also take note of the following:
You should also ensure that the content of any advertising involving alcoholic drinks is in compliance with the guidelines set out in the Singapore Code of Advertising Practice (SCAP). The guidelines provide amongst others that advertisements should not be directed at young people or anyone shown drinking should be obviously over 18 years old and advertisements should not encourage over-indulgence and excessive consumption of alcohol. For the complete set of guidelines, please refer to the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore website.
Your guest’s health and safety should always come first. For example, it would be a good idea to take your guests to or otherwise serve them food from, reputable restaurants, or reputable professional caterers who keep clean facilities and use fresh ingredients. Also ask your guests in advance about any food allergies they may have, or religious or philosophical codes that may impact what kind of food they eat.
The following food experiences are unlikely to trigger any regulatory issues in Singapore:
If you’d like to serve home-cooked food to guests at home, you should consider the requirements imposed by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Housing Development Board (HDB) on Home Based Small Businesses.
While the preparation and serving of home-cooked meals (including drinks or beverages) to paying guests visiting your home is not prohibited per se, you need to bear in mind the requirements imposed by the URA, and HDB's Home Based Small Businesses Guidelines. For instance, no workers may be employed, the activities have to be small-scale in operation and should not pose any danger or cause any nuisance (e.g. noise, smoke) to the other residents.
Additionally, you should abide by the Singapore Food Agency's Requirements for Home-based Food Businesses and rules and regulations of the Fire Safety and Shelter Bureau requirements.
If you're unsure as to whether your experience qualifies as a Home Based Small Business, we encourage you to reach out to the URA or HDB or speak to your lawyer to make sure you're following the laws.
Under the Environmental Public Health Act (EPHA), you may be required to obtain a Food Shop license if you're considered to be operating a "food establishment." Under the EPHA, "food" includes drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) and the use of any premises for the preparation and sale of food by retail (including providing a catering service) may require a Food Shop license. More info on this is detailed on the relevant section of the Singapore Food agency website. Licensees are required to comply with various requirements under the Environmental Public Health (Food Hygiene) Regulations including having the individuals who are involved in the preparation and handling of food complete a food hygiene course before allowing them to prepare or handle food.
If your experience qualifies as a Home Based Small Business, it's unlikely that you'll be required to obtain a Food Shop license. We encourage you to reach out to the National Environmental Agency or speak to your lawyer to confirm that this is the case. You should be aware that there is potential criminal liability for failure to obtain the requisite Food Shop license which may include financial penalties and/or jail.
In Singapore, a person carrying on any form of trade, commerce, profession or any other activity for the purposes of gain is considered as carrying on a business unless it's for any office (e.g. holding a position in public office), employment or occupation.
You'll generally be considered as carrying on business so long as you derive income from the selling of goods or provision of services for example, professional or vocational (e.g. chef, driver, instructor, tour guide).
If you intend to carry on business, you should register your business with ACRA before carrying on business in Singapore. There is potential criminal liability (such as financial penalties and/or jail) for carrying on business under a business name without being registered in respect of that name. Additionally, failure to register may also render contractual agreements unenforceable.
There are certain exceptions to this requirement such as:
A search of the Register of Business Names will have to be conducted to confirm that there is no business with an identical name. You should also be aware that if the proposed name is a trademark of any product, the written consent of the owner of the trademark owner will be required before that mark can be registered as a business name.
You can find out more information about registering your business on the ACRA website.
You should be aware that consumer protection laws, such as the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act and Consumer Protection (Trade Description and Safety Requirements) Act require you to accurately describe your experience in your listing so your guests can make informed decisions.
This means that:
In sum, this means that you need to provide the services advertised in your listing, within the advertised dates and times, at the advertised price. For more information, we encourage you to review the relevant laws and the Singapore Code of Advertising Practice which provides guidance on the standards of ethical conduct to be adopted.
You should also check what are the tax and accounting rules applicable to the type of business entity you have chosen. In order to comply with such rules, you'll have to keep proper records and accounts of your trips or experiences related activities so that the authorities may ascertain the income and expenses arising from such activities. If you expect the revenue of your business to exceed SGD 1 million in a year, you should also register with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore as a GST-registered person.
You should check that you have the appropriate insurance coverage in place to cover all the activities you'll be providing.
If you plan to hire employees as part of your business, you'll have to consider amongst others the obligations imposed under the Employment Act and other legal requirements pertaining to employment such as Central Provident Fund contributions, workplace safety and health issues and work permits/employment passes for any foreign workers. You can find out more information from the Ministry of Manpower’s website.
There are restrictions on foreigners who are work pass holders or who have entered Singapore on social visit passes to freelance by hosting trips or experiences on Airbnb. If this applies to you, you are responsible to check with the city and an attorney.