Urban Guesthouse Change Registration in Korea — Business Name and Representative Changes, Succession Report, Suspension Notice

A foreign tourist urban guesthouse (외국인관광 도시민박업) is a tourist-use facility business that is registered with the city, county or district head under the Tourism Promotion Act. If the business name or the representative changes after registration, you must apply for a change registration within 30 days of the day the change occurred. It is a registration system, not a permit or a designation, so changes are recorded with the same office that registered you. If the business itself is taken over, the new operator files a succession report instead, and a suspension of 1 month or more or a closure must be notified.

Initial requirements and documents are covered in our urban guesthouse registration guide, and day-to-day operation in our Airbnb host and urban guesthouse operation guide. This page focuses on what happens after registration.

Which changes need a change registration

The Act requires a change registration when an important registered matter set by Presidential Decree changes, and the Enforcement Decree lists those matters by business type. For an urban guesthouse, the item that applies is a change of business name or representative. Changes in the number of rooms appear only as items for tourist accommodation businesses and hanok experience businesses, so they are not listed as change registration items for urban guesthouses.

What changes	What to do
Business name	Change registration within 30 days
Representative	Change registration within 30 days
Number of rooms or floor area of the house	Not on the list, but recorded in the registry — confirm with the registering office before any works
Transfer of the business, or takeover of the facilities by auction and similar procedures	Succession report within 1 month of succession
Suspension of 1 month or more, or closure	Suspension or closure notice within 30 days

The reason to be careful with room changes is the registration standards. If the business no longer meets them, the office may cancel the registration, suspend the business for up to 6 months or order improvements. An urban guesthouse is run by a resident of an urban area in the detached house, multi-household house, apartment, row house or multi-family house where that person lives. The main standards are:

• total floor area of the house under 230㎡
• a system able to provide guidance in foreign languages
• at least 1 fire extinguisher, a stand-alone smoke detector in every guest room, and a carbon monoxide alarm where heating is individual

Deadline and where to file

File the tourism business change registration application, with documents proving the change, with the head of the special self-governing city or province, city, county or district within 30 days of the change. If the application meets the standards, an amended registration certificate is issued.

1. Fix the date the change occurred, such as the day the name changed or the new representative took office.
2. Count 30 days from that date as your filing deadline.
3. Complete the change registration application and prepare documents showing the situation before and after the change.
4. Submit them to the registering office, such as the city, county or district office that issued your certificate.
5. Keep the amended registration certificate at the premises.

Missing the deadline leads, under the disposition standards, to a corrective order for the 1st violation, a 15-day business suspension for the 2nd, a 1-month suspension for the 3rd and cancellation of registration for the 4th. Name changes are easy to forget while updating signs and booking platforms, so schedule the filing on the day you rename.

Succession report and suspension or closure notice

A person who takes over an urban guesthouse succeeds to the operator's rights and duties under the registration. So does a person who acquires all the land, buildings and standard facilities through an auction, a bankruptcy sale or a sale of seized property. The successor must submit a tourism business transfer (succession) report to the registering office within 1 month of succession, and the office accepts the report if it complies with the Act.

Attach a document with the successor's name and resident registration number (a foreign national submits proof of no disqualification) and proof of the transfer including a list of the facilities taken over. Cancellation, suspension or improvement orders against the previous operator also carry over unless the successor proves they did not know. Because the business assumes the operator lives in the house, check that the successor will live there too.

If you suspend all or part of the business for 1 month or more, or close it, you must notify the registering office within 30 days of the suspension or closure. A tax office closure report may be filed together, and once a closure is reported to the tax office, the registering office may cancel the registration ex officio. A late succession report can lead to a corrective order for the 1st violation, and failing to notify a suspension or closure can lead to cancellation at the 2nd.

YouSun Administrative Agency (Chief Administrative Agent Jung Yu-sun)