Livro de Informações and Regulamento Interno AL 2026

Livro de Informações and Regulamento Interno for Portuguese AL 2026: The Two Documents Every Remote Owner Needs

Every Portuguese Alojamento Local must keep a livro de informações — a guest information book with eight legally mandated sections, available in Portuguese and at least three other languages — physically accessible at the property. Alongside it, a well-drafted regulamento interno (house rules document) is your main contractual defence against problem guests: deposits, damages, cancellations and CCTV notices all stand or fall on it. This guide explains what each document must contain under DL 128/2014, how they differ, and how to produce, translate and maintain both from London or New York without ever printing a page in Portugal yourself.

These two documents are routinely confused, including by property managers. The livro de informações is a statutory requirement under Decreto-Lei 128/2014 (the AL framework law, updated by Decreto-Lei 76/2024) and is one of the first items an ASAE inspector asks to see. The regulamento interno is not itemised in the same way by the AL law, but without it you have almost no enforceable basis to retain a deposit, charge for damage or evict a party. One protects you from the regulator; the other protects you from guests. A compliant remote operation needs both, kept current, in the right languages, physically at the property.

Two documents, two different jobs

Criterion	Livro de informações	Regulamento interno
Legal status	Mandatory under DL 128/2014, art. 16	Contractual document; strongly recommended
Purpose	Factual information the guest is entitled to receive	Rules of conduct the guest accepts when booking
Checked by ASAE	Yes — one of the first inspection items	Indirectly (quiet hours, CCTV notices)
Languages	Portuguese plus at least three others	Portuguese and English in practice
Missing it costs you	An administrative infraction and a bad start to any inspection	Deposits you cannot retain, damage claims you cannot prove
Where it lives	Physically at the property, visible and accessible	In the listing, the booking flow and at the property

Neither is the same as a "welcome book". A welcome book with restaurant tips and a warm greeting is marketing — useful for reviews, legally weightless. ASAE inspectors verify the livro de informações against the statutory content list; they will not accept a curated city guide as a substitute.

The eight mandatory sections of the livro de informações

DL 128/2014, art. 16 lists the information the establishment must make available to guests. Missing a single element can be recorded as a non-conformity during an inspection. The eight sections:

1. Quiet hours (período de descanso). Typically 22:00 to 08:00 in Lisbon, Porto and most municipalities, though some Algarve councils use 23:00 to 07:00 in tourist zones. State the hours that apply to your municipality, not a generic default.
2. Waste rules. Collection days, separation streams (paper, plastic, glass, organic) and the location of the nearest containers. This is the section guests actually use — and the one neighbours notice when it is ignored.
3. 24-hour emergency contact. Name and phone number of the host or manager. For a remote owner this must be a locally reachable number — after the November 2024 ministerial guidance on check-ins, your emergency contact should be reachable quickly and able to respond in Portuguese.
4. Safety instructions and evacuation plan. Escape route, meeting point, location of the extinguisher and fire blanket. This overlaps with the fire safety equipment rules covered in fire safety for Portuguese AL.
5. Condominium rules, where applicable. The building's general rules — lift use, common areas, terraces. You do not reproduce the whole condominium regulation; you summarise what binds a short-stay guest.
6. Pets policy. Allowed or not, and under what conditions. Must match what your listings say.
7. Smoking policy. Permitted or prohibited, and any designated areas such as a balcony.
8. Conduct towards neighbours. Practical guidance for behaviour in shared buildings — noise on stairwells, luggage at night, door codes. In a Lisbon or Porto building where one anonymous complaint can trigger an ASAE visit, this section is self-defence.

Beyond the statutory eight, add the sections guests search for: Wi-Fi credentials, appliance instructions, transport options and a short list of local recommendations. They carry no legal weight but they measurably reduce mid-stay messages and improve reviews — relevant if you are chasing Superhost status as a remote owner.

The four-language rule and how to choose your languages

The information must be available in Portuguese and at least three additional languages (DL 128/2014, art. 16). Portuguese and English are non-negotiable in practice; the remaining two should follow your actual guest mix:

• Algarve: German and French dominate the non-English foreign mix.
• Lisbon: Spanish and French or German, depending on the parish and season.
• Porto: French is consistently strong, followed by Spanish.

If in doubt, pull twelve months of booking data and pick the two most frequent guest languages after English. Use professional translation or a reviewed machine translation — DeepL output checked by a Portuguese-speaking freelancer costs little and avoids the embarrassment of legal text that reads like a menu translation.

Paper, tablet or QR code: the format question

The law requires the information to be available to guests at the property; the practical standard ASAE expects is a format that works without the guest's phone, battery or Wi-Fi:

• Laminated paper: the inspector-proof option. Always accessible, no battery, survives spilled coffee.
• Tablet: looks premium, but it needs charging, walks out of doors, and is useless during a power cut — which is precisely when guests need the evacuation plan.
• QR code linking to a PDF: excellent for updates and languages, but it depends on the guest's connectivity.

The robust remote-owner setup is laminated paper plus a QR code on the same stand: the paper version satisfies any inspection, the QR version lets you push updates from abroad without reprinting. Your cleaner replaces the printed sheets when you change something material; everything else updates through the link.

When to update, and how to prove you did

The livro de informações is not a one-off document. Update it whenever something material changes:

• the 24-hour emergency contact or manager changes;
• the condominium adopts new rules;
• municipal rules change (quiet hours, waste collection);
• the registered capacity of your AL changes.

Put a version number, date and the titular's name on the final page of every revision. During an inspection this small habit signals a managed operation, and after an incident it proves which rules were in force during a specific stay.

The regulamento interno: your contractual shield in seven sections

The regulamento interno is unilateral — you set the rules, the guest accepts them by booking (a checkbox in the booking flow or check-in form is sufficient; a signature is not required). Its enforceability comes from Portuguese contract law, and its limits from consumer protection law (Lei 24/96). The seven sections a complete document covers:

1. Quiet hours. Mirror the livro de informações exactly. Contradictions between your own documents are the first thing a disputing guest's lawyer will find.
2. Maximum capacity and visitors. Capacity equals your registered RNAL number — never more. Visitors require prior notice to the host and are not permitted after 22:00 as a default rule.
3. Parties, smoking, pets and music. State each policy plainly. "Respect the space" is not a rule; "no parties or events; smoking on the balcony only" is.
4. Deposit and damages. The clause most owners get wrong. Retaining a deposit requires an express, pre-accepted clause plus evidence: dated photographs and repair or replacement invoices. Without proof, return the deposit in full — an unfounded retention is itself contestable. Return within 14 days of check-out is the defensible standard.
5. Cancellations. Your policy must respect Lei 24/96 as the floor. Platform policies govern platform bookings; your regulamento governs direct bookings and anything the platform terms leave open. Force majeure cancellations should be refunded in full.
6. GDPR and CCTV. Cameras only in common areas, never in bedrooms or bathrooms — guest consent cannot legalise a camera in a bedroom. Disclose CCTV in the listing and with visible signage at the property, and keep recordings no longer than 30 days.
7. Jurisdiction and applicable law. Portuguese law, and the courts of the municipality where the property sits. This prevents a dispute migrating to a foreign jurisdiction — ironic protection for a foreign owner, but it keeps litigation where your lawyer and evidence are.

Clauses that void themselves: what not to write

Lei 24/96 automatically nullifies abusive clauses in consumer contracts. Including them does not just fail — it undermines the credibility of the whole document in a dispute. Never include:

• waivers of the guest's right to complain (including in the livro de reclamações);
• blanket exclusions of the owner's liability;
• the right to change the rules unilaterally after check-in;
• a mandatory foreign forum for disputes;
• deposit retention without documented grounds;
• capacity limits above your RNAL registration;
• any obligation to leave a positive review.

How the two documents perform in an ASAE inspection

During an inspection, the livro de informações is checked directly as one of the standard verification points, alongside the plaque, complaints book, insurance and safety equipment — see the full sequence in the ASAE inspection checklist. The regulamento interno surfaces indirectly: displayed quiet-hours rules and CCTV notices are checked, and if the visit was triggered by a neighbour complaint, evidence that you communicate conduct rules to guests works in your favour.

For a remote owner, the operational pattern is simple: keep the master files in a shared folder, have your cleaner photograph the printed documents in place after each deep clean, and include both documents in the on-site inspection dossier your keyholder can hand to an inspector. If a manager runs the property, make document maintenance an explicit contractual duty — but remember the legal responsibility stays with you as titular, as covered in remote property management in Portugal.

Frequently asked questions

Can the livro de informações be digital only?

A digital version is acceptable in principle, but inspectors expect information accessible without the guest's own device or connectivity. Laminated paper plus a QR code is the format that satisfies both the inspector and your update workflow.

Does the regulamento interno need the guest's signature?

No. Tacit acceptance through the booking (or a checkbox at online check-in) is sufficient, provided the rules were clearly presented before the stay. What matters is being able to prove the guest saw the rules that you later rely on.

Can I use the condominium regulation as my livro de informações?

No. They are distinct documents. The condominium rules feed one of the eight sections, but they do not cover quiet hours, waste, emergency contacts, evacuation or your pet and smoking policies.

Do platform house rules replace the regulamento interno?

Only partially. Airbnb or Booking.com house rules bind the platform transaction, but they are short, generic and do not cover deposits with evidence standards, CCTV disclosure or jurisdiction. The regulamento interno fills those gaps and covers direct bookings entirely.

Who should sign each version?

The titular do estabelecimento — the person or company on the RNAL registration. Version, date and name on every revision. If your manager updates the documents, they do it in your name, not their own.

Don't want to search for templates and regulations on your own? The HostReady Package includes complete documentation, ready-to-use templates, and checklists - everything you need for CWTON registration and legal short-term rental, ready to use right after purchase.