A month in Bordeaux

France has one short furnished lease, the bail mobilité. It runs from one to ten months, cannot be renewed, allows no deposit and can be ended by the tenant at any time on one month's written notice. It is reserved for professional training, higher education, an apprenticeship, an internship, civic service, a professional transfer or a temporary mission, and the tenant has to prove it, so a holiday month does not qualify.

A holiday month therefore stays a tourist let. In Bordeaux that means the lodging carries a registration number, which has to appear in every advertisement and in the lease itself, and any change to the host's declaration produces a new number. If the flat is the host's main home it may be let for only 90 nights a calendar year, and if it is a second residence it needs a change-of-use authorisation.

Those authorisations come with compensation: the host has to turn another existing non-residential building into housing of at least equivalent area, quality and location in the same zone. From 1 April 2026 the compensation must be double the area in a reinforced sector covering the city centre, where most registered meublés are, and the energy certificate is now among the documents required.

The tourist tax is charged per person per night by Bordeaux Métropole across all 28 of its communes, with no ceiling on the number of nights. A three-star room is EUR 1.70 a night per person before the departmental and 34 per cent regional additions; a four-star room is EUR 2.60; an unclassified flat is 5 per cent of the cost of the night per person before tax, capped at the palace rate of EUR 4.90.

The exemption worth knowing about on a long stay is the rent threshold. The métropole exempts people occupying premises whose rent is below the amount it sets, and for 2026 that is EUR 30 a night, EUR 116 a week or EUR 346 a month, rising to EUR 30, EUR 117 and EUR 349 in 2027. A modest monthly rate can fall under it. Minors are exempt whatever the rent, and so are seasonal workers employed in the métropole and people in emergency or temporary housing.

Hosts declare monthly and pay quarterly, by the 20th of the month after each civil quarter, and platforms that take the payment collect the tax themselves and pay it over twice a year.

A guest who is not a French national fills in a fiche de police at check-in, in a hotel and in a flat alike, and the host keeps it for six months and gives it to the police or the gendarmerie on request.

Non-EU visitors, which includes British and American travellers, may stay 90 days in any 180 across the whole Schengen area, and the EU Entry/Exit System has registered those stays since 10 April 2026. Days spent in other Schengen countries count. EU and EEA citizens need no visa and travel on an identity card or passport.

The ministry's 2025 guide set May 2026 as the date registration of meublés de tourisme became compulsory across France through a single national portal; whether that portal is live was unverified as of September 2026. A listing that cannot show its number is worth questioning before a deposit is paid.

No street space in Bordeaux may hold a car for more than 24 consecutive hours, so a month means a car park or a park and ride. The city owns 56 car parks with close to 25,000 spaces and the métropole runs 28 park and ride sites on the tram and bus network, with 11 of them inside the ring road reachable by dedicated access roads.

Chartrons suits a month with a car: residential, on the tram, about 2 km from the Place de la Bourse. La Bastide gives more room on the right bank, about 5 km out by road because the car crosses a bridge. Saint-Michel and the Capucins keep the walk to the river short in a working quarter rather than a tourist one.

Mérignac is the choice for anyone who wants to be outside the low-emission zone and near the airport, about 9 km from the terminal. The métropole tourist tax applies there exactly as it does in the centre.

Airbnb calls 28 nights or more a monthly stay. It charges the first month up front and releases it to the host 24 hours after check-in, then charges each later month 10 days before it starts. None of that changes the tax: Bordeaux Métropole charges per person per night either way, and the platform collects it when it takes the payment.

How other platforms word their long-stay terms for Bordeaux was not verified as of September 2026.

Assuming a bail mobilité is available for a holiday. It is open only to study, training and work mobility, and the owner may ask for proof.

Booking a flat for more than 90 nights in a host's main residence. Bordeaux lowered the ceiling from 120 nights on 8 July 2025.

Taking a listing with no registration number. Bordeaux requires one for every furnished let, main or second residence, and it must be in the advertisement.

Counting on free kerb parking. The 30 free minutes a day are per vehicle, and no space may be used for more than 24 hours at a stretch.

Counting Schengen days only in France. The 90 days in 180 run across the whole area.