Greece's hospitality sector is a distinct legal environment within real estate, not a variant of a standard property transaction. A hotel is a regulated operating business attached to a piece of real estate: it needs an operating licence issued under the Greek National Tourism Organisation (EOT) framework, it typically employs staff whose contracts follow their own transfer rules under Greek labour law, and it often sits inside a management or franchise agreement with an international brand that survives — or complicates — a change of ownership. Buying, selling or developing a hotel means addressing all of these layers at once, not just the title to the land. A hotel lawyer in Greece establishes the correct classification first, since it determines the entire licensing path.
Due diligence on a hotel asset goes well beyond title and encumbrances. A proper review verifies the property's licensing status and category classification, checks whether the operating licence is current and transferable, examines any existing management or franchise agreement for change-of-control and termination provisions, and assesses the employment position of hotel staff who may transfer with the business under Greek transfer-of-undertakings rules. Missing any one of these can turn what looked like a straightforward acquisition into a licensing gap or an unplanned employment liability after closing.
A hotel transaction is a real estate deal, an operating licence, an employment question and often a brand contract, all at once — treating it as only the first of those is where acquisitions go wrong. Management and franchise agreements bring a hotel lawyer in Greece into commercial negotiation as well as licensing.
The short-term rental picture has shifted quickly and continues to move. Airbnb and short-term letting in Greece are now subject to registration and tax compliance requirements that have tightened materially in recent years, particularly in central Athens and popular island destinations where local authorities have introduced additional restrictions on new short-term rental registrations. Owners and operators who built a rental strategy around the rules of a few years ago need to check it still holds — and those structuring a hotel or serviced-apartment project alongside a short-term rental component need the two regimes to work together from the outset, not be reconciled after the fact. Tell us the property and intended operation and we will map the licences.
Its own track
Hotel licensing has its own regulatory track
EOT operating licences and category classifications follow a distinct process from standard property registration — an unlicensed or misclassified hotel is not simply a paperwork gap.
Get the terms right
Management agreements need careful structuring
Owner-operator arrangements and international brand management contracts allocate control, revenue and termination rights in ways that shape the asset's value long after signing.
Moving target
Airbnb regulation keeps changing
Registration and tax rules for short-term rentals have tightened in Athens and the islands, and a compliant strategy from a few years ago may no longer hold today.
Separate regime
Employee transfers follow their own rules
Hotel staff may transfer automatically with a change of ownership under Greek labour law, carrying obligations a purchase agreement needs to address directly.