How to Register Under the Bed and Breakfast Scheme in Maharashtra

Maharashtra runs a Bed & Breakfast scheme through the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation. Unlike Kerala and Goa, both of which publish their homestay policies as open documents, Maharashtra does not put the scheme's criteria in front of you before you apply.

We think that is worth saying at the top, because it changes how you should treat everything written about this scheme online — including this page.

What is actually verifiable

Applications are made through the state's MAITRI portal, which the Department of Tourism links from its own site as “Apply Homestay Policy”. The portal requires a login before it will show you anything. Applications can also be made in person through the Tourism and Cultural Affairs Department and MTDC offices.

That is the reliable part: the scheme exists, MTDC administers it, and the route in is the state portal.

What is reported, but not published by MTDC

The figures below circulate consistently across registration agents, procedural wikis and consultancy sites. We have not been able to trace any of them to a government resolution or an MTDC document, so treat them as an indication of what to expect rather than the rule.

• Capacity — commonly reported as a minimum of four and a maximum of ten beds.
• Classification — Gold and Silver tiers, with fees reported at Rs 5,000 and Rs 3,000 respectively.
• Scrutiny fee — a demand draft of Rs 1,000 payable to MTDC Ltd, submitted with the application.
• Processing — around 45 days.
• Documents — proof of ownership, or a No Objection Certificate from the owner where the applicant does not own the property; a character certificate from the local police; an architect's plan; and NOCs from neighbours.

Two of those are worth pausing on if you are weighing Maharashtra against another state.

Police verification is not optional. A character certificate from the concerned police station appears in every account of this process. Build the time into your plans.

Neighbours are consulted. The requirement for NOCs from neighbours is the Maharashtra analogue of Goa's gated-complex veto, and it has the same practical consequence: your ability to license the property depends on people who have no obligation to help you. Establish that before you buy, not after.

How this compares

If your intention is to own without living in the property, Goa remains the clearer route: its Bed & Breakfast category is defined precisely as the case where the owner does not reside on site, and the policy is published in full. Kerala is the strictest of the three — classification there requires the owner and family to be physically resident, and leased premises are excluded outright.

Maharashtra's reported allowance for a non-owner applicant with an owner's NOC suggests a middle position, but we are not going to characterise a scheme firmly on the strength of secondary sources.

Before you act on any of this

Confirm the current criteria, fees and document list with MTDC or the Directorate of Tourism directly. Everything in the second section above is reported rather than sourced to the department, the scheme has been revised more than once, and an intermediary quoting you a fee has an interest in the answer.

We would rather publish a short page that tells you where the uncertainty is than a long one that reads as authoritative and is quietly out of date. If you have been through this process recently and have the current documentation, we would genuinely like to see it — we will update this page and credit the correction.

Nothing here is legal advice.