Booking and Airbnb Asking for Your Cadastral Reference: Is It Legit? Where to Find It?

"To comply with various regulatory requirements, we are required to collect the cadastral reference for each property you list on our site…" If you received this message from Booking.com or Airbnb, you are not alone: the requests have been rolling out for a few weeks and host groups are buzzing with the same questions. Is it legitimate? Should you answer? And where do you even find this reference?

Short answer: the request is real, it stems from a European regulation applicable since 20 May 2026, and you should respond, but only through your host dashboard. Here are the details.

Why Booking and Airbnb are asking for your cadastral reference

The origin is not French but European: EU Regulation 2024/1028 on short-term rentals, applicable across the Union since 20 May 2026. Its Article 5 requires that the registration of a rental precisely identify the unit: exact address, floor, apartment number… and "where applicable, the cadastral reference or any other type of information allowing it to be precisely identified".

Platforms, in turn, must verify that published listings correspond to properly registered units, and share this data with authorities. That is exactly what Booking is implementing through its "Compliance Centre": collecting the cadastral reference links each listing to a unique physical property, sometimes even for recently deactivated listings that still fall within its reporting obligations.

On the French side, this regulation works alongside the Le Meur law and the new national registration system (decree 2026-196 of 19 March 2026 organizes the exchange of the declaration number and SIRET between hosts, platforms and the national registry, see our API Meublés guide). The cadastral reference comes from the European layer, not from a specific French statute, but the result is the same: platforms are asking for it, and they have a regulatory basis to do so.

Is it a scam? The right reflex before answering

The official request does exist, Booking even publishes a dedicated partner guide. But this kind of campaign is a gift to fraudsters: emails imitating these compliance requests are circulating, with links to fake extranets.

The right reflex: never click a link received by email. Log in directly to your extranet (Booking extranet or Airbnb dashboard) and check whether a task appears in the Compliance Centre. If the request exists in your host dashboard, it is authentic. If it only exists in the email, report it.

Where to find your cadastral reference

The cadastral reference identifies the land parcel your property sits on. It is made of a section (one or two letters) and a parcel number, for example "AB 123". That is the format hosts describe as "2 letters + 3 digits". You will find it:

• On your property tax notice (avis de taxe foncière), in the property details;
• On cadastre.gouv.fr, by searching your address on the cadastral map (free, no account);
• On your property record (relevé de propriété), from the land registry or town hall;
• On impots.gouv.fr, under "Gérer mes biens immobiliers", which lists each unit with its identification.

For an apartment, the parcel reference is that of the whole building: that is normal, and it is complemented by the floor and lot number the platform asks for separately.

What happens if you do not answer?

Some hosts ignore these requests with no immediate consequence. That is playing for time: the European regulation asks platforms to prevent listings without valid registration data. Concretely, a listing missing the required compliance information faces suspension or delisting, on each platform's own enforcement schedule.

One edge case several hosts report: requests for properties removed from the platform months ago. That is a side effect of reporting obligations; reply through support that the listing is deactivated rather than ignoring the message.

Compliance is one link in a longer chain

This request adds to the other 2026 obligations: national declaration via the API Meublés before 20 May, registration number displayed on the listing, mandatory SIRET, tourist tax. Platforms are becoming the checkpoint for all of it: better a compliant file than a listing suspended mid-season.

FAQ: cadastral references and rental platforms

Is Booking's cadastral reference request legitimate?

Yes. It stems from EU Regulation 2024/1028, applicable since 20 May 2026, which requires precise identification of short-term rental units. Just verify the request appears in your extranet, not only in an email.

Am I required to provide it?

No French law directly obliges you toward the platform, but the platform must verify its listings. Refusing exposes your listing to eventual suspension.

Where can I find my cadastral reference for free?

On cadastre.gouv.fr by searching your address, on your property tax notice, or under "Gérer mes biens immobiliers" on impots.gouv.fr.

They are asking for a property I no longer rent, what should I do?

Reply to the platform's support stating the listing is deactivated. Do not ignore the message: it can block the rest of your compliance file.

How does this relate to the registration number?

They are two parts of the same system: the registration number identifies your rental activity, the cadastral reference physically identifies the unit. The European regulation requires both to make registries reliable.