Bed and Breakfast / Homestay Scheme, Punjab

What is the Punjab Bed and Breakfast / Homestay Scheme?

Bed and Breakfast / Homestay Scheme 2021 is a registration scheme of the Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Government of Punjab, notified in the Punjab Government Gazette of 14 May 2021 and superseding the earlier Bed & Breakfast Scheme of 2013. Under it, the Department of Tourism registers fully operational rooms in private homes as tourist accommodation units across Punjab.

The purpose stated in the notification is practical: Punjab does not have enough affordable rooms for the tourists it attracts, and private homes can supply them. The notification describes the aim as providing "a clean and affordable place for international and domestic tourists" while offering visitors an opportunity to acquaint themselves with the cultural heritage of Punjab.

Two definitions run through the scheme. A Bed and Breakfast (BnB) unit is a private house with at least one let-able guest room that serves breakfast to its guests. A Homestay is a unit that provides only stay, without breakfast, although the owner is free to arrange breakfast for a guest on mutually agreed terms and charges. Both are registered under the same scheme, against the same fee structure and the same facility checklist.

The scheme is currently promoted across 12 districts and regions: Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Moga, Pathankot, Patiala, Roopnagar, SAS Nagar (Mohali), Sri Fatehgarh Sahib and Tarn Taran.

What do you get from registering?

This is a registration scheme, not a grant scheme. There is no cash subsidy. The notification lists the benefits to a registered owner as:

• A useful source of additional income from letting rooms in a home the owner already lives in.
• Marketing support from the Department of Tourism and the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board (PHTPB), specifically through promotion on the official Punjab Tourism website, media coverage by travel writers, appearance in departmental brochures distributed through Punjab Tourist Information Centres, and promotion at domestic and international trade fairs.
• Association with the Punjab Tourism brand, with registered owners permitted to use the Punjab Tourism logo on their sign boards.
• Inclusion in the directory of approved units published on the official Department of Tourism website, which is how most tourists find a unit.

The notification is candid that the marketing platform is a support, not a guarantee: "the responsibility for promoting each individual home and making it a success of the business remains entirely the owner's responsibility."

Who is eligible for the Punjab B&B scheme?

A home-owner can register if:

• The applicant is the owner of a residential property in Punjab and can produce an ownership document attested by a Group-A officer or public notary.
• The owner is physically residing in the same property. This is stated twice in the notification and repeated in the sworn declaration.
• The property has at least one and at most six let-able rooms, totalling 12 beds.
• Every offered bedroom has a clean attached bathroom with wash basin, 24-hour hot and cold running water, a Western-style flush toilet, and adequate power supply and backup, ventilation and lighting.
• The premises are structurally safe and meet standards of hygiene, cleanliness and safety.
• The property is free of dispute or litigation.

Gold category additionally requires:

• The construction of the house is not more than 20 years old at the time of the first application for registration.
• At least 25 percent open area such as lawn, green area or outside terrace.
• Provision for hygienic storage of food.
• Adequate parking space for guests inside the premises.

Silver category covers properties that do not meet the Gold conditions but have at least one let-able room.

A property is not eligible and cannot be registered if:

• The owner does not live in it. A vacant house rented out in full falls outside the scheme.
• It offers more than six let-able rooms or more than 12 beds.
• The property is under dispute or litigation, which the Annexure III declaration specifically rules out.
• The building is not structurally safe, or fails the hygiene and safety standards.
• Offered bedrooms lack attached private bathrooms, which is mandatory for both Silver and Gold.

What are the room and facility standards?

The Annexure II checklist runs to 37 points, marked M for mandatory and D for desirable, with Gold requiring more items as mandatory than Silver. The measurable minimums are:

Mandatory for both categories: a well-maintained house with pucca flooring and furniture; clean, airy, pest-free rooms with an outside window; comfortable beds with clean linen; attached bathroom with toiletries; WC with seat, lid and toilet paper; 24-hour hot and cold running water with proper sewerage; smoke-free hygienic kitchen; dining area; good cutlery and crockery; air-conditioning and heating keeping the offered room between 20 and 25 degrees Centigrade; iron and board on request; a 15-amp earthed power socket in the guest room; wardrobe with at least four clothes hangers; shelves or drawer space; 24-hour filtered or mineral water; garbage disposal per municipal law; CFL or LED lighting; display of medical emergency, police and women helpline numbers; and a check-in/check-out register recording passport details for foreign tourists and a photo identity copy for domestic tourists.

Mandatory for Gold but only desirable for Silver: sufficient parking, water-saving taps, internet connection, good chairs and a working table, a mini refrigerator in the room, a lounge in the lobby area, heating and cooling in enclosed common areas, electronic payment acceptance, left luggage facilities, in-room safekeeping and security guard facilities.

How to apply for the Punjab B&B / Homestay registration

1. Decide the category. Check the house against the four Gold conditions; under 20 years old, 25 percent open area, hygienic food storage, and parking inside the premises. If any one fails, apply under Silver.
2. Prepare the property to the checklist. Work through Annexure II item by item, since the checklist is what an inspection is later measured against.
3. Assemble the documents — the filled application form (Annexure I), the filled facilities checklist (Annexure II), the signed declaration (Annexure III), any additional background information (Annexure IV), the approved layout plan marking the rooms being offered, coloured photographs of the property, rooms, open area and parking, an ownership document attested by a Group-A officer or public notary, and photo identity proof of the owner.
4. Submit the application online on the Department of Tourism web portal at punjabtourism.punjab.gov.in, which the notification names as the filing channel.
5. Pay the fee online; Rs 3,000 for Silver or Rs 5,000 for Gold. The fee is non-refundable.
6. Collect the system-generated acknowledgement email sent on successful submission.
7. Receive the provisional registration certificate, which is issued automatically. From this point the unit may operate until the registration is cancelled.
8. Receive the certificate of registration within seven working days. If it is not issued in that period, the property is deemed to have been registered.

What obligations does a registered unit carry?

Registration is not the end of the process. The notification places continuing duties on the owner:

• Maintain the checklist standards at all times. The Chief Executive Officer of PHTPB, or any officer authorised by the government, may conduct a surprise inspection between 9 am and 5 pm without any prior notice.
• Rectify deficiencies pointed out by the CEO within the time stipulated, or within three months, whichever is less. Non-compliance makes the registration liable to cancellation without further notice.
• File a quarterly report online in the Annexure V format, giving the number of guests served, room nights occupied by foreign and domestic tourists, and the accommodation capacity by room type.
• Display breakfast charges in advance for a BnB unit, and specify the type of breakfast offered, to avoid disputes.
• Allow guests the use of the sitting room or other appropriate common space, not only the bedroom.
• Inform the CEO, PHTPB within seven days of any change in ownership of the property.

Tariffs remain entirely at the owner's discretion. For a BnB the tariff must be inclusive of breakfast every day; for a homestay it excludes breakfast.

When can registration be cancelled?

The notification lists five grounds:

1. Any violation of the terms and conditions of the scheme, after the owner is given a due opportunity of being heard.
2. Incorrect information found at any stage to have been given by the applicant.
3. Failure on more than one occasion to submit the quarterly report within the prescribed time.
4. A customer complaint investigated by an authorised officer and found to be true.
5. Change of ownership of the property, on which the certificate stands cancelled automatically.

An appeal against any order of the CEO, PHTPB may be filed with the Administrative Secretary, Department of Tourism, Government of Punjab, within 30 days of the order. The Administrative Secretary passes an order after giving the appellant a reasonable opportunity of being heard, and that order is final. The Administrative Secretary is also the authority competent to issue any interpretation or clarification needed to implement the scheme.

Who administers the scheme?

The Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board (PHTPB), under the overall control and supervision of the Department of Tourism, administers, monitors and markets the scheme. PHTPB is responsible for registering eligible homes and for monitoring quality standards through periodical inspections, and it maintains the directory of approved units displayed on the official Punjab Tourism website.

Key dates and contact

The scheme has no application window and no last date: registrations and renewals are accepted through the year, with renewal charged at the same Rs 3,000 or Rs 5,000. The dates that matter are the seven working days within which the certificate must issue, the 30 days for filing an appeal, the seven days for reporting a change of ownership, and the quarterly cycle for the Annexure V report.

• Directorate of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Punjab: Plot No. 3, Sector 38-A, Chandigarh 160036.
• Phone: 0172-5042969.
• Email: director.culture@punjab.gov.in.
• Portal: punjabtourism.punjab.gov.in, which also carries the list of registered B&Bs and the full 2021 gazette notification.

How to check your application status

Because the scheme runs through a single online channel, there is no separate tracking portal, application number lookup, or SMS status service published in the notification. What actually tells an applicant where their file stands is the sequence the notification lays out:

1. Acknowledgement email. The first confirmation is the system-generated acknowledgement sent immediately after the application and fee are submitted online at punjabtourism.punjab.gov.in. If this email has not arrived, the submission itself likely failed and needs to be redone rather than followed up.
2. Provisional registration certificate. This is issued automatically after submission, and its arrival is the working proof that the file has entered the system. An owner can operate the unit from this point, so the practical status check is simply whether this certificate has landed.
3. The seven-working-day clock. The notification commits to issuing the full certificate of registration within seven working days of a complete application. An applicant who has crossed seven working days without receiving it should treat the deemed-registration clause as the status answer: the property is deemed registered even if the paper certificate is delayed, and this deemed status can be cited if a dispute arises.
4. Direct follow-up. For anything the online steps do not resolve, since there is no dedicated grievance or status helpline listed for applications, the only published contact is the Directorate of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Punjab at 0172-5042969 or director.culture@punjab.gov.in. Because PHTPB (not the Directorate) actually processes registrations, a call is most useful when it references the exact date of online submission and the payment reference, so the office can trace the file.
5. Directory listing as final confirmation. The clearest independent proof of a completed registration is the unit appearing in the directory of approved units on the official Punjab Tourism website. An owner who has a certificate in hand but does not see the listing update within a reasonable period after the seven working days has grounds to follow up with PHTPB directly.

There is no facility to check status for a renewal separately: renewal follows the same online submission and fee payment, so the same acknowledgement-email and seven-working-day markers apply.

Common reasons for rejection

The notification is specific about what disqualifies a property, and most rejections trace back to one of these gaps rather than a paperwork error:

• Owner not resident in the property. The scheme registers only homes where the owner physically lives, stated twice in the notification. A property let out in full while the owner lives elsewhere does not qualify, and this is checked at inspection stage even if the application itself looks complete. The fix is to apply only for a home that is genuinely the owner's residence, not a separate rental property.
• Missing attached bathrooms. Every offered bedroom must have its own attached bathroom with a Western-style flush toilet, wash basin, and round-the-clock hot and cold water. A room with a shared or common bathroom fails this mandatory condition for both Silver and Gold. Converting or confirming an attached bathroom before applying avoids this.
• Exceeding the room or bed cap. The scheme caps a unit at six let-able rooms and 12 beds. An application proposing more rooms or beds than this, or one that later expands past the cap without informing PHTPB, is outside the scheme's scope. The fix is to register only the rooms within the cap, even if the house has more spare rooms available.
• Applying for Gold without meeting all four Gold conditions. Gold requires the house to be under 20 years old, at least 25 percent open area, hygienic food storage, and parking inside the premises, all four together. A common error is applying for Gold on the strength of one or two of these while missing another, such as having parking and open area but a house older than 20 years. Checking all four conditions against the house before choosing the category, and applying under Silver when even one fails, avoids an inspection-stage rejection or downgrade.
• Property under dispute or litigation. The Annexure III declaration specifically rules out registering a disputed property, and PHTPB can decline or later cancel a registration on this ground. An owner should resolve title or family disputes before applying, since this cannot be corrected after the fact within the scheme process.
• Structural safety or hygiene shortfalls found at inspection. Even where the paperwork is in order, a surprise inspection checking the house against the 37-point Annexure II checklist can flag deficiencies, missing outside windows in guest rooms, absent smoke-free kitchen arrangements, no display of emergency helpline numbers, or similar mandatory items being absent. The notification gives an owner three months, or the time stipulated by the CEO if shorter, to rectify such deficiencies before the registration becomes liable to cancellation; working through the full Annexure II list before applying, not just the headline requirements, prevents this.
• Incomplete or inconsistent documentation. An ownership document not attested by a Group-A officer or public notary, a missing layout plan marking the offered rooms, or photographs that do not clearly show the property, rooms, open area and parking, are common causes of an application being sent back for correction rather than processed. Assembling Annexures I through IV and the attested ownership proof together before starting the online submission avoids repeated resubmission.
• Incorrect information in the application. The notification lists this as a standalone ground for cancellation even after registration is granted, meaning any detail found later to be inaccurate, room count, category conditions, or ownership status, puts the registration itself at risk, not just the initial application.