Operating from abroad: what a professional manager does and what you never delegate

A short-term rental in Cartagena is not run from Miami on your own: you need someone in the city to check guests in, clean, repair and answer the phone. What you sign with that someone is a mandate, and a badly drafted mandate leaves the owner answering for things they do not control.

The operator runs the operation: lists the unit, handles bookings, receives and sees off guests, coordinates cleaning and maintenance, collects payment and reports. That decides money in the obvious way — how much of each booking you keep — and in a less obvious one: the operator controls access to the unit, the guest information and the cash. Some responsibilities stay with the owner by their nature, whatever the contract says: ownership of the property and whatever the certificado de tradición y libertad (certificate of title and encumbrances) shows; the tax obligations attached to your Colombian tax ID; the registration of your foreign investment with the Banco de la República; and compliance with the reglamento de propiedad horizontal (the condominium bylaws), because the owners' assembly penalises the owner, not the operator. Delegating the operation is sensible. Delegating oversight of those four is not.

Cartagena is administered as a district rather than an ordinary municipality, and that determines whom you ask for what: the certificado de tradición y libertad, the registry history and encumbrance certificate, comes from the Oficina de Registro de Instrumentos Públicos, the public deeds registry; parcel identification from the cadastre; land-use certificates and building permits from the District and the curadurías urbanas, the private licensing offices; environmental matters from Cardique; anything touching the sea from DIMAR, the maritime authority; while the deed is executed before a notary and the registration tax is paid to the Gobernación de Bolívar, the department government. These are separate bodies with separate procedures, and a seller who folds them all into one office is simplifying. For a buyer abroad the practical consequence is that the file is assembled remotely and in pieces, with powers of attorney worth preparing before any purchase promise is signed, and that the city holds land realities that share no single procedure: the walled historic center under its protection regime, the built-out peninsula, and the northern shoreline still taking shape. So settle early on which authority answers which question, and request each document from its own source.

What is specific to Cartagena

What to verify, step by step

1. Ask for the full contract before discussing money, and look for three clauses: who appears on the Registro Nacional de Turismo, how the accounting statement is settled, and how much notice you need to terminate the mandate.
2. Ask which account guest payments go into and whose name it is in. If they land in the operator's account first, ask how often funds are remitted and what guarantee backs that.
3. Ask for references you can verify: names of current owners you can actually speak to, not brochure testimonials.
4. Require the accounting statement to arrive with a receipt for every expense, and set in writing a spending ceiling above which the operator must get your approval.
5. Ask who performs check-in and check-out inventories of the unit and who covers guest damage, and ask to see the form they use.
6. Confirm in writing that the operator knows and accepts what the building's reglamento de propiedad horizontal says. The penalty lands on you.

Mistakes that cost money

• Signing a mandate with no end date and no exit clause. Changing operators is easy at the start and expensive later, and that clause is negotiated before signing.
• Letting the operator be the sole registrant on the Registro Nacional de Turismo without your knowing. If the relationship ends, the registration goes with them.
• Judging an operator only by what they propose to charge. A cheap operator who documents no expenses and runs no inventories costs you more on the first damage claim than in a whole year of fees.

Frequently asked questions

What does an operator charge in Cartagena?

We publish no fee figures: they vary by operator and by the scope of the mandate. What is worth asking for is the breakdown of what is included and what is billed separately, because that is the real difference between two offers.

Can I run it myself from abroad?

The commercial side can be handled remotely. Cleaning, check-in and repairs require someone in the city, and the building will want a responsible party to talk to.

Is the operator answerable to the building's management?

Towards the copropiedad (the condominium community) the responsible party is the owner. That is why you read the bylaws yourself rather than leaving them to the operator.

What should the accounting statement contain?

The period's bookings, income per booking, expenses with supporting receipts, and the balance remitted, with the date of each transfer. If it arrives without receipts, it is not an accounting statement.

Where to check it

• Registro Nacional de Turismo — whether a property may legally be used for tourist accommodation and who has registered it
• DIAN — the tax ID, withholding on sale and the capital gains tax
• Banco de la República — registration of foreign investment and the official exchange rate
• UIAF — the anti-money-laundering obligations that apply to the real estate sector
• Alcaldía Mayor de Cartagena de Indias — property tax, betterment levies and District procedures
• Cartagena de Indias — the rules of the municipality Cartagena belongs to

Official bodies. Specific figures are requested there, not copied from a listing.

Updated 2026-11-05