Czechia Moves Toward Croatia-Style Airbnb Registration as Tax Losses Mount

Czech authorities are advancing plans for a national short-term rental registration platform known as eTurista, modeled on Croatia’s system, in which hosts must obtain a registration ID before Airbnb or Booking.com will list a property. Reporting this month put the annual tax revenue lost to unregistered short-term rentals at up to EUR 32 million, with estimates that 40 to 70 percent of short-term rental income currently goes unreported.

The numbers behind the crackdown

Metric	Figure
Estimated annual tax loss, unreported STR	Up to EUR 32 million
Share of STR income estimated unreported	40 to 70 percent
Model being followed	Croatia’s ID-based registration system
National platform	eTurista

What eTurista is

eTurista is a centralized electronic register run by the Czech Ministry for Regional Development. It is designed to consolidate three existing obligations, the guest register, foreign-guest reporting (Ubyport) and tourist-tax reporting, into a single system covering all paid accommodation, from hotels and guesthouses to Airbnb and Booking.com hosts. Under the model, each host receives a unique registration number that must appear on listings, and platforms are expected to verify it. Without a valid number, a property cannot be advertised legally.

The rollout has not been smooth. The original launch date of 1 July 2026 passed without the register going live, and new ministry leadership sent the proposal back for rework over the scope of personal data it would collect. The reworked version is expected to pair the eTurista portal with stronger municipal powers to regulate short-term rentals, though no confirmed launch date has been set.

Milestone	Original date	Status
Register launch	1 July 2026	Missed
Mandatory registration	1 October 2026	Under revision
Full operation, automated data-sharing	1 January 2027	Under revision

Prague pushes for the Croatia model

Prague’s tourism board has floated adopting Croatia’s system directly, arguing that an ID-based gate is the fastest route to bringing unregistered hosts onto the books. The city is separately weighing a nighttime ban on vehicles in the historic center, part of a wider tightening of how the tourist core is managed.

A Central and Eastern European pattern

For operators, the direction of travel is now familiar. After Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands tightened enforcement, mid-sized EU capitals are following with mandatory registration and data-sharing systems, ahead of the EU’s harmonized Single Digital Entry Point requirement.

Market	Approach
Croatia	ID-based registration, verified by platforms
Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands	Registration plus tighter enforcement
Czechia (Prague)	eTurista national register, Croatia-style ID
EU-wide	Single Digital Entry Point for STR data-sharing

What it means for operators

Managers with exposure in Czechia should treat registration readiness as a matter of when, not if. The specific launch date remains uncertain, but the underlying requirement, a per-property ID that platforms will check before a listing can go live, is consistent with the direction across the bloc. Getting property records, ownership documentation and tax registration in order now avoids a scramble once the reworked timeline is confirmed.

Source: Traveller365.