The Czech government has approved a new regulation requiring accommodation facilities to register in the forthcoming eTurista electronic system starting mid-next year. This amendment to the Tourism Business Act was passed without significant changes, according to Minister of Regional Development Ivan Bartoš. The system aims to streamline the administration and provide better oversight of short-term rental properties offered through online platforms like Airbnb and Booking.
The new legislation will allow municipalities to regulate short-term rentals within their jurisdictions. However, this authority still needs to be notified to the European Commission. The Ministry of Regional Development (MMR) expects the registry to offer a clearer view of the number of short-term rentals and improve the collection of local accommodation fees and income taxes.
Since 2020, online platform operators must provide information about their listed hosts to the trade licensing office upon request. However, compliance has been inconsistent, with some platforms opting to risk fines instead. The new system aims to mitigate these issues by assigning a unique registration number to each accommodation, reducing administrative burdens and improving data accuracy.
Currently, accommodation providers are required to keep tourists’ records in both guest and house books, especially for foreign guests. The eTurista system seeks to reduce this redundancy by allowing data to be entered once and automatically forwarded to relevant authorities. This would also help the Czech Statistical Office better assess tourism trends in the country.
In 2022, municipalities in the Czech Republic collected 1.46 billion CZK in accommodation fees, a 34% increase compared to 2021 and double the amount collected in 2019 before the pandemic. The maximum rate for these fees was increased to 50 CZK in 2021. The MMR anticipates that more municipalities will implement these fees due to the new legislation, projecting a gradual increase in revenue.
The Ministry estimates that the eTurista system will cost 92.3 million CZK to develop and operate over five years, with 30 million CZK already allocated from the European National Recovery Plan. Once the system is fully operational, the expected increase in income tax revenue ranges from 216 to 792 million CZK.