For many Slovak hosts, Booking.com is the main source of reservations — and at the same time the source of a dangerous impression that “the platform handles it for me”. It does not. Reporting foreign guests, the guest register, accommodation tax, VAT and statistics all remain yours — and on top of that, Booking.com gives you less guest data than you need for them.
What Booking.com handles and what it doesn’t
| Booking.com handles | Remains yours | |
|---|---|---|
| Reservation and payment | ✅ | — |
| Cancellation terms | ✅ (per your listing) | — |
| Guest data for the authorities | ❌ name and contact only | document, date of birth, nationality, purpose of stay |
| Reporting foreigners to the police | ❌ | within 5 days of accommodation, fine up to €3,300 |
| Guest register | ❌ | ongoing |
| Accommodation tax | ❌ | collect from guest + remit to municipality per the VZN |
| VAT — identified person | ❌ (it actually triggers it) | registration before the first commission |
| Statistics for the SO SR | ❌ | monthly CR 1-12 report |
| 2027 register | verifies the number | registering is on you |
The biggest practical problem: missing guest data
Reservations from Booking.com typically arrive with only a name and contact details — without the document number, date of birth, nationality or purpose of stay. Yet those are exactly the data required by both the report to the Foreigners Police and the guest register.
That means for every reservation you must collect the missing data from the guest yourself — by manually transcribing from the document at arrival, or with an online form before arrival. Across dozens of reservations per season, that is the difference between hours of transcription and zero.
VAT: Booking.com doesn’t solve the obligation — it creates it
Commissions are invoiced by Booking.com B.V. from the Netherlands. By receiving a service from a foreign supplier, you, as a VAT non-payer, become obliged to register as a VAT-identified person under §7a — before receiving the first service, regardless of the amount. From then on, for every month with a commission received, you file a return and pay VAT on the commission.
The platform reports your income itself
Under the DAC7 rules, Booking.com automatically reports your income to the tax administration (the only exemption is below 30 rentals and €2,000 per year). The combination of “Booking income + no registration” is therefore easy for the authorities to spot — having your trade licence and taxes in order is not optional.
How Best Guest handles this
Best Guest is the layer between Booking.com and your obligations: it imports reservations, sends the guest an online check-in that collects all the official data before arrival, keeps the guest register automatically, calculates the accommodation tax according to your municipality’s VZN, and prepares the police-report documents for filing via portal.minv.sk. Booking.com stays the source of reservations — the obligations stop being manual work.
Related pages
Frequently asked questions
Does Booking.com handle the police reporting of my guests for me?
No. Booking.com brokers the reservation and payment — reporting foreign guests to the Foreigners Police within 5 days of accommodation, keeping the guest register and remitting accommodation tax to the municipality are exclusively the host's obligations. The platform will not even remind you of them.
Will Booking.com give me the data I need for the police report?
Only partially. A Booking.com reservation typically contains a name and contact details, but not the document number, date of birth, nationality or purpose of stay — precisely the data the police report and the guest register require. You have to collect those from the guest yourself, ideally online before arrival.
Does Booking.com collect accommodation tax on my behalf?
By default no — you collect accommodation tax from the guest and remit it to the municipality yourself, according to your municipality's generally binding ordinance (VZN). (Unlike Airbnb, which in Bratislava collects it at booking in some cases.) If the tax is not included in the price, you must collect it from the guest during the stay.
Does Booking.com create any VAT obligation for me?
Yes — Booking.com B.V. is a Dutch company, so by receiving its services (commissions) you, as a VAT non-payer, become obliged to register as a VAT-identified person under §7a of the VAT Act — before receiving the first service, regardless of turnover.
Does Booking.com report my income anywhere?
Yes, to the tax administration — under the DAC7 rules, platforms automatically report accommodation providers' income (the only exemption is below 30 rentals and €2,000 per year). The tax office therefore sees your Booking.com income.
What changes with the short-term rental register from 2027?
Booking.com will be obliged to verify a unit's registration number before publishing a listing — without an entry in the national register, your listing cannot be published on the platform. Existing hosts must register by 28 February 2027.
Sources
Verified against
Informational only
This page is provided for general information and is not legal or tax advice. Rates, deadlines and exemptions are set by law and municipal ordinances and can change — always verify current requirements with your municipality or a qualified advisor.