The Guest Register (Kniha Ubytovaných) in Slovakia: Contents and Retention

The guest register and the accommodation-tax record book

Slovak law has two guest records:

• The guest register (§24 of Act No. 253/1998 Coll.) — kept by every host, for all guests.
• The record book for the accommodation tax (§41a(2) of Act No. 582/2004 Coll.) — kept by the tax payer, i.e. the host in a municipality that has introduced the accommodation tax. Entries must be clear and in chronological order.

The law does not require two separate books. Our recommendation: keep one book that holds the data for both records — including the extra data §41a(2) requires (see below).

What the register contains

Under §24(1) of Act No. 253/1998 Coll. (all guests): name and surname, ID card or travel document number, permanent address, and length of stay.

For foreigners, additionally under §113(b) of Act No. 404/2011 Coll.: nationality and date of birth.

The accommodation-tax record book under §41a(2) of Act No. 582/2004 Coll. contains name and surname, permanent address, date of birth, the number and type of identity document (ID card, passport or other document), length of stay (number of nights) and any other entries needed to assess the tax correctly — for example the reason for an exemption under your municipality’s VZN.

For foreign guests these fields overlap with the data reported in the police report.

Does it have to be on paper?

No. Neither §24 of Act No. 253/1998 Coll. nor §113 of Act No. 404/2011 Coll. prescribes a form, and §41a(2) of Act No. 582/2004 Coll. expressly allows the tax record book to be kept “in paper or electronic form”. What matters is that the register contains the statutory data and that you can produce it during an inspection. A digital guest register satisfies this, and in practice is easier to audit than a handwritten book.

How long to retain the records

The register and the report forms need distinguishing:

• Completed foreigner-report forms — the Ministry of Interior states on its page on reporting foreigners’ stays that the host’s duty to keep the forms for two years and produce the originals to the police unit on request remains in place. Podnikajte.sk says the same.
• The guest register itself — neither §24 of Act No. 253/1998 Coll. nor §113 of Act No. 404/2011 Coll. sets a retention period, and neither does §41a of Act No. 582/2004 Coll. for the tax record book. Secondary summaries often cite around 5 years; we did not find that figure in these statutes, so we do not present it as a legal deadline.

Until you have confirmed the retention period with the Foreigners Police, your municipality (for the accommodation tax) or legal counsel, we recommend not deleting or shredding records earlier than the longer of the cited periods.

Inspections

Under §113(d) of Act No. 404/2011 Coll., the police unit has the right to enter all premises of an accommodation establishment to check compliance — including inspecting the guest register. The municipality, as the tax administrator, can check the accommodation-tax record book. Keeping an incomplete or out-of-date register is a standalone risk on top of the police-reporting duty itself.

How Best Guest helps

Best Guest generates a digital guest register automatically from the data guests fill in at online check-in — for all guests, Slovak and foreign, with no manual transcription. You download a PDF export for a month, a year or a custom period; among other things it shows name, document type and number, date of birth, nationality, address, arrival and departure dates and the guest’s signature. The export has no separate column for the number of nights — it follows from the arrival and departure dates.

Related pages

• Reporting foreign guests to the Foreigners Police
• All host obligations in Slovakia
• Act No. 404/2011 Coll. on Residence of Foreigners