The Act on Residence of Foreigners in the Slovak Republic (404/2011 Coll.) is the main legal instrument obliging accommodation providers to keep a guest register (kniha ubytovaných) and to report foreign guests’ stays to the Foreigners Police.
Who has the reporting duty
Every accommodation establishment regardless of size — from a single Airbnb apartment to a hotel with dozens of rooms. The host’s duties in §113 apply to every foreigner, and under §2(2) a foreigner is anyone who is not a Slovak citizen. That includes citizens of other EU states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland (§2(1)(c) and §2(3)): the host reports them too, and §112(1)(j) obliges an EU citizen to sign the completed report form. An EU citizen also has their own separate duty to report the start of their stay within 10 working days of entry (§64(2)); that duty is the guest’s and does not replace the host’s. Only Slovak citizens are not reported.
What the report must contain
The Act sets the form’s contents in the guest’s duties. For a third-country national (§111(1)(l)): name and surname, date and place of birth, nationality, permanent residence, purpose of stay, travel document number, visa number and validity, place of issue or number of the residence document and its validity, address of stay in Slovakia, the host’s name, and the names of accompanying children. For an EU citizen (§112(1)(j)): name and surname, date of birth, nationality, and travel document or ID card number. In both cases the guest must sign the completed form. The Ministry of Interior’s e-service additionally works with stay dates, a purpose-of-stay code, country and place of birth and the facility identifier for every guest; that is a requirement of the e-service, not of the Act.
Filing deadline
The host must file the report with the Foreigners Police within 5 days of the foreigner’s accommodation (§113(c): “do piatich dní od ubytovania” — calendar days, not working days).
The guest register
The duty to keep the guest register itself comes from §24 of Act No. 253/1998 Coll.: it records every guest’s name and surname, ID card or travel document number, permanent address and length of stay, Slovak guests included. Act 404/2011 adds that for a foreigner the host must also record nationality and date of birth (§113(b)). Neither Act prescribes paper, so a digital register works as long as it holds the required details and can be produced during an inspection.
Penalties for non-compliance
Breaching any duty in §113, including a late or missing report, is an administrative offence (správny delikt) under §119(1)(a). The police impose a fine of up to €3,300 (§119(2)), taking into account the seriousness, duration and consequences of the breach and any repetition. The fine can be imposed within one year of the police learning of the breach, and no later than three years after it occurred (§119(3)).
How Best Guest helps
No publicly documented automated reporting interface exists for Slovakia yet. Best Guest prepares, from the data guests fill in at online check-in, an XML file for import into the Ministry of Interior’s e-service (including EU guests, excluding Slovak guests) and a PDF guest register, ready for you to sign and submit manually via portal.minv.sk within the statutory deadline. See the Guest register feature page and the guide to reporting foreign guests.
Official sources
- Slov-Lex (Act 404/2011 Coll.)
- Ministry of Interior SR — Hlásenie pobytu cudzincov (MV SR e-services; portal.minv.sk now redirects here)
- Slov-Lex — Act No. 253/1998 Coll., § 24 (guest register)
Always verify against the current official text of the law.
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.