REGULATION OF AIRBNB, BOOKING AND ETURISTA: WHAT APARTMENT OWNERS IN PRAGUE AND ACROSS THE CZECH REPUBLIC CAN EXPECT IN 2026

Do you own an investment apartment in Prague or another Czech city, run short-term rentals, and wonder how new legislation will impact your returns?

Short-term rentals via platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com have evolved into a full-scale business in the Czech Republic over recent years. In 2025, it became fully apparent how substantially they affect housing availability, rental price levels, and everyday life in city centres. Concurrently, legislative wheels were set in motion at both European and national levels to bring clarity and clear rules to the entire segment.

The year 2026 represents a turning point for property owners and investors alike. Short-term accommodation is definitively leaving the grey zone and transitioning into a fully transparent regime. As a private real estate specialist, I see in daily practice that simply keeping an active listing on a platform is no longer enough. Having a well-thought-out strategy grounded in real numbers, legal certainty, and prepared alternative scenarios has become essential.

WHO THIS ARTICLE IS FOR

This analysis is intended primarily for property owners and investors who:

• own one or more apartments in Prague, Brno, or other high-demand tourist destinations and offer them for short-term accommodation
• are considering purchasing an investment apartment with the prospect of yields from platforms such as Airbnb or Booking.com and need to understand the regulatory risks
• want to ensure that their rental income and accommodation operations fully comply with tax and registration requirements
• are looking for a realistic perspective on profitability and evaluating whether shifting to medium-term or long-term rentals, or perhaps a well-timed sale and reinvestment, would be safer over the coming years.

WHAT 2025 BROUGHT AND WHY THIS TOPIC IS CRITICAL

Throughout 2025, pressure from municipal authorities, led by Prague, mounted significantly to address the impact of short-term accommodation on urban life:

• in the most sought-after locations, the share of apartments removed from the traditional residential market continued to climb
• the deficit of available long-term rental housing deepened in city centres
• permanent residents of apartment buildings and entire neighbourhoods repeatedly highlighted issues with noise, constant guest turnover, and hotel-like operations within buildings designed for permanent living.

In parallel, debate intensified regarding fair taxation and proper collection of local accommodation fees. Traditional hotels and guesthouses had long pointed out the unlevel playing field, as they must comply with strict standards while a significant share of private apartment rentals operated outside formal oversight.

The result is the convergence of three fundamental regulatory pillars that define the new rules of the game in 2026:

1. European regulation on data sharing for short-term rentals
2. the Czech central accommodation registry known as eTurista
3. automatic tax reporting of income from digital platforms under the European DAC7 Directive.

1. EUROPEAN REGULATION OF SHORT-TERM RENTALS: DATA FOR CITIES

At the European Union level, the need arose to establish a unified and transparent information framework across all member states. Prague, Brno, Český Krumlov, and other Czech destinations faced the exact same challenge as other European metropolises. A significant portion of the housing stock served tourists, yet local authorities lacked objective data on the true scale of the phenomenon.

Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 of the European Parliament and of the Council on data collection and sharing relating to short-term accommodation rental services introduces specific obligations:

• requires member states to establish a digital system for gathering data on short-term rentals
• obligates online intermediary platforms (including Airbnb and Booking.com) to regularly report the number of listings, nights booked, guests accommodated, and overall occupancy levels
• provides municipalities with the tools to assess accurately the impact of accommodation services on housing availability, rent levels, and municipal budgets.

This regulation was adopted in 2024 and, under its provisions, becomes fully applicable from 20 May 2026. The 2024 to 2025 timeframe served as a transitional phase during which member states built their information systems and harmonised national legislation. The objective is that from 2026, data can be collected, evaluated, and directly applied in municipal practice. For apartment owners, this marks a decisive turning point. Short-term rentals cease to be invisible and become part of official records, which municipalities will use to design specific inspection and regulatory measures.

2. ETURISTA: THE CZECH CENTRAL ACCOMMODATION REGISTRY

The eTurista system is the planned central electronic registry of accommodation facilities and guests within the Czech Republic. Its goal is to level the playing field for all accommodation providers, from large hotel complexes and family pensions to individual owners renting out private flats via digital intermediaries.

The key objectives of eTurista include:

• enabling accommodation providers to maintain a digital guest book in a single central repository, completely replacing traditional paper logbooks
• automating reporting duties to municipalities for local stay tax remittances and to the Foreign Police of the Czech Republic
• bringing full transparency to financial flows in tourism and curbing tax evasion, which deprives the state of hundreds of millions of crowns annually and municipal budgets of tens of millions in local fees.

The operating mechanism is straightforward:

1. each accommodation facility (hotel, apart-hotel, or private flat) registers in the eTurista system
2. the property is assigned a unique registration number
3. the accommodation provider inputs guest identification details (full name, date of birth, citizenship, address, ID or passport number, and length of stay) into a unified interface, which automatically distributes the data to relevant authorities.

Although the original roadmap anticipated testing in 2025 and a live launch in 2026, the legislative passage of the amendment to the Tourism Act experienced delays in the Chamber of Deputies, postponing the launch. The exact date when mandatory registration will take effect for all providers has not yet been definitively set. From an owner perspective, however, the direction is irreversible. The eTurista system will sooner or later mandate registration and the inclusion of a registration number on all online listings. While it will streamline guest registration and fee remittances, it will also expose the entire market fully to inspection authorities.

3. THE DAC7 DIRECTIVE: INCOME REPORTING TO THE TAX AUTHORITY

Operating alongside occupancy reporting is rigorous tax oversight governed by the European DAC7 Directive. This entered into practical effect as early as 2023, and by 2025 it had become an integrated part of standard platform operations.

The DAC7 Directive imposes two fundamental duties on platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com:

• strictly identify every accommodation provider
• provide the relevant tax authority with a comprehensive annual overview of their rental activity and gross earnings.

As a matter of course, platforms report the following data to tax administrations:

• total financial turnover generated by each host
• total number of completed bookings and calendar nights
• full host identification details (full name, permanent address, national identification number or company ID, tax ID, and banking details).

Tax authorities across European Union member states exchange this information automatically. If you are a Czech tax resident, the Czech Financial Administration receives clear records of the exact amounts remitted to your bank account from foreign platform entities.

Key takeaways for property owners:

• short-term rental income can no longer be hidden from the tax office
• platforms do not remit income tax on behalf of hosts; all responsibility for correct tax classification and payment rests entirely on the property owner
• tax administrators possess precise documentation and can easily verify whether figures in your tax return match reality.

In 2026, the mechanisms of DAC7 and eTurista will effectively converge. Tax authorities and local governments will gain a unified overview of financial and operational metrics for every individual apartment.

LOCAL REGULATIONS: POWERS OF PRAGUE AND OTHER CITIES IN 2026

European and national frameworks define the broader parameters, but specific restrictions will be drafted directly at the municipal level. Prague has long contended with an intense concentration of tourist accommodation in its historic centre, a declining permanent population, and persistent noise complaints. Throughout 2025, the capital actively sought statutory powers enabling municipalities to regulate short-term rentals via generally binding municipal ordinances.

Prague is primarily seeking powers to:

• cap the maximum number of days per year an apartment can be offered for short-term accommodation
• introduce stricter local requirements in heavily affected districts, most notably Prague 1
• strictly differentiate between occasional home sharing during personal holidays and continuous, professional accommodation operations.

In 2026, city leadership will have access to reliable platform data and records from the upcoming eTurista registry. For property owners, this necessitates close monitoring of municipal decrees, specific borough regulations, annual day limits, zoning rules, and homeowners association (SVJ) bylaws. Similar developments apply to other tourist hubs such as Český Krumlov and mountain resort towns. In certain zones, conditions may tighten considerably, while remaining more flexible elsewhere. Prudent investors therefore no longer assess an apartment solely on projected yield; they evaluate the comprehensive regulatory profile of the location, which directly determines the long-term viability of the investment.

WHAT THESE CHANGES MEAN FOR OWNERS OF ONE OR TWO APARTMENTS

If you operate one or two investment apartments via rental platforms in Prague or another city, three core areas require immediate attention in 2026:

1. Tax compliance: ensure tax returns for 2024 and 2025 are completely in order, as tax authorities are actively cross-referencing DAC7 data with individual filings.
2. Readiness for eTurista: monitor the rollout of the registry, secure a registration number promptly, and set up a streamlined process for guest reporting.
3. Resilience against local caps: calculate the financial impact on your net yield if a cap on allowable rental days per calendar year is introduced.

A professional approach requires having a contingency plan in place. This often entails pivoting to medium-term rentals for corporate professionals, digital nomads, or international students, or transitioning to stable long-term tenancy. Relying solely on a single model exposed to heightened regulatory pressure has become an unnecessary gamble.

"An apartment building was designed for the people who live there and form a community. Short-term rentals make good financial sense in many respects, but the frontier days in city centres are definitively over. Anyone looking to preserve capital in real estate over the long term must operate transparently and understand not just yields, but the regulatory landscape as well."

Maria Kopřivová

A STRATEGIC APPROACH TO 2026

Regulation does not mean an end to residential property investment; it simply marks the end of improvisation. The right response to heightened oversight is not apprehension, but a structured audit of your existing portfolio:

• Review your administrative fundamentals: verify the accuracy of your tax filings, local accommodation fee payments, trade licence registrations, and designated building use status.
• Monitor the rollout of eTurista: be prepared for registration and the obligation to display registration numbers on all advertising channels.
• Model alternative scenarios: compare the net yield of short-term accommodation (after platform commissions, cleaning, utilities, property management, and taxes) against the yield from medium- or long-term leases.
• Consider selling and reinvesting: in certain instances, the most sensible move is to divest at market peak and reallocate capital into more defensive real estate assets, whether multi-family residential buildings or international real estate delivering higher net yields.

Evaluating real estate through a three- to ten-year lens is far safer than operating month-to-month based on seasonal tourist demand. Owners who build their operations on transparent foundations will secure higher banking credibility and long-term peace of mind. Business models that rely on tax authorities remaining uninformed cannot withstand the regulatory environment of 2026.

CONSIDERING THE FUTURE OF YOUR INVESTMENT APARTMENT IN PRAGUE?

Are you running short-term rentals and unsure how new rules will impact your net returns? Or are you considering selling your city-centre apartment at a gain to reallocate capital into more conservative assets?

I would be pleased to meet with you for an in-person or online consultation. Together, we can:

• analyse the current operational metrics of your apartment and compare them against medium-term and long-term rental models
• evaluate specific regulatory risks within your borough and building
• prepare a strategy for a discreet off-market sale to vetted investors at maximum market value, should you decide to divest.

Simply fill in the brief contact form below. I will be in touch to schedule an initial non-binding discussion.