The boiler, the chimney, the fire extinguisher, the wiring, the mattresses and the taxes each have their own deadline — and no guest will remind you of any of them. The annual apartment calendar I use after years of running rentals.
Cleaning after each guest keeps track of itself — either it's done, or the next guest arrives to a mess. Nothing keeps track of everything else. The boiler acts up at Christmas, you remember the chimney sweep when the insurance company wants an inspection report after a fire, and you replace the mattress after a review. After a few years I made myself one calendar that covers the law, the equipment and the textiles. This is it.
First, what's mandatory and what's “just” sensible
For an apartment in an apartment building there are fewer obligations than people fear, but they're not zero:
- The provozní řád (operating rules) for the public health authority, which hotels and guesthouses must have, don't apply to accommodation in apartment buildings and family houses (Section 21a of Act No. 258/2000 Coll.). One obligation fewer.
- Gas. For households, inspections of gas appliances aren't mandatory. But as soon as you run the apartment as a business, you're the operator of a gas installation and Government Regulation No. 191/2022 Coll. applies to you: an inspection once a year, an operational revision once every 3 years. On top of that, the boiler manufacturer requires an annual service for the warranty — usually you can combine them in one visit.
- Chimney and flue. For a gas appliance, cleaning and inspection once a year; for a wood stove in year-round use, cleaning three times a year and inspection once a year (Decree No. 34/2016 Coll.). The chimney sweep issues a report; without it, the insurance company will reduce the payout after a fire.
- Fire extinguisher. In a rental you want one even where the law doesn't require it for older buildings. If you have one, it's inspected once a year, and the periodic test is every 3 years for water and foam extinguishers and every 5 years for powder and CO₂ ones (Decree No. 246/2001 Coll.).
- Smoke detector. Batteries once a year, the whole detector after 10 years — that's how long the sensor lasts according to manufacturers. If you have a gas appliance, add a carbon monoxide detector.
- Electricity. A regular inspection of the electrical wiring isn't required by law but by the ČSN 33 1500 standard — in a normal environment once every 5 years. Insurance companies and firefighters go by it, and you'll need one after a renovation anyway. Appliances that guests handle — hair dryer, iron, kettle — fall into the strictest group under the standard for accommodation facilities; have the inspection technician tell you the interval, and preferably just replace them after a few years.
- Water meters are replaced on the building association's (SVJ) cycle; just make the apartment accessible if the date falls in the middle of the season.
- Air conditioning. Household units are usually below the threshold for mandatory refrigerant leak checks; servicing and cleaning the filters before summer is a must, though, otherwise it blows out mold.
The calendar
| Month | Authorities and the law | Apartment and equipment |
|---|---|---|
| January | Partial daň z nemovitých věcí (property tax) return by 31 January, if the use of the apartment changed. Platforms report your previous year's revenue to the tax administration (DAC7) by 31 January. New poplatek z pobytu (tourist tax) rates according to municipal ordinances. Opting into the flat-tax regime by 10 January. New minimum social and health insurance advances. | Batteries in smoke and CO detectors, annual fire extinguisher inspection. |
| February | DPH (Czech VAT) return as an identified person for January by 25 February — and the same every month in which a commission came in. | Descale the kettle, coffee machine and washing machine. Window seals after the frost. |
| March | Paper income tax return by 1 April. | Book the chimney sweep for spring — in autumn they're fully booked. |
| April | Electronic tax return by 1 May (if it falls on a public holiday or weekend, the next working day). Annual summaries for the health insurance company and the Czech Social Security Administration within a month of the tax return deadline. | Air conditioning service, flip the mattresses, balcony and outdoor furniture. |
| May | Property tax due by 31 May. | Deep-clean the sofa and carpets, wash duvets and pillows, check the Wi-Fi speed. |
| June | Pay the tourist tax according to your municipality: Prague monthly by the 15th, Brno quarterly. Check that your waste collection contract matches the seasonal volume. | Supplies for the season, batteries in the keybox or lock, spare keys. |
| July–August | High season. Just make sure reports to UbyPort go out within 3 working days. | Nothing extra. Keep an eye on the fridge and the air conditioning, don't fix them. |
| September | Check your datová schránka (data box, the Czech official e-mail system): notices from the municipality and tax administration arrive after the summer. | Boiler service and annual gas inspection before the heating season, chimney sweep, thermostat. |
| October | Insurance renewals often fall here — go through the exclusions for short-term rentals. If your fixed energy price is ending, deal with it now. | Winterize the balcony, range hood filters, check the bathroom for damp and mold. |
| November | Next year's replacement budget: mattresses after 7 to 10 years, bedding, appliances. | Advent textiles and decorations, in moderation. Pest control in the building, if the SVJ does it. |
| December | Anonymization: guest records older than 6 years from the last entry are deleted or anonymized. Archive the year's UbyPort delivery receipts and registers. Total the revenue for the tax return. | Inventory of furnishings with photos for the insurance company. Schedule the inspections with longer cycles: electrical every 5 years, gas every 3 years. |
What gets skipped most often
The chimney sweep for gas. People think chimneys are about stoves. They're not: even a gas boiler venting into a chimney or through the facade has a flue with an annual inspection.
Anonymization. The registers are kept for 6 years from the last entry — and after that, you no longer have the right to hold guests' data. Without regular deletion, after ten years of operation you'll have an archive you can't explain during an inspection by the data protection authority.
Insurance exclusions. A regular household policy often excludes short-term rentals, and you find out when there's damage. Read the policy terms once a year, when the renewal comes around.
Fixed energy prices. The end of the fixed-price period comes in the middle of the season, when you have no headspace for it, and the new price runs for a year. Put the date in your calendar a month ahead.
Appliances in guests' hands. The kettle and the hair dryer are the cheapest things in the apartment and the most common cause of a fire or injury. Replacing them every three years is cheaper than having them inspected.
In Ubyo you can enter this calendar in Finances as recurring expenses with the month they come due. The cleaning team reports defects from their own portal without seeing guest data, Energy tracks when your fixed price ends, and the registers anonymize themselves after 6 years.
Marco, founder of Ubyo — He has been running apartments in Prague for over seven years and wrote Ubyo because he didn’t want to do any of this by hand.
For information only, not legal or tax advice — always discuss your specific situation with a professional. This article is a translation of the Czech original.
