Three situations that come up every month and that no guide covers. What gets reported to the police, what goes in the registers and how much tourist tax goes to the municipality when a stay doesn't go according to the booking.
Guides to reporting guests assume the guest arrives on the day of the booking, stays to the end, and that there are as many of them as the booking says. Real operations look different. All three situations share one rule that saves you most of the work: the registers, the reporting and the tax follow what actually happened, not what was booked.
1. The guest didn't show up
There was a booking, there was no stay. Then:
- You report nothing to the police. The report is about a foreign national being accommodated; whoever didn't check in wasn't accommodated. So report only after the actual arrival — the 3-working-day deadline comfortably allows it. If you sent the report in advance and the guest didn't turn up, write to the cizinecká policie (Foreign Police) department you're registered with that the accommodation didn't take place — a report in UbyPort can't be withdrawn.
- Nothing in the registers. The domovní kniha (house book) and the evidenční kniha (guest register) record stays, not bookings. Keep the cancelled booking in your own system; it doesn't belong in the registers.
- No tax arises. The subject of the poplatek z pobytu (tourist tax) is a stay; without a stay there's nothing to pay. If you collected the tax in advance from a direct payment, refund it to the guest even if you keep the price of the stay under your cancellation policy. A cancellation fee is compensation for a stay that didn't happen, not payment for accommodation; as a DPH (Czech VAT) payer, assess it separately with your accountant.
2. The guest left early
Booked until Sunday, the guest left on Friday.
- Departure isn't reported to the police. The accommodation report stays valid; the only thing that changes is the end of the stay in the house book, which you enter as it actually happened.
- The guest register: end of stay = Friday. The register is the basis for the tax, so it has to match reality, not the booking.
- The tax is assessed for the actual days, excluding the day of arrival. Whatever you collected on top, refund to the guest: you pay the municipality only for actual nights and the rest isn't yours. The platforms don't collect the tourist tax in the Czech Republic on your behalf, so the refund is on you.
- The price of the stay follows the cancellation policy if the guest left of their own accord, and the rights arising from defective performance if they left because of a fault.
A special case: the guest left on Friday and came back on Monday for two more nights. Those are two stays: a new report to the police (for a foreign national), a new entry in both registers, the tax starts again and the sixty-day threshold is counted from the beginning.
3. The guest brought more people
Booked for two, four arrived.
- Every person is a guest with everything that entails: details from their ID, an entry in both registers, and for a foreign national a report within 3 working days of that person checking in — not of the first person's arrival. A child too; everyone goes in the registers including children, even if they don't pay the tax.
- The tax for every person who has no grounds for exemption; for children under 18, enter the reason in the guest register.
- No details, no stay. Guests who aren't on the booking and don't want to fill in their details don't sleep over; write that in your rules in advance and it won't be a dispute but a condition.
- The platform: correct the number of people in the booking (both Airbnb and Booking can charge extra for additional people), or turn the extra people away according to your capacity. Capacity isn't just about beds — your insurance and the owners' association count on a number of people in the apartment.
- Someone who came for one night “just to sleep over” is a guest. A visitor for the evening isn't. The line is sleeping over.
Why to do it properly even with small things
The municipality compares the guest register with your payments and with the listing's calendar; the police compare the house book with the people in the apartment. Friday instead of Sunday in the register is exactly the detail that, in an inspection, looks either like honest record-keeping or like negligence. And a refunded tax for two nights is the cheapest good review you can get.
Overview
| Report to the police | House book | Guest register | Tax | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guest didn't show up | nothing (a letter if already sent) | nothing | nothing | none arises, refund what was collected |
| Left early | nothing more | correct the end | correct the end | actual nights only, refund the rest |
| Left and came back | a new report | a new entry | a new entry | starts again, 60 days from the beginning |
| Extra people | each within 3 working days of their own check-in | each | each, including children | for each without an exemption |
In Ubyo a cancelled booking has the status cancelled and the report isn't sent; on an early departure you adjust the dates and the tax and the registers are recalculated; an additional person is added to the booking and is reported within their own deadline.
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.
