Occupancy is a number every host knows for their own place and nobody else's. The platforms show you how you're doing “compared to similar listings”, but they won't tell you how many nights that is, or where. The statistical office, on the other hand, knows it quite precisely — it's just that nobody reads it.

What you'll find in this article isn't your apartment's occupancy. It's a map of where and when people sleep in the Czech Republic, and from it you can work out how to set your rates, your minimum length of stay and, above all, your budget: how many occupied nights a year are realistic for you.

Prague: half of all nights

Of the 12.2 million overnight stays that went through Airbnb, Booking and Expedia in 2025, 6.1 million were in Prague. One city, half of the apartment market. It's similar for hotels and guesthouses: Prague's collective accommodation establishments had over 8.2 million guests and 19 million nights in 2025, up 2.6% and 3.9% respectively on the year before.

Prague has three characteristics you can read from the figures:

• It's foreign. In the winter quarter of 2025, it hosted 62% of all foreigners who came to the Czech Republic, but only 17% of Czechs. In summer, foreigners make up 83% of Prague's guests.
• It's short. The average stay is 2.4 nights; foreigners 2.5, Czechs 1.8. High occupancy here means lots of arrivals, not long stays.
• It's flat. Spring 2026 brought 2.2 million guests, summer 2025 brought 2.25 million. From the half-year and quarterly figures, the winter quarter comes out at roughly 1.6 million. The difference between the weakest and strongest period is therefore about 1.4 times — nationwide it's almost double.

For a Prague host, this means the “dead season” is more a weaker January and February than half a year of empty nights. It makes sense to build your rates around weekends, Advent, New Year's Eve and major events, not around months.

The whole Czech Republic: summer is a third of the year

The third quarter accounts for a third of annual guests (7.9 out of 23.6 million). But the seasonality isn't driven by foreigners — it's driven by Czechs. Domestic guests spent 41% of their annual nights in summer, foreigners only 30%. The more Czech guests you have, the steeper your seasonal curve. And the more foreigners, the flatter it is.

Regions: two seasons in the mountains, one by the water

ČSÚ publishes figures by region. For 2025 and spring 2026, they add up to this picture:

• The South Moravian region has the second-highest number of guests after Prague, but only the third-highest number of nights — Brno is a city of short stays, with guests outside summer too thanks to trade fairs and events. Pálava and the Znojmo area peak from September to October.
• The South Bohemian region has the second-highest number of nights after Prague: Šumava, Lipno and Český Krumlov, one long summer season and only cross-country skiing in winter.
• The Hradec Králové and Liberec regions (Krkonoše, Jizera Mountains) grew fastest in spring 2026. The mountains have two seasons — December to March and July to August — and two gaps between them: April to May and October to November.
• The Moravian-Silesian region (Beskydy, Jeseníky, Ostrava) grew both in summer 2025 and in spring 2026. A cheaper alternative to Krkonoše, popular with Poles.
• The Karlovy Vary region has the longest stays in the country — spa guests stay a week or longer — but in spring 2026 it fell by 4.3%, the most of all regions. The spa guest is older, comes for a longer stay, and their numbers haven't recovered since COVID.
• The Olomouc and Zlín regions grew in summer 2025: Jeseníky, Wallachia, the Luhačovice spa.

What to do with it: rates, minimum stay, budget

Build your budget on occupied nights, not on 365 days. A mountain apartment with two seasons realistically has 140 to 170 occupied nights a year; a Prague apartment in a good location 250 or more. Fixed expenses — energy, insurance, waste, software, cleaning supplies — get divided by that number, not by the year. I've listed how much they come to in the article on recurring expenses.

Set the minimum stay by region. In Prague, with an average of 2.4 nights, a three-night minimum drives guests to the competition; in the mountains in peak season, three nights — and a week over Christmas — is normal and guests expect it.

Occupancy isn't yield. Sixty percent occupancy at a higher price is usually better than eighty-five at a low one: every arrival costs cleaning, laundry, wear and tear, and your time. Track revenue per available night, not the occupancy percentage.

Don't buy a season you don't have with discounts. An off-season in the mountains won't fill up with a 40% discount — it fills up with a longer stay (under 60 days, so the poplatek z pobytu (tourist tax) stays simple) or not at all. Both are fine, just plan for it.

Look at your own municipality. ČSÚ also publishes platform overnight stays for selected cities and regions. Before you buy a second apartment in Karlovy Vary because “that's where the Germans go”, it's worth seeing that the Germans there are dwindling.

Sources: ČSÚ, Rapid Information: Tourism for Q1, Q3 and Q4 2025 and Q2 2026; Tourism in Prague in Q3 2025; Tourism in the South Moravian Region in Q3 2025; Data from online accommodation platforms; Tourdata — Capital City of Prague.