Bosna i Hercegovina·Destination guide · Southern Europe
Bosnia and Herzegovina
43.8563° N · Southern Europe · EU candidate (not EU / not Schengen)
Bosnia and Herzegovina still runs foreign-guest check-in on a 12-hour clock — eStranac is the pipe.
Legal and natural persons who provide accommodation must report a foreign guest’s stay to the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs (Služba za poslove sa strancima) or the police within 12 hours of providing the service (Zakon o strancima BiH art. 103). eStranac (estranac.ba) is the online channel SFA promotes for that duty. Hospitality licensing and boravišna taksa sit underneath — but those tracks split by entity and canton, not by a single national tourism portal.
NextStay relevance · Bosnia and Herzegovina
5 / 5
Essential
Zakon o strancima BiH art. 103 requires accommodation providers to report every foreign guest’s stay to the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs (or police) within 12 hours — typically via eStranac — on top of entity hospitality licensing (FBiH rješenje / RS categorisation) and canton- or city-set boravišna taksa.
At a glance · Bosnia and Herzegovina
Foreign stay
Report ≤ 12h
Channel
eStranac
Licence
Entity / canton
Sarajevo tax
3 KM / night
Who this is for
What hosts and hotels actually need to know
BiH short-stay compliance is two-layered and constitutionally split. At state level, Zakon o strancima BiH ("Službeni glasnik BiH" 88/15, 34/21, 63/23) art. 103 obliges every accommodation provider to report foreign guests within 12 hours, keep a knjiga stranaca for at least three years after the book is closed, and present it to SFA or police on request — while art. 13 forbids keeping a guest’s travel document. SFA’s eStranac system is the practical electronic route. Separately, hospitality authorisation is entity law: in the Federation of BiH, Zakon o ugostiteljskoj djelatnosti ("Službene novine FBiH" 32/09) requires a municipal/city rješenje for ugostiteljske usluge u domaćinstvu (and categorisation under the FMOIT Pravilnik); in Republika Srpska, Zakon o ugostiteljstvu ("Službeni glasnik RS" 45/17, 1/24) requires categorisation for apartments / holiday homes / rooms and entry of guest and boravišna-taksa data into the RS central hospitality information system. Tourist tax (boravišna taksa) is set locally — Sarajevo Canton, Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (Mostar) and Grad Banja Luka each publish their own amounts. BiH is an EU candidate country (December 2022) but is not an EU Member State and not in Schengen: do not treat GDPR or Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 as BiH lodging law. Personal data sits under Zakon o zaštiti ličnih podataka BiH ("Službeni glasnik BiH" 12/25). Where primary sources diverge by entity, canton or Brčko District, confirm the live local rule before quoting guests.
Front desk or digital, the state duty is the same: report every foreign guest within 12 hours, keep the knjiga stranaca, and collect boravišna taksa at the local rate — with entity hospitality rules on top.
- 01Report foreign-guest stays to SFA / police within 12 hours (eStranac where you hold credentials)
- 02Keep a verified knjiga stranaca for at least three years after it is closed
- 03Do not retain guests’ travel documents (Zakon o strancima art. 13)
- 04Collect and remit boravišna taksa at the canton / city rate that applies to the property address
Chapter · eStranac
Foreign-guest reporting — 12 hours
Zakon o strancima BiH art. 103 makes accommodation providers — hotels, hostels, apartments and other paid lodging — responsible for reporting a foreigner’s stay within 12 hours of providing the service.
Statute
“Pravna i fizička lica koja pružaju usluge smještaja dužna su nadležnoj organizacionoj jedinici Službe ili policije prijaviti boravište stranca najkasnije u roku od 12 sati od trenutka pružanja usluge smještaja strancu.”
- 01
Who must report
Every legal or natural person providing accommodation services must report the foreign guest’s stay. The guest does not carry that filing duty when lodging with a provider — the provider does. Foreigners staying outside commercial lodging (or visiting a natural person) have a separate 48-hour self-/host-report track when the stay exceeds three days (art. 103(3)).
- 02
- 03
Knjiga stranaca — keep three years
Providers must keep a register of foreigners accommodated (knjiga stranaca), have it verified at the competent SFA unit or police for the provider’s seat / residence, retain closed books for at least three years, and produce them to authorised officers on request (art. 103(2)). eStranac’s operator notice (aligned with Pravilnik, SG BiH 57/24) states electronic knjiga stranaca in the system is scheduled for full application from 1 August 2026 — until then, continue verification and hard-copy practice as today; after that date, an eStranac-kept register may replace the paper book when used as the Pravilnik requires.
- 04
Chapter · Channel
eStranac & document handling
SFA operates eStranac as the online registration system for foreign stays. Document collection for the report is allowed; retaining the passport is not.
- 01
eStranac credentials
eStranac (estranac.ba) is the online channel for registering foreign stays. SFA’s published call to accommodation providers (hotels, hostels, apartments and other lodging) directed operators to obtain user credentials at SFA field offices and file via the portal; the system has been operational since 12 June 2018. The underlying art. 103 duty remains binding whether you file electronically or at the counter / police.
- 02
Identity data — do not keep the passport
Art. 13(2) allows providers of accommodation (and transport / travel arrangements) to ask foreigners to present a travel or other identity document — and expressly forbids retaining those documents. SFA’s public stay-registration leaflet repeats the same ban for lodging providers. Capture the fields needed for the report and knjiga stranaca; return the document to the guest.
- 03
Domestic guests are a separate track
Art. 103’s 12-hour report targets foreigners (stranci). Entity hospitality rules still require guest books / receipts and boravišna taksa for domestic overnight stays where those laws apply — do not assume the foreign-stay channel covers BiH nationals.
Chapter · Licence
Hospitality licensing — FBiH, RS, Brčko
There is no single BiH-wide short-term rental licence. Hospitality authorisation is entity (and, for some tax/tourism layers, canton or city) law — confirm the address before advertising.
- 01
FBiH — rješenje for household lodging
Under Zakon o ugostiteljskoj djelatnosti FBiH, a natural person providing ugostiteljske usluge u domaćinstvu may let rooms, apartments and holiday homes within statutory capacity limits (do 10 soba / 20 postelja under art. 41) only after obtaining a rješenje from the municipal or city hospitality authority where the object sits. Objects must meet minimum type and category conditions; the FMOIT Pravilnik on household classification elaborates the star/category procedure. Advertising without that approval is an inspection risk.
- 02
FBiH household operating duties
Once approved, household providers must display the type/category marking, post prices and the boravišna taksa amount, issue an invoice that includes the tax amount and tax ID, and keep a guest book (knjiga gostiju) — ZUD arts. 43 and related misdemeanour provisions. Those duties sit alongside the state foreign-stay report.
- 03
RS — categorisation & central hospitality system
Zakon o ugostiteljstvu RS (SG RS 45/17, 1/24) requires categorisation for apartments, holiday homes, rooms for rent and related lodging types (local self-government for those categories; ministry track for larger hotel types). Art. 12b requires lodging providers to enter guest data into the RS central hospitality information system immediately after guest check-in, and boravišna-taksa data immediately after check-out, with a three-day window for other data changes (art. 12a–12b). Natural persons letting apartments / holiday homes / rooms under art. 17 are capped at eight accommodation units / 16 beds for stays up to 30 days; a natural person may operate without separate local-self-government registration of the activity when they have a service contract with a licensed tourism organisation or agency — confirm which track the Grad / opština hospitality unit applies before listing in Banja Luka or elsewhere in RS. Narodna skupština RS has also published draft hospitality-act materials in 2025–2026 procedure — verify the live consolidated statute before treating any draft as law.
- 04
Brčko District — confirm locally
Brčko District BiH has its own regulatory layer for hospitality and tourism. State foreign-stay reporting under Zakon o strancima still applies; licensing and tourist-tax modalities may diverge from FBiH and RS. Confirm with Brčko District authorities rather than copying a Sarajevo or Banja Luka checklist.
Chapter · Tourist tax
Boravišna taksa — local amounts
Tourist / sojourn tax is not a single BiH figure. Cantons in FBiH and cities in RS set overnight rates; confirm the decision that covers your address before quoting guests.
- 01
Sarajevo Canton — 3 KM per overnight (2025)
The Government of Sarajevo Canton decided to raise boravišna taksa from 2 KM to 3 KM per overnight stay for 2025, with a 1.50 KM daily (excursion) rate, a 50 KM annual flat per bed/unit for household and rural-household providers, and a 4 KM festival overnight rate in designated periods (1–5 January, 1 July–31 August, 25–31 December). Collection sits under Zakon o turizmu Kantona Sarajevo and the annual rate odluka — confirm the live 2026 odluka with the Cantonal Ministry of Economy / Turistička zajednica KS before peak season.
- 02
Mostar / HNK — 3 KM per person-night (2026)
Turistička zajednica Grada Mostara published that the Government of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (županija) adopted 2026 boravišna taksa decisions on 27 October 2025, applying from 1 January 2026: 3.00 KM per person per overnight stay, 1.50 KM daily for day visitors, and annual flat amounts of 65 KM (tourist places class A — Mostar, Konjic, Čapljina, Čitluk, Neum) or 55 KM (class B — Jablanica, Prozor, Stolac, Ravno). TZ Mostar addresses pružatelji usluga smještaja generally — align price lists and remittances with the TZ Mostar notice / HNK odluka rather than inventing a different private-apartment carve-out.
- 03
Banja Luka — 3 KM per overnight (from July 2025)
Grad Banja Luka’s Odluka o visini boravišne takse (Skupština 23 June 2025; published in Službeni glasnik Grada Banja Luka br. 19/02.07.2025) sets the tax at 3 KM per overnight stay for domestic and foreign guests using lodging where hospitality / tourism activity is performed. Other questions fall back to Zakon o boravišnoj taksi RS. RS hospitality providers also feed tax data into the central system after guest check-out.
Chapter · Fiscal
Short-term rental fiscal track
Income tax, VAT/PDV and entrepreneur registration are entity (and sometimes canton) matters. Primary hospitality laws already require invoices and tourist-tax lines — do not treat platform payouts as a substitute for local tax registration.
- 01
Invoices and tourist tax on the bill
FBiH household providers must issue a receipt for every hospitality service that includes the property name, tax ID, invoice number, date/time, service lines, and — for lodging — the boravišna taksa amount (ZUD art. 43). RS hospitality law likewise requires posted lodging prices and the tourist-tax amount, plus system entry of tax data after check-out. Build those fields into checkout even when arrival is remote.
- 02
Entity tax administrations — confirm locally
Whether short-let income is treated as entrepreneurial activity, household lodging, or another category depends on FBiH, RS or Brčko tax rules and the host’s registration form. This dossier does not invent a nationwide income-tax rate or PDV threshold for platform stays — obtain written guidance from the competent tax administration for the entity where the property sits before scaling inventory.
- 03
Licence and tax are not substitutes for eStranac
A valid FBiH rješenje or RS category decision does not replace the 12-hour foreign-stay report. Remitting boravišna taksa does not replace knjiga stranaca / eStranac filing. Run licensing, tourist tax and foreign-stay reporting as three parallel tracks.
Chapter · Status & data
Not EU, not Schengen — domestic data law
BiH is an EU candidate country. Candidate status does not make GDPR or the EU short-term rental data regulation BiH law. Hosts process guest identity under domestic statutes.
- 01
EU candidate — not Member State, not Schengen
The European Council granted BiH EU candidate status in December 2022. Accession negotiations and reforms continue; BiH is not an EU Member State and does not apply the Schengen acquis as a participating state. Do not import Schengen Convention Art. 45 lodging-record practice, GDPR, or Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 as if they were BiH accommodation law.
- 02
Zakon o zaštiti ličnih podataka BiH (SG 12/25)
Personal-data processing by controllers established in BiH — including guest identity captured for eStranac and hospitality records — sits under Zakon o zaštiti ličnih podataka ("Službeni glasnik BiH" 12/25). The statute aligns domestic rules with the EU GDPR text for approximation purposes, but it is BiH law applied by the Agency for Personal Data Protection in BiH. Inform guests, limit collection to what the legal basis requires, secure storage and transmission, and respect retention (including the three-year knjiga stranaca window under the Aliens Act).
- 03
GDPR / Reg. 2024/1028 — not BiH lodging law
GDPR may still matter if you target EU residents as a controller from outside BiH — that is an extraterritorial GDPR question, not a BiH tourism licence. Regulation (EU) 2024/1028’s short-term rental registration and platform-sharing framework applies in EU Member States; it does not create a BiH national registration number by itself. Use eStranac, entity licensing and local boravišna taksa as the operative gates.
Remote arrival · Still the law
Self check-in under BiH rules
Remote arrival works in Sarajevo, Mostar and Banja Luka when foreign-guest identity data for the 12-hour report is captured before access is released. Entity licensing and boravišna taksa remain host duties alongside that gate.
Identity data before the key
Build capture of the fields eStranac / knjiga stranaca need — travel-document identity, nationality, stay dates — into the check-in flow itself. Release door codes or lockbox instructions only after that data is complete.
The 12-hour clock still runs
Once accommodation is provided, the foreign-stay report must reach SFA or police within 12 hours. Pre-arrival capture helps, but late or missing filing remains a statutory breach even if the guest already has the keys.
Show documents — do not keep them
Ask guests to present travel documents for the report; do not retain passports or ID cards at the property or in a lockbox workflow (art. 13(2); SFA leaflet).
Licence and tax are separate gates
A polished remote-arrival flow does not replace an FBiH household rješenje, RS categorisation / central-system duties, or collection of the local boravišna taksa. Confirm the entity checklist for the property address before scaling automation.
Entity, canton & city layers
Foreign-stay reporting is state-wide. Licensing and tourist-tax amounts still differ by Federation canton, RS city and — separately — Brčko District. Confirm the address before quoting.
Sarajevo — Canton tax & FBiH household rješenje
01Sarajevo — Canton tax & FBiH household rješenje
Properties in Sarajevo Canton sit under FBiH hospitality law (municipal/city rješenje for household lodging) plus the Canton’s boravišna taksa — 3 KM per overnight for 2025 under the Government odluka, with festival and household-flat variants. Pair eStranac filing within 12 hours with TZKS remittance practice. Confirm the live 2026 rate decision before summer quotes.
Mostar — HNK 2026 tax table
02Mostar — HNK 2026 tax table
Mostar lodging follows FBiH licensing plus Herzegovina-Neretva Canton boravišna taksa from 1 January 2026: 3.00 KM per person-night (1.50 KM day visitors; 65 KM annual flat for class-A places including Mostar). TZ Grada Mostara’s notice is addressed to accommodation providers generally. Peak Stari Most season makes pre-captured identity data for the 12-hour foreign-stay report especially valuable.
Banja Luka — RS system & 3 KM city tax
03Banja Luka — RS system & 3 KM city tax
Banja Luka properties sit under RS Zakon o ugostiteljstvu (categorisation; immediate central-system guest entry after check-in and tax entry after check-out) plus Grad Banja Luka’s 3 KM overnight boravišna taksa from the July 2025 city odluka. State eStranac / art. 103 reporting still applies to foreign guests on the same 12-hour clock as in FBiH — do not treat the RS hospitality system as a substitute for SFA registration.
This is the law · Here is the reference
Sources & references
Primary statutes, EU instruments and competent authorities. Open the link when your property is at stake.
- [01]Local lawZakon o strancima BiH — čl. 103 i 134 (eStranac legal basis)
Art. 103: 12-hour foreign-stay report, knjiga stranaca, 3-year retention. Art. 134: misdemeanour fines. Consolidated SG BiH 88/15, 34/21, 63/23.
- [02]Local lawZakon o strancima BiH — član 13 (Paragraf consolidation)
Art. 13(2): accommodation / transport / travel providers may request presentation of travel or identity documents but must not retain them. Readable consolidation of SG BiH 88/15 and amendments.
- [03]AuthorityeStranac — Zakonski osnov
Official eStranac portal reproduction of arts. 103 and 134 of the Law on Aliens.
- [04]AuthorityeStranac — online registration portal
Electronic channel for accommodation providers to register foreign stays; homepage notice on electronic knjiga stranaca (full application from 1 Aug 2026 under Pravilnik SG BiH 57/24).
- [05]AuthoritySFA — call to register for eStranac (archived EN notice)
Service for Foreigners’ Affairs call: providers must register foreign stays under the Law on Aliens; eStranac operational since 12 June 2018; credentials via SFA field offices. Live ?p= IDs on sps.gov.ba now redirect — archived capture of the English notice.
- [06]GuidanceSFA — stay-registration leaflet (letak)
Public leaflet: commercial lodging providers must report foreign guests to the local SFA field centre; must not seize or retain travel documents; private stays >3 days have a separate 48-hour track.
- [07]Local lawZakon o ugostiteljskoj djelatnosti FBiH (SN FBiH 32/09)
FBiH hospitality statute: household lodging rješenje, capacity caps (art. 41), guest book, invoices including boravišna taksa.
- [08]AgencyFMOIT — Pravilnik o razvrstavanju i kategorizaciji (domaćinstvo)
Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism rulebook on classifying household lodging objects (SN FBiH 32/10 / related).
- [09]Local lawZakon o ugostiteljstvu Republike Srpske (SG RS 45/17, 1/24)
RS hospitality statute: categorisation, arts. 12a–12b central information system (guest data immediately after check-in; tax after check-out), art. 17 natural-person apartment/room conditions (e.g. up to 8 units / 16 beds).
- [10]Local lawZakon o turizmu Kantona Sarajevo
Cantonal tourism statute underpinning Turistička zajednica KS financing and boravišna taksa remit framework (SN KS 19/16 and amendments).
- [11]AuthorityKanton Sarajevo — boravišna taksa 2025 (Government decision)
Ministry of Economy KS announcement: overnight tax raised to 3 KM for 2025; 1.50 KM daily; 50 KM annual household flat; 4 KM festival overnight in defined periods.
- [12]AgencyTZ Grada Mostara — boravišna taksa 2026 (HNK decisions)
Official tourist-board notice of HNK Government decisions (27 Oct 2025): 3.00 KM per person-night from 1 Jan 2026; 1.50 KM day; 65/55 KM annual flats by place class.
- [13]Local lawGrad Banja Luka — Odluka o visini boravišne takse (SG Grad 19/2025)
City assembly decision of 23 June 2025: 3 KM per overnight stay; other matters under Zakon o boravišnoj taksi RS.
- [14]Local lawZakon o zaštiti ličnih podataka BiH (SG BiH 12/25)
Domestic personal-data statute (approximation to GDPR/LED texts). Applies after the statutory 210-day delay from entry into force; replaces the 2006 Act. BHAS-hosted official PDF.
- [15]AgencyEuropean Commission — BiH enlargement / candidate status
EU institutional page on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s candidate-country path (candidate status December 2022). Not lodging legislation.
After the law · The product
Where NextStay fits
After the law is clear: we capture the foreign-guest identity data eStranac and the knjiga stranaca need before access unlocks — so BiH hosts can run remote-friendly arrivals without skipping the 12-hour clock.
01
Identity before the key
Online check-in collects travel-document-ready guest details before door instructions unlock — matching the data accommodation providers need for the art. 103 report.
02
Twelve-hour-ready records
Structured stay data is ready to file within 12 hours of providing accommodation, without a last-minute scramble after late Sarajevo or Mostar arrivals.
03
Host visibility without desk chaos
Hotels and individual hosts see who has completed check-in data, who is blocked, and when access can release — across FBiH and RS addresses.
04
Destination guidance in the workspace
This Bosnia and Herzegovina dossier stays attached to the market — eStranac, entity licensing and local boravišna taksa layers — not a generic EU footnote.
Cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sarajevo
FBiH household rješenje plus Canton boravišna taksa (3 KM overnight for 2025) and the state 12-hour eStranac clock make completed foreign-guest data essential before keys go out in Baščaršija and hillside apartments.
eStranac ≤ 12h · Canton tax 3 KM · FBiH rješenje
Mostar
Stari Most peak season plus HNK’s 2026 3 KM per person-night tax reward pre-arrival identity capture; the same national foreign-stay report still closes within 12 hours of providing accommodation.
Peak season · HNK tax 2026 · eStranac
Banja Luka
RS categorisation and central hospitality-system entries (guest data immediately after check-in) sit beside Grad Banja Luka’s 3 KM overnight tax — and foreign guests still need the state eStranac / art. 103 filing within 12 hours.
RS hospitality system · City tax 3 KM · eStranac
NextStay provides operational tools and general regulatory information, not legal advice. Hosts remain responsible for confirming the rules that apply to their accommodation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Research last verified .