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България·Destination guide · Eastern Europe

Bulgaria

42.6977° N · Eastern Europe · Schengen

Bulgaria still runs check-in on an immediate guest register — and ESTI is the national pipe.

Persons performing hotel-keeping must enter guests in the statutory регистър for accommodated tourists immediately at check-in (Tourism Act art. 116) and feed the Единна система за туристическа информация (ЕСТИ). For foreigners in hotel-keeping, Foreigners Act (ЗЧРБ) art. 28(4) (as amended) routes identity fields into that same Tourism Act register — not a separate soft CRM habit. Categorization or Class В municipal registration, and municipal туристически данък, sit on top.

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NextStay relevance · Bulgaria

5 / 5

Essential

Tourism Act art. 116 requires immediate guest-register entries at check-in and ESTI reporting; ЗЧРБ art. 28(4) routes foreign guests in hotel-keeping into that same register — on top of categorization / Class В municipal registration and municipal туристически данък (Sofia euro rates from SOS Decision 1042/2025).

At a glance · Bulgaria

  • Guest register

    Immediate (art. 116)

  • Channel

    ESTI

  • Licence

    Category / Class В

  • Sofia tax

    €0.51–€1.53 / night

Who this is for

What hosts and hotels actually need to know

Bulgarian short-stay compliance is register-and-system heavy. Tourism Act art. 116 requires an immediate entry in the guest register at accommodation; Class А and Б objects keep that register electronically (central ESTI web app or an interoperable own system), and ESTI receives overnight data — counts and dates for Bulgarian / EU / EEA / Swiss guests; identifying data aligned with ЗЧРБ art. 28(4) for third-country guests. Since DV amendments (notably br. 17/2020), ЗЧРБ art. 28(4) no longer describes a parallel paper-only hotel book: hotel-keepers register foreigners in the Tourism Act art. 116 register with full passport names, date of birth, citizenship, document number and stay period. Private (non-hotel) hosts who shelter a foreigner still have a separate written notice duty under art. 28(3) — within 3 days to Migration / the district police office. Places for accommodation must be categorized (Class А/Б stars) or registered as Class В guest rooms / guest apartments with the mayor before tourist hotel-keeping. Tourist tax (туристически данък) under the Local Taxes and Fees Act is set by each municipal council within the national band; overnight counts for assessment come from ESTI. Natural-person short lets via platforms are treated by НАП as hotel-keeping for tax purposes (patent tax where conditions are met, otherwise personal-income / commercial tracks). Bulgaria is a full Schengen member: air/sea checks lifted 31 March 2024; land checks lifted 1 January 2025.

Front desk or digital, the duty is the same: complete the guest-register entry at check-in, keep ESTI fed, and collect municipal tourist tax by category.

  • 01Enter every guest in the Tourism Act art. 116 register immediately at check-in
  • 02For foreigners: capture the ЗЧРБ art. 28(4) identity fields in that same register / ESTI channel
  • 03Hold a valid category certificate for the Class А/Б structure type
  • 04Collect and remit туристически данък at the municipal rate (Sofia: €0.51–€1.53 / night by stars for 2026 under SOS Decision 1042/2025)

Chapter · Register

Guest register & ESTI (Tourism Act art. 116)

Hotel-keepers must keep a регистър for accommodated tourists and enter guests immediately at check-in — ESTI is the national information system that receives the required overnight fields.

Statute

“Лицата, извършващи хотелиерство, водят регистър за настанените туристи със съдържание на данните, утвърдени от министъра на туризма и публикувани на интернет страницата на Министерството на туризма. Вписванията в регистъра се извършват незабавно при настаняването на туриста.”
Закон за туризма, чл. 116, ал. 1 [01]
  1. 01

    Immediate entry at check-in

    Tourism Act art. 116(1) requires hotel-keepers to maintain a guest register with data content approved by the Minister of Tourism, and to make entries immediately when the tourist is accommodated. Skipping or delaying the entry is not a soft operational preference — it is the statutory check-in gate.

    [01][03]
  2. 02

    ESTI from 1 October 2019

    The Ministry of Tourism states that from 1 October 2019 all hotel-keepers — including natural persons providing guest rooms, guesthouses and guest apartments — must submit information to ESTI under art. 116(5). Class А and Б places keep the register via the central ESTI web application or an interoperable own system; paper with daily/24-hour ESTI upload remains limited to specified object types / connectivity exceptions.

    [03][01]
  3. 03

    What ESTI receives

    For tourists who are Bulgarian, EU, EEA or Swiss citizens, ESTI receives counts plus registration and departure dates. For tourists from other countries, ESTI receives counts plus identifying data pursuant to ЗЧРБ art. 28(4), plus registration and departure dates. Municipalities use overnight counts (with НАП access at national level) to assess tourist tax — ESTI is not optional CRM.

    [01][12]
  4. 04

    Identity data before access

    Because the register entry must be made immediately at accommodation, capture the statutory guest fields from a valid ID before releasing keys, codes or lockbox instructions. A passport photo alone without a completed register / ESTI-ready record is not the duty art. 116 describes.

    [01]

Chapter · Foreigners

ЗЧРБ art. 28 — foreigners & hotel-keeping

The Foreigners Act still distinguishes private shelter of a foreigner from hotel-keeping — but hotel-keeping registration of foreigners now runs through the Tourism Act guest register.

Statute

“Лицата, извършващи хотелиерство, при настаняване на чужденец го регистрират в регистъра по чл. 116, ал. 1 от Закона за туризма, в който вписват пълния брой имена на чужденеца, посочени в паспорта или заместващия го документ за пътуване, датата и годината на раждане, гражданството, номера на паспорта или на заместващия го документ за пътуване, както и периода на пребиваването му в туристическия обект.”
Закон за чужденците в Република България, чл. 28, ал. 4 (as amended — DV, including br. 17/2020) [05]
  1. 01

    Hotel-keeping — Tourism Act register

    Under the current art. 28(4) text, persons performing hotel-keeping register a foreigner in the Tourism Act art. 116(1) register with full passport names, date and year of birth, citizenship, travel-document number, and the period of stay in the object. ESTI is the operational channel for that register data. Older practice texts that still speak only of a daily 06:00 paper list to the police describe the pre-amendment hotel track — confirm local Migration practice if your object is outside ESTI hotel-keeping.

    [05][01][06]
  2. 02

    Private hosting — 3-day written notice

    Art. 28(3) requires a natural or legal person who provided shelter to a foreigner (outside the hotel-keeping track) to notify in writing the Migration service or the district police office within 3 days, communicating names, date of birth, citizenship and identity-document number/series. Do not assume ESTI covers a private non-tourist let.

    [05][06]
  3. 03

    Register and ESTI are sequential for the same guest

    Capturing identity for the art. 116 entry at arrival and ensuring ESTI holds the required overnight fields are related duties. Completing a local note that never reaches ESTI (or the private-host notice channel) is still a compliance gap.

    [01][05]

Chapter · Licence

Categorization & Class В registration

The Tourism Act organises places for accommodation into Class А, Б and В. Stars (категоризация) or Class В municipal registration is the gate to lawful tourist hotel-keeping — separate from guest-register / ESTI duties.

  1. 01

    Class А / Б — categorization

    Class А (hotels, motels, apartment tourist complexes, villa / tourist settlements, villas) and Class Б (family hotels, hostels, guesthouses, bungalows, campsites, and related types) are categorized with one to five stars. The Minister of Tourism categorizes higher-star hotels and certain complex types; mayors categorize lower-star hotels and listed Class Б types under the statutory split. Operating tourist lodging without the correct category paperwork is a tourism-authorisation gap.

    [02][04]
  2. 02

    Class В — guest rooms & guest apartments

    Class В covers стаи за гости and апартаменти за гости. The person who will accommodate guests files a заявление-декларация with the mayor (Tourism Act art. 129а framework). Registration is the simplified municipal track for these units — still tourist hotel-keeping for ESTI and tax purposes, not a casual residential let.

    [02][04]
  3. 03

    Category / registration ≠ guest reporting

    A valid category certificate or Class В registration does not replace the art. 116 register or ESTI. Likewise, collecting municipal tourist tax does not substitute for categorization / registration where the object must be authorized.

    [01][02]

Chapter · Tax

Tourist tax & short-stay fiscal track

Туристически данък is a municipal overnight levy under the Local Taxes and Fees Act. НАП treats short-term platform lodging as hotel-keeping for income / patent-tax purposes — separate from the guest register.

  1. 01

    Tourist tax — municipal rates, national band

    Overnight stays in tourist accommodations under the Tourism Act are subject to tourist tax. Municipal councils set the rate within the national range (historically BGN 0.20–3.00 per overnight; confirm current euro-denominated municipal schedules after euro adoption). Taxable persons are those offering overnights; the monthly amount is assessed from ESTI overnight data and remitted by the 15th of the following month. An annual declaration under art. 61р(5) is filed with the municipality (deadline commonly by 31 January for the prior year — confirm local wording).

    [08][09]
  2. 02

    НАП — short-term via platforms

    НАП guidance: short-term provision of immovable property via online platforms is hotel accommodation / commercial activity, not a long-term residential lease. Natural persons may fall under patent tax (ЗМДТ) where the statutory conditions are met (including limits on rooms and turnover, and Tourism Act registration/categorization where required), otherwise personal-income or other tracks apply. Confirm the correct declaration (municipal patent and/or annual ЗДДФЛ) with НАП for the income year.

    [13][14]
  3. 03

    Tax remittance is not the check-in gate

    Collecting tourist tax and filing patent / income declarations run on municipal and НАП calendars. They do not replace immediate register entry or ESTI data for the stay itself.

    [08][01]

Chapter · EU layer

EU law that sits underneath

Bulgaria's guest register, ESTI and categorization sit inside the same European stack hosts meet elsewhere — full Schengen membership, GDPR, and the 2024 short-term rental data framework.

  1. 01

    Schengen — full member since 1 January 2025

    Air and sea internal-border checks with Schengen states were lifted on 31 March 2024 (Council Decision (EU) 2024/210). Land internal-border checks with and between Bulgaria and Romania were lifted on 1 January 2025 (Council Decision (EU) 2024/3212). Bulgaria is a full Schengen member as of that date. Lodging guest-record purposes still sit under Schengen Convention Art. 45 logic — national register / ESTI channels implement that public-security layer.

    [15][16][17]
  2. 02

    GDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/679)

    Register fields, ESTI payloads and tax-related overnight data are personal data. Collect what the legal basis requires, inform guests, secure storage and transmission, and respect retention limits on your own systems.

    [18]
  3. 03

    Short-term rental data — Regulation (EU) 2024/1028

    From 20 May 2026, where Member States operate STR registration/data systems, platforms work through harmonised registration numbers and activity reporting. Bulgaria's National Tourist Register numbers and ESTI activity should be read against that transparency direction — confirm national implementing acts as they appear.

    [19][20]

Remote arrival · Still the law

Self check-in under Bulgarian rules

Remote arrival is common in Sofia apartments and Varna / Plovdiv city stock. The compliance gate is capturing guest data for the art. 116 register (and ESTI / ЗЧРБ fields) before access is released — tourist-tax remittance runs on its own municipal clock afterward.

01

Document

02

E.turistas

03

Keys

  • Identity before the key

    Build register-ready identity capture into the check-in flow itself — door codes or lockbox instructions unlock only after statutory guest fields are complete from a valid ID. A photo upload without an immediate art. 116 entry is not enough.

    [01]

  • ESTI-ready foreign-guest fields

    When the guest is a third-country national, capture the identifying data ESTI expects under Tourism Act art. 116(5) / ЗЧРБ art. 28(4) content early enough that late arrivals still produce an immediate register entry.

    [01][05]

  • Private-host track is different

    If the stay is truly private shelter outside hotel-keeping, the 3-day written Migration / police notice under ЗЧРБ art. 28(3) still applies — ESTI does not automatically cover that track.

    [05][06]

  • Municipal tax at checkout

    Collect туристически данък at the община rate (Sofia Class В / 1★: €0.51 per night for 2026 under SOS Decision 1042/2025; higher stars up to €1.53) and remit by the 15th of the following month — identity capture and tax remittance are sequential duties.

    [11][08]

Municipal & tax layers

Guest register and ESTI are national. Туристически данък under the Local Taxes and Fees Act is set by each municipal council — Sofia and Varna already diverge; confirm Plovdiv with the municipality.

  • Sofia — municipal tourist-tax territory

    Sofia — €0.51–€1.53 / night (2026)

    01

    SOS Decision № 1042/18.12.2025 restates tourist tax in euro for the capital ordinance: Class А/Б 1★ €0.51, 2★ €0.77, 3★ €1.02, 4★ €1.28, 5★ €1.53 per overnight; Class В registered places €0.51. Those figures succeed the BGN increases in SOS Decision № 683/19.12.2024 (in force from 1 January 2025: up to BGN 3.00 for 5★ and BGN 1.00 for Class В). Remit monthly from ESTI-assessed overnights and file the annual tourist-tax declaration with Столична община — confirm any exemption practice with the municipality rather than assuming a national carve-out.

    [11][10][08]
  • Varna Sea Garden — municipal tax territory

    Varna — category schedule (confirm euro display)

    02

    Община Варна publishes tourist-tax rates by category under its municipal ordinance (page still lists BGN amounts in force from 1 February 2011): 1–2★ BGN 0.50, 3★ BGN 0.60, 4★ BGN 0.90, 5★ BGN 1.40 per overnight. After euro adoption, confirm the euro-denominated display / remittance with the municipality rather than inventing a converted tariff card. Remit by the 15th of the following month; annual declaration under ЗМДТ art. 61р(5) to local tax services. Varna also points hosts to ESTI as the mandatory overnight channel from 1 October 2019.

    [12][08]
  • Ancient theatre of Plovdiv — municipal tax territory

    Plovdiv — confirm with the municipality

    03

    Plovdiv sets tourist tax by municipal council ordinance within the national ЗМДТ band. Do not reuse Sofia euro rates or Varna's published BGN schedule. Confirm current per-night amounts, Class В treatment, remit calendar and declaration desk with Община Пловдив before quoting guests.

    [08][09]

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.

  1. [01]Local law
    Закон за туризма — чл. 116 (guest register / ESTI)

    Immediate register entries at check-in; ESTI data fields for EU vs third-country guests; electronic register rules for Class А/Б.

  2. [02]Local law
    Закон за туризма — categorization & Class В

    Class А/Б/В structure types; mayor registration for guest rooms / guest apartments; National Tourist Register.

  3. [03]Agency
    Ministry of Tourism — ESTI

    From 1 Oct 2019 hotel-keepers including guest rooms / apartments must submit to ESTI under art. 116(5).

  4. [04]Agency
    Ministry of Tourism — categorization FAQ / service

    Which objects are categorized and which authority (minister vs mayor) issues the category.

  5. [05]Local law
    ЗЧРБ — чл. 28 (shelter / hotel-keeping of foreigners)

    Art. 28(3): 3-day written notice for private shelter. Art. 28(4) (as amended): hotel-keepers register foreigners in the Tourism Act art. 116 register with passport identity fields.

  6. [06]Authority
    МВР — адресна регистрация на чужди граждани

    Operational Migration guidance quoting ЗЧРБ art. 28(3)–(4) duties for hosts and hotel-keepers.

  7. [07]Authority
    МВР — адресна карта (образец)

    Sample address card / notice fields for foreigner address registration.

  8. [08]Local law
    ЗМДТ — туристически данък (framework)

    National framework: overnight tax, municipal rate band, ESTI-based monthly assessment, remit by the 15th, annual declaration.

  9. [09]Agency
    eGov — декларация туристически данък

    Unified municipal service description for the art. 61р(5) tourist-tax declaration.

  10. [10]Authority
    СОС Решение № 683/19.12.2024 — Sofia tourist tax (BGN from 2025)

    Raised Sofia rates from 1 Jan 2025: 1★ BGN 1.00 … 5★ BGN 3.00; Class В BGN 1.00.

  11. [11]Authority
    СОС Решение № 1042/18.12.2025 — Sofia tourist tax (euro)

    Euro restatement: Class А/Б €0.51–€1.53 by stars; Class В €0.51 per overnight.

  12. [12]Authority
    Община Варна — хотелски регистър / tourist tax

    Official category rates (BGN schedule) and ESTI / register guidance for Varna hosts.

  13. [13]Authority
    НАП — краткосрочно отдаване под наем (платформи)

    Official tax orientation: platform short stays as hotel-keeping; patent tax vs personal-income tracks.

  14. [14]Agency
    Ministry of Finance — патентен данък

    ЗМДТ patent-tax framework (arts. 61з–61п) for listed activities including limited-room accommodation where conditions are met.

  15. [15]EU law
    European Commission — Bulgaria/Romania full Schengen (1 Jan 2025)

    Confirms land-border checks lifted 1 January 2025 after air/sea lifting on 31 March 2024.

  16. [16]EU law
    Council Decision (EU) 2024/3212

    Sets 1 January 2025 as the date for lifting internal land-border checks with/between Bulgaria and Romania.

  17. [17]EU law
    Convention Implementing the Schengen Agreement — Art. 45

    EU-layer lodging / guest-record purpose.

  18. [18]EU law
    GDPR — Regulation (EU) 2016/679

    Personal-data rules for identity and document processing.

  19. [19]EU law
    Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 — short-term rental data

    EU framework for STR registration data and platform sharing (from 20 May 2026).

  20. [20]Agency
    European Commission — STR transparency rules

    Plain-language explanation of the May 2026 framework.

After the law · The product

Where NextStay fits

After the law is clear: we build guest identity capture into the check-in gate — so Bulgarian hosts can run remote-friendly arrivals without skipping the art. 116 register or missing ESTI / tax clocks.

  • 01

    Identity before the key

    Online check-in collects the guest fields hosts need for the Tourism Act register (and related ESTI / ЗЧРБ records) before door instructions unlock.

  • 02

    ESTI-ready stay records

    Structured arrival data is ready for immediate register entry and ESTI overnight fields — without a last-minute scramble on late Sofia or Black Sea arrivals.

  • 03

    Host visibility without desk chaos

    Hotels and individual hosts see who has completed identity capture, who is blocked, and when access can release.

  • 04

    Destination guidance in the workspace

    This Bulgaria dossier stays attached to the market — art. 116 / ESTI, ЗЧРБ art. 28, categorization / Class В, and municipal tourist tax — not a generic EU footnote.

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Cities in Bulgaria

NextStay provides operational tools and general regulatory information, not legal advice. Hosts remain responsible for confirming the rules that apply to their accommodation in Bulgaria. Research last verified .