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Hrvatska·Destination guide · Southern Europe

Croatia

42.6507° N · Southern Europe · Schengen

Croatia runs guest check-in through eVisitor — within 24 hours of arrival.

Accommodation providers must register overnight guests in eVisitor, Croatia's central electronic tourist registration system, within 24 hours of arrival. Commercial providers also deregister within 24 hours of departure; holiday-home owners deregister on the last day of the stay. Private iznajmljivači need a separate rješenje o odobrenju before advertising household accommodation. Turistička pristojba (sojourn / tourist tax) is calculated and paid through the same eVisitor track, at rates set by županija or Grad Zagreb.

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NextStay relevance · Croatia

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Essential

Zakon o turističkoj pristojbi requires eVisitor registration of overnight guests within 24 hours of arrival (and deregistration within 24 hours of departure for commercial providers) — on top of rješenje o odobrenju for private iznajmljivači under the Hospitality Act.

At a glance · Croatia

  • eVisitor

    ≤ 24h from arrival

  • Deregister

    ≤ 24h from departure

  • Private hosts

    Rješenje first

  • Tax

    By municipality

Who this is for

What hosts and hotels actually need to know

Croatian short-stay compliance is eVisitor-centric, not a soft platform habit. Zakon o turističkoj pristojbi (NN 52/19 and amendments) makes eVisitor the central channel for tourist registration and the sojourn tax (turistička pristojba, still often called boravišna pristojba in everyday speech). Separately, Zakon o ugostiteljskoj djelatnosti requires private hosts providing ugostiteljske usluge u domaćinstvu to obtain a rješenje o odobrenju from the competent county (or Grad Zagreb) authority — with categorisation under the household Pravilnik where applicable. Self check-in is common on the coast; the compliance gate is capturing correct guest identity data for eVisitor before access is released — a door code is not a substitute for registration. Croatia has been in Schengen since 1 January 2023; eVisitor data feeds the public-security layer that previously required separate police filings for many stays.

Front desk or digital, the duty is the same: register every overnight guest in eVisitor within 24 hours, deregister on departure, and collect turistička pristojba at the local rate.

  • 01Register all overnight guests in eVisitor within 24 hours of arrival and deregister within 24 hours of departure
  • 02Enter data from identity cards, travel documents or other identity documents
  • 03Collect and remit turistička pristojba per the županija / Grad Zagreb decision (typically 1st and 15th of each month for commercial providers)
  • 04Keep eVisitor credentials and guest records ready for tourist-inspection oversight

Chapter · eVisitor

eVisitor & the 24-hour clock

eVisitor (evisitor.hr) is Croatia's central electronic system for tourist registration and deregistration. gov.hr and Zakon o turističkoj pristojbi art. 22 set a 24-hour arrival deadline for providers.

Statute

“Pravna osoba i fizička osoba obrtnik … i osoba koja pruža ugostiteljsku uslugu smještaja u domaćinstvu … obvezne su u roku od 24 sata od dolaska prijaviti u sustav eVisitor sve osobe kojima pružaju uslugu noćenja te u roku od 24 sata od odlaska odjaviti njihov boravak.”
Zakon o turističkoj pristojbi, art. 22(1) (NN 52/2019) [01]
  1. 01

    Who must register

    Legal persons and sole traders providing overnight accommodation, persons providing household or family-farm catering accommodation, holiday-home owners, and certain other obligated categories must register persons they accommodate overnight in eVisitor. gov.hr summarises the same duty in plain language: register within 24 hours of arrival.

    [02][01][04]
  2. 02

    Arrival: within 24 hours

    Register all overnight guests in eVisitor within 24 hours of arrival. Data is entered from identity-card, travel-document or other identity-document details. Do not invent a softer 'by midnight next day' paraphrase — the statutory and gov.hr wording is the 24-hour clock.

    [01][02]
  3. 03

    Departure: deregister on time

    Commercial providers (including household iznajmljivači) must deregister guests within 24 hours of departure. Owners of holiday homes, suites or apartments deregister visitors on the last day of the stay. Missing deregistration is a separate compliance gap from late check-in.

    [01][02]
  4. 04

    eVisitor feeds MUP — no parallel police file for ordinary stays

    Since eVisitor became mandatory, guest data that accommodation providers enter is exchanged electronically with the Ministry of the Interior for short-stay alien registration purposes. Do not assume a separate hotel-only police guest book replaces eVisitor for private apartments — the tourist-tax statute and gov.hr channel are the primary registration track for overnight stays.

    [06][02][04]

Chapter · Licence

Iznajmljivači & rješenje o odobrenju

Private hosts providing ugostiteljske usluge u domaćinstvu need a decision approving that activity before operating — separate from, and in addition to, eVisitor guest registration.

  1. 01

    Rješenje before advertising

    Under Zakon o ugostiteljskoj djelatnosti, a natural person (iznajmljivač) providing household catering accommodation must obtain a rješenje o odobrenju from the competent county administrative body (or Grad Zagreb). Applications run through eTurizam / TuStart (e-Građani) or the local authority. Ownership, building usability, minimum/category conditions, and — for multi-unit buildings — co-owner consent rules apply as set in current law.

    [08][10][11]
  2. 02

    Categorisation where the rješenje grants it

    Household units are classified under Pravilnik o razvrstavanju i kategorizaciji objekata u kojima se pružaju ugostiteljske usluge u domaćinstvu. Where the rješenje includes a category (stars), display rules apply; hosts who lost the right to display category marks after missed re-categorisation windows may continue operating but must not advertise stars they no longer hold. Confirm the current display duty on the issued rješenje.

    [08][10]
  3. 03

    Capacity ceilings for household stays

    Household accommodation under the Hospitality Act is capped (for example rooms/apartments/holiday houses up to ten rooms or 20 beds excluding auxiliary beds, with separate ceilings for camps and robinson-style units). Exceeding those limits pushes the activity out of the household regime — do not treat hotel classification rules as the private-apartment default.

    [08][12]
  4. 04

    EU STR registration number — Croatia timeline

    Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 sets an EU framework for short-term rental registration data and platform sharing. Croatia's Ministry of Tourism and Sport has stated that the obligation to obtain and display a platform registration number for rooms, apartments and holiday houses takes effect at the beginning of 2027 (exact date after the new Hospitality Act), and that no such number is required for platform advertising until then. Existing rješenje and eVisitor duties continue unchanged.

    [13][23]

Chapter · Tourist tax

Turistička pristojba (sojourn tax)

The sojourn tax — officially turistička pristojba — is set by županija assemblies (or Grad Zagreb) within national min/max bands, collected with the stay, and administered through eVisitor.

  1. 01

    Who pays

    gov.hr lists who owes turistička pristojba: guests using commercial accommodation away from their residence, household and family-farm providers' guests, holiday-home owners for themselves and overnight visitors, and certain nautical categories. Children under 12 are exempt; ages 12–18 pay 50%. Disability and other statutory exemptions apply with proof.

    [03][01]
  2. 02

    Rates vary by municipality and season

    There is no single national nightly rate. Županijska skupština (or Gradska skupština Grada Zagreba) sets amounts per person per night — often with a main season 1 April–30 September and a lower off-season figure — plus annual paušal options for household providers and holiday-home owners. Always confirm the current decision for the property's općina/grad in eVisitor or with the local tourist board.

    [03][01][14]
  3. 03

    Payment rhythm for commercial providers

    Legal persons and sole traders providing overnight stays collect the tax with the accommodation charge and must pay it to the prescribed tourist-board account on the 1st and 15th of each month for nights realised in that period, with a seven-day due window (Zakon o turističkoj pristojbi art. 17). Household providers often use annual paušal instalments generated from eVisitor — follow the option that applies to the rješenje.

    [01][03]

Chapter · EU layer

EU law that sits underneath

Croatia's eVisitor and hospitality rules sit inside the same European stack hosts meet elsewhere — Schengen lodging purposes, GDPR, and the 2024 short-term rental data framework.

  1. 01

    Schengen — Croatia since 1 January 2023

    Croatia fully applies the Schengen acquis from 1 January 2023 (Council Decision (EU) 2022/2451). Lodging providers across Schengen states are expected to account for who stayed where; eVisitor is Croatia's national electronic implementation of that public-security and tourism-statistics logic.

    [07][21][02]
  2. 02

    GDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/679)

    Identity-document data entered into eVisitor is personal data. Collect what the legal basis requires, inform guests, secure transmission to eVisitor, and respect retention limits on your own systems.

    [22]
  3. 03

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

    From 20 May 2026 the EU framework for STR registration data and platform sharing applies where Member States operate such systems. Croatia has announced a national platform registration-number duty from early 2027; until then, rješenje and eVisitor remain the operative national gates.

    [23][13][24]

Remote arrival · Still the law

Self check-in under Croatian rules

Remote arrival is common along the Adriatic and in city apartments. The compliance gate is completing eVisitor registration with correct guest identity data — releasing a lockbox code is not a substitute for that duty.

01

Document

02

E.turistas

03

Keys

  • Identity data before access

    Build capture of the identity fields eVisitor needs into the check-in flow itself — name, document details and stay dates — before door codes or lockbox instructions unlock.

    [02][01]

  • The 24-hour clock still runs

    Once guests arrive, registration must reach eVisitor within 24 hours. Pre-arrival data capture helps, but late or missing filing remains a statutory breach even if the guest already has the keys.

    [01][02]

  • Deregistration is a separate step

    Plan departure-day or post-departure deregistration within the statutory window. A clean check-in flow that never closes the stay in eVisitor is still non-compliant.

    [01]

  • Rješenje is a separate prerequisite

    Timely eVisitor filing does not replace household approval. Confirm the unit's rješenje o odobrenju (and any co-owner consent conditions for multi-unit buildings) before scaling remote arrival.

    [08][10]

Municipal & tax layers

eVisitor and the Hospitality Act are national. Tourist-tax amounts and local fiscal pressure still differ by županija and city — Dubrovnik, Split and Zagreb each publish their own figures.

  • Dubrovnik Old Port and city walls from above

    Dubrovnik — tourist tax & old-town fiscal pressure

    01

    Dubrovačko-neretvanska županija's 2025 decision sets Grad Dubrovnik commercial overnight turistička pristojba at €2.65 per person (1 Apr–30 Sep) and €1.85 off-season; camps are lower. Separately, Grad Dubrovnik's February 2025 Službeni glasnik decision sets paušalni porez po krevetu by street zone — Zone I (Old Town street list) at €250 per bed — so historic-centre private rentals carry a distinct local tax layer on top of eVisitor. Confirm 2026 figures with TZ Dubrovnik / the current županija decision before quoting guests.

    [15][17][16]
  • Split old-town alley framing the Cathedral of Saint Domnius bell tower

    Split — county tourist-tax table

    02

    Splitsko-dalmatinska županija's 2025 odluka lists Grad Split at €2.50 per person per night in season (1 Apr–30 Sep) and €1.86 off-season for commercial accommodation objects, with separate camp and paušal columns. Ferry and airport arrival chains make pre-captured eVisitor data especially valuable — confirm the current year in the županija table or TZ Split before quoting.

    [18][19]
  • Zagreb rooftops toward the cathedral spires

    Zagreb — confirm Gradska skupština rate

    03

    Grad Zagreb sets turistička pristojba through Gradska skupština decisions (reported at €1.86 per person per night for commercial stays in 2025–2026, with a lower camp rate). Year-round city apartments still need the same 24-hour eVisitor registration. Confirm the live amount and paušal figures with TZGZ / the current assembly decision rather than assuming a coastal seasonal table.

    [03][20]

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
    Zakon o turističkoj pristojbi (NN 52/2019)

    Primary statute: eVisitor registration within 24 hours (art. 22), tax collection and payment rhythm (arts. 16–17).

  2. [02]Authority
    gov.hr — Tourist registration and deregistration

    Official plain-language duty: register all tourists in eVisitor within 24 hours of arrival; lists obligated provider categories.

  3. [03]Authority
    gov.hr — Turistička pristojba

    Who pays, exemptions (under 12; 50% for 12–18), and national framework for sojourn / tourist tax.

  4. [04]Authority
    Ministry of Tourism and Sport — eVisitor

    Ministry description of eVisitor as the online guest registration and tourist-tax calculation/collection system (from 2016).

  5. [05]Authority
    eVisitor portal

    Central electronic system login for tourist registration and deregistration.

  6. [06]Authority
    MUP — Instructions for accommodation providers (eVisitor / aliens)

    Confirms electronic exchange of eVisitor guest data with the Ministry of the Interior for short-stay alien registration.

  7. [07]Authority
    MUP — Schengen FAQ

    Croatia fully applies Schengen from 1 January 2023.

  8. [08]Local law
    Zakon o ugostiteljskoj djelatnosti (NN 85/2015, as amended incl. NN 152/2024)

    Statutory basis for iznajmljivači, rješenje o odobrenju, household capacity and display duties.

  9. [09]Local law
    Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o ugostiteljskoj djelatnosti (NN 152/2024)

    2024 amendments including co-owner consent timing for multi-unit buildings and related transitional rules.

  10. [10]Authority
    PSC.gov.hr — Ugostiteljske usluge u domaćinstvu

    Point-of-single-contact procedure for household catering approval, documents and competent authorities.

  11. [11]Authority
    Ministry of Tourism and Sport — TuStart / eTurizam

    Digital registration channel for tourism and hospitality activity approvals, including iznajmljivači.

  12. [12]Agency
    turizam.gov.hr — FAQ (household services)

    Capacity ceilings and registration channels for ugostiteljske usluge u domaćinstvu.

  13. [13]Authority
    Ministry of Tourism and Sport — platform registration number (2027)

    States that EU 2024/1028-style platform registration numbers are not yet required; Croatian obligation begins early 2027.

  14. [14]Local law
    Pravilnik o najnižem i najvišem iznosu turističke pristojbe (NN 71/2019)

    National min/max bands within which županije and Grad Zagreb set local rates.

  15. [15]Authority
    Dubrovačko-neretvanska županija — turistička pristojba 2025

    Grad Dubrovnik commercial rate €2.65 (1 Apr–30 Sep) / €1.85 off-season per person per night.

  16. [16]Agency
    TZ Dubrovnik — host notice (eVisitor & 2025 rates)

    Local tourist board confirmation of eVisitor-only registration and Grad Dubrovnik 2025 tax amounts.

  17. [17]Local law
    Grad Dubrovnik — paušalni porez po krevetu (SG 5/2025)

    Street-zone flat income tax for private rental beds; Zone I (Old Town street list) €250 per bed.

  18. [18]Authority
    Splitsko-dalmatinska županija — turistička pristojba 2025

    Grad Split €2.50 in season / €1.86 off-season for commercial accommodation objects.

  19. [19]Agency
    TZ Split — 2025 county tax decision

    Local tourist board publication of the Split-Dalmatia county tourist-tax odluka.

  20. [20]Guidance
    Reporting on Gradska skupština Zagreb tourist-tax decision

    Assembly reporting of €1.86 per person per night for 2025–2026 commercial stays — confirm live figure with Grad Zagreb / TZGZ.

  21. [21]EU law
    Convention Implementing the Schengen Agreement — Art. 45

    EU-layer lodging / guest-record purpose.

  22. [22]EU law
    GDPR — Regulation (EU) 2016/679

    Personal-data rules for identity and document processing.

  23. [23]EU law
    Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 — short-term rental data

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

  24. [24]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 capture the guest identity data eVisitor needs before access unlocks — so Croatian hosts can run remote-friendly arrivals without skipping the 24-hour clock.

  • 01

    Identity before the key

    Online check-in collects document-ready guest details before door instructions unlock — matching the data eVisitor expects from identity cards and travel documents.

  • 02

    eVisitor-ready records, on the clock

    Structured stay data is ready to file within 24 hours of arrival and to close on departure, without a last-minute scramble in peak season.

  • 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 — including late Dubrovnik and Split arrivals.

  • 04

    Destination guidance in the workspace

    This Croatia dossier stays attached to the market — eVisitor, rješenje, turistička pristojba and local layers — not a generic EU footnote.

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