UbyPort Guide: Registering and Reporting Foreign Guests

UbyPort at a glance

Who has to report to UbyPort?

The Act on the Residence of Foreign Nationals treats anyone who provides paid accommodation as an accommodation provider:

“For the purposes of this Act, an accommodation provider means anyone who provides accommodation for payment or accommodates more than 5 foreigners, except where the accommodated foreigners and the accommodation provider can be considered close persons.”

— § 99(1) of Act No. 326/1999 Coll. (our translation)

Accommodation here means a relationship based on an accommodation contract, a lease, a sublease or a similar contract (§ 99(2)). A single apartment on Airbnb or Booking.com therefore falls under the same obligation as a hotel.

How you report depends on whether accommodation is your business:

• Accommodation is the subject of your business (trade licence, limited company, guesthouse, hotel). You must report via UbyPort. The law binds you to remote access “if such access has been set up and is functional” (§ 102(3)).
• Accommodation is not your business. You can report via UbyPort, or submit a registration form filled in and signed by the guest to the locally competent foreign police office (§ 102(2)).

When short-term renting becomes a business is covered in our guide on whether you need a trade licence for Airbnb.

Whom to report

You report every guest who is not a Czech citizen, which includes guests from Slovakia, Germany or any other EU country. Every foreigner is a separate record, children included. Czech guests are not reported to the foreign police, but you still keep the records required by the Local Fees Act for them. See Do I have to report Czech guests too?

How do you register an accommodation facility in UbyPort?

You only get UbyPort access after registering your accommodation facility. You register it once, ideally as soon as you know you will host foreign guests. Processing can take up to 30 days.

1. On the ubyport.pcr.cz portal, click “Žádost o registraci nového ubytovacího zařízení” (request to register a new accommodation facility) and type in the security code.

2. Fill in the details required by UbyPort’s operating rules (section 4.2):

   • the name of the accommodation facility,
   • the provider’s company ID (IČO), or your birth number if you have no IČO (a tax ID cannot be used),
   • a contact person, phone number and e-mail,
   • your data box ID, if you have one,
   • the facility’s address as matched in the RÚIAN address register and, in a building with several flats, the flat number,
   • the number of logins you need.

3. Choose your logins. As the provider you always get one main-user login. You can also request 1 to 10 logins for delegated persons, such as a receptionist or property manager. If you will report from software, request a web-service account at the same time. No system can connect to UbyPort without it. The exact options on the form are described in our guide to web-service credentials.

4. Let the form generate the request as a PDF.

5. Send the request to the Foreign Police Service Directorate through one of the channels in section 4.1 of the operating rules:

   • data box (datová schránka) ybndqw9,
   • e-mail with an electronic signature to reguby@pcr.cz,
   • post, to Ředitelství služby cizinecké policie, Olšanská 2, 130 51 Praha 3,
   • in person, at the filing office at the same address, entrance A.

   A paper request must bear your handwritten signature.

6. Wait for the credential-issuance protocol (Protokol o zřízení přihlašovacích údajů). It contains your username, password and PUK. You receive the IDUB and Zkratka identifiers along with it.

Facilities without a RÚIAN address, such as a campsite or a boat, are registered with the address of the nearest municipal office. You describe the location in the note field, ideally with GPS coordinates.

Do you have several accommodation facilities?

The IDUB is tied to the provider and to the address (section 4.5), so every address is registered separately. To avoid logging in separately for each facility, you can request an extended user. It enters data for all your facilities under one login (section 5.11). This only applies to the web form and UNL import. The web service requires separate credentials for every facility (section 5.14).

Registration still pending and a guest has already arrived?

The deadline still runs. The law only binds businesses to UbyPort if access “has been set up and is functional” (§ 102(3)). Until you have access, the channels in § 102(2) remain. Usually that means the registration form, which the guest fills in and signs and you submit to the foreign police. The “Přihlašovací tiskopis cizince” form can be downloaded from the Czech Police UbyPort page.

What are the IDUB, Zkratka and PUK?

Registration gives you several identifiers. Each serves a different purpose:

Source: sections 4.5, 4.6, 5.10 and 5.16 of the operating rules.

How do you log in to UbyPort for the first time?

• Log in at ubyport.pcr.cz with your username, password and the five-character code shown in the image.
• You must change your password on first login (section 6.1). The new password needs at least 8 characters, including an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter and a digit (section 5.8).
• After 15 minutes of inactivity the application logs you out. A half-filled form is lost, while records already added to the list are kept (section 12.3).
• A forgotten password can be reported to support by phone or e-mail if you know your PUK. You identify yourself with your username, IDUB and PUK, and the new password arrives by e-mail. Without a PUK, you submit a written request through the same channels as the registration (section 6.7).
• Never share the main user’s credentials. Delegated logins exist for reception staff or managers. Keep a record of whom you gave them to and when (sections 5.3 and 5.4).

UbyPort now runs as version 2.0. Credentials from the original version still work, and the switch did not require a new registration. UbyPort support is available at ubyport@pcr.cz and on the helpline +420 731 670 444 on working days from 8 to 11 a.m.

How do you report a foreign guest?

UbyPort accepts reports in three ways (section 7.3):

The web form has one trap: a record added to the list has not been sent yet. The report only goes out once you submit the whole list (sections 8.3 and 8.7).

What a report contains

A report contains the same details as the paper registration form. The Czech Police give these instructions for each field:

UbyPort checks the data on receipt. It rejects a record if the departure date is before the arrival date, if the document number has fewer than 5 or more than 30 characters, or if the date of birth makes no sense (Developer FAQ, Czech Police).

How do you count the 3-working-day deadline?

“The accommodation provider is obliged to report the accommodation of a foreigner within 3 working days after their accommodation; the report is made to the police.”

— § 102(1) of Act No. 326/1999 Coll. (our translation)

Only working days count; weekends and public holidays do not. The Act does not say whether the day of accommodation itself counts, and the Czech Police give no worked example on their website. You will come across two readings:

• The day of accommodation does not count. This matches the word “after” (“po”) in § 102 and the general rule that a period set in days starts on the day following the triggering event (§ 605(1) of the Civil Code; similarly § 40(1)(a) of the Administrative Procedure Code for deadlines in proceedings). A guest accommodated on Monday must then be reported by Thursday.
• The day of accommodation is day one. This is how the Karlovy Vary Regional Authority’s 2022 information leaflet for hosts counts it: a guest accommodated on Monday must be reported by Wednesday. This reading is one working day stricter.

We have found no binding police interpretation or court decision on counting this deadline. If you follow the stricter reading, you meet the deadline under both:

If a public holiday falls within the period, the deadline moves by one more working day. The simplest approach is to avoid the question altogether and report on the day of arrival. When guests fill in their details in advance, that takes no effort.

What if UbyPort is down? The portal itself warns of possible short outages. The obligation to report does not lapse, so try sending again later. If the outage persists, the law only binds businesses to UbyPort if access is “functional” (§ 102(3)), and the channels in § 102(2) remain. Contact UbyPort support if you run into problems.

The delivery receipt: how do you prove you reported?

Once UbyPort has accepted the data, it offers a delivery receipt (doručenka) as a PDF download. The operating rules give it real weight:

“…serves as confirmation that UbyPort received the data, that is, that the accommodation provider fulfilled the obligation to report the accommodation of foreigners.”

— section 7.4 of the UbyPort Internet Application Operating Rules (our translation)

The receipt identifies the provider and the facility, shows the date and time of receipt and, most importantly, contains two lists: accepted and rejected foreigners (section 7.5). This is where the most insidious mistake happens. Sending a report does not mean the police accepted every guest. A guest on the rejected list has not been reported. Correct the record and send it again.

Store the receipt somewhere safe, because it contains guests’ personal data (section 8.7). The law sets no retention period for it. In practice it is worth keeping it as long as the house book, which means 6 years.

The most common UbyPort reporting mistakes

• Website credentials entered into software. The web service has separate credentials in the uby-ws… format (sections 5.14 and 5.16). How to request them is covered in our credentials guide.
• Only the lead guest reported. Every foreigner is a separate record, children included.
• An unread delivery receipt. A rejected record means an unmet obligation.
• Sending identical data repeatedly. The operating rules ask you not to resend identical data (section 12.4). Only resend corrected records.
• An outdated registration after a change. If your address or IČO changes, or you stop operating, request a change or cancellation of the registration (sections 6.8 and 6.9). The forms are on the Czech Police UbyPort page.
• Reporting instead of keeping a house book. UbyPort does not replace the house book, see the next section.

Is reporting enough? No, you also need a house book

Besides reporting, the law requires the provider to keep a house book (domovní kniha) and present it to the police on request (§ 100(f)). It records the details from the registration form and the start and end of the stay (§ 101(1)). The law further requires:

• entries made in real time, regularly, clearly and in chronological order (§ 101(3)),
• retention for 6 years from the last entry (§ 101(4)),
• presentation for inspection in paper form (§ 101(2)), so you must be able to print an electronic record.

Breaching the duties in § 100, including failing to report a foreigner, or keeping the house book in breach of § 101 carries a fine of up to CZK 50,000. For natural persons this is set by § 156, for legal entities and self-employed persons by § 157. For details, see House book and guest records and Fines for accommodation providers. A template is available as a downloadable house book template.

What will change with e-Turista?

The planned e-Turista system is meant to eventually combine foreign-guest reporting and municipal records into a single entry. No law introducing it exists yet. The government bill has only just been through inter-ministerial comments and proposes effect from 1 January 2028, and an opposition bill is waiting for its first reading in the Chamber. Until then, UbyPort applies unchanged. We track the current status on the eTurista Radar, and the background is explained in our e-Turista guide.

How Best Guest handles it

Best Guest connects to UbyPort through the official web service. After booking, the guest completes online check-in in their own language, including the purpose of stay from the correct code list. Best Guest checks the format and completeness of the data before sending and submits the report to UbyPort automatically or after your approval. The submission confirmation is archived with the reservation for 6 years. The same check-in also feeds the house book.

We need two things from you: your accommodation facility registered in UbyPort and web-service credentials. How to get them is covered in a separate guide.