Do you have to register guests in a short-term rental apartment? The registration duty and the myth of the guest register

"Do I have to register every guest? And that guest register people write about in groups, do I need to keep one?" It is one of the most common questions from new apartment owners. The topic is full of myths left over from old rules. For a typical short-term rental, the matter is much simpler than it looks.

This article is informational, not legal advice. Rules get amended and are interpreted differently. If in doubt, especially for longer stays and guests from abroad, check the current position with your municipal office or a lawyer.

Where the registration duty comes from

The registration duty (obowiązek meldunkowy) in Poland is governed by the Act on Population Registration. It concerns registering for a permanent or temporary stay and lies with the person who is staying somewhere (the guest), not with the owner of the apartment. At most, the owner confirms the fact of the stay. In an ordinary rental you do not "register the guest" for them.

The 30-day threshold

The duty to register for a temporary stay arises for a stay longer than 30 days. Shorter stays are exempt.

In practice, a weekend, a week, two weeks, even a stay of several weeks up to 30 days does not require registration from the guest or from you. That is the great majority of bookings in a typical rental apartment. Someone who comes for a holiday, a city break or a short business trip does not register.

The "guest register"

It is a relic of the old system and of hotels from years ago. For an ordinary short-term apartment rental you do not have to keep any official guest register. Whoever scares you on a forum that you must register every guest with the municipality and keep a notebook is repeating rules that no longer apply in that form.

Your own records for business and tax purposes are a different matter: a list of bookings, invoice details, contracts, house rules. They are sensible and useful, but they are your internal order, not an official register.

Guests from abroad

For foreigners the rules are broader and you need to take more care:

• The exemption for stays up to 30 days applies to them too. A foreigner's short tourist stay does not as a rule require registration.
• Above the threshold, citizens of the EU (and EFTA and Switzerland) have a longer deadline to register, on the order of 30 days from arrival.
• Above the threshold, non-EU foreigners have a much shorter deadline: they register no later than on the 4th day after arrival.

If you host a non-EU guest for longer than a month (a worker, a student, a longer rental), tell them they must register at the municipal office competent for the address of the unit. Registration is done at the office and increasingly online as well (trusted profile, mObywatel), on the appropriate form, usually with an identity document and proof of the right to stay in the unit.

Registration is not three other things

Owners often confuse registration with separate obligations:

1. Registration is not registering a business or a property. Whether and how you register your rental (a business, the municipal register of accommodation providers) is covered in a separate article on registering a rental.
2. Registration is not the local (tourist) tax. You collect the local tax from the guest and settle it with the municipality in designated towns. It is a tourist levy.
3. Registration is not your internal guest records. Guest details for a contract, invoice or house rules you record for your own needs and in line with GDPR. That is not a notification to an office.

What an owner should do

• Stays up to 30 days (most bookings): nothing regarding registration. Focus on the contract or house rules and the details for settlement.
• Stays over 30 days: tell the guest about their registration duty and be ready to confirm their stay in the unit if they need it to register.
• Longer stays of non-EU foreigners: remember the 4-day deadline and inform the guest right at check-in.
• Always: keep your own orderly records of bookings and guest data, for yourself, for taxes and for safety.

Where to keep guest data

Even if official registration usually does not concern you, order in your guest data (who, when, for how long, with what invoice details) is convenient and GDPR-compliant when everything sits in one system rather than a notebook and three mailboxes. A booking system of your own gives you that database of bookings and guest data, for example erphome.pl. Each booking has all its information in one place, under the owner's control.

In short

• A stay of up to 30 days creates no registration duty. That covers most short-term bookings.
• The duty lies with the guest, not the owner. At most you confirm the stay.
• The guest register is a myth for an ordinary rental. You do not have to keep one.
• Foreigners above the threshold: EU about 30 days to register, non-EU only 4 days.
• Do not confuse registration with property registration, the local tax or your own guest records.
• If in doubt on longer stays, check with the municipal office. This is not legal advice.