UbyPort step by step

UbyPort step by step: first you ask the police to register your accommodation facility, once that is processed you log in, and in the application you report every foreign guest within three working days of their arrival. You must report guests from the European Union too. Access takes up to 30 days to arrange, so apply before your first foreign guest arrives.

We go through the access request, logging in, the first report and what you risk if you miss the deadline. We base the legal claims on the sections of the Foreigners' Residence Act (zákon o pobytu cizinců) and the procedure on the pages of the foreign police service at policie.gov.cz. Reporting to the police is a different duty from keeping the house book, which we cover in the article What a guest book must contain.

How Chalupario collects guest details before arrival→

UbyPort step by step: whom you report and by when

You report every foreigner you accommodate. Under § 99(1) of the Foreigners' Residence Act, an accommodation provider (ubytovatel) is anyone who provides accommodation for payment or accommodates more than 5 foreigners, unless the guests and the provider can be regarded as close persons. Under § 1(2), a foreigner is anyone who is not a citizen of the Czech Republic, so also a German, a Pole or a Slovak. For citizens of the EU the law makes no exception in § 102.

You notify a police unit of the accommodation within 3 working days of the accommodation, § 102(1). The law gives three ways: a paper registration form (přihlašovací tiskopis), a copy of a written document with the same details, or an electronic form in an internet application, para. 2. Whoever has accommodation as a business reports over the internet, if such access is set up and working, para. 3. That application is UbyPort.

The police explain this on the page Information for accommodation providers: whoever runs accommodation as a business must report in UbyPort, whoever lets outside a business may use the paper registration form or UbyPort. Both groups may use UbyPort, so choose it if you cannot place your case.

What is reported is the accommodation, not the reservation, and each foreigner separately. A child under 15 is reported too, but does not have to fill in and sign the form in person, § 103(b).

Step 1: request access, it takes up to 30 days

You cannot simply log in to UbyPort. Working with it requires registering the accommodation facility, and on that basis the police issue login credentials.

1. Open UbyPort and click "+ Žádost o registraci nového ubytovacího zařízení" (request to register a new accommodation facility) at the top.
2. Fill in details about the accommodation facility, the provider and a contact person. The form checks your entries and produces the request as a PDF.
3. Send the request to the police from a data box (datová schránka, ID ybndqw9), by e-mail with a recognised electronic signature to reguby@pcr.cz, or by post or in person to Ředitelství služby cizinecké policie (the Foreign Police Service Directorate), Olšanská 2, 130 51 Praha 3. The police recommend registered mail.
4. Wait for it to be processed. The police say "up to 30 days" and handle requests in the order they arrive.
5. Save your login credentials. They arrive as a PDF, in your data box if you have an active one. They contain an account name, a login name, a password (8 characters, upper and lower case letters and a digit, which you can change after the first login) and a PUK, a backup code for example for a call to support.

On the Information for accommodation providers page the police also write that the accommodation building must be marked with a descriptive, registration or orientation number. Check that your building has one.

The three-working-day deadline runs from the accommodation, not from the approval of your request, so apply before the season. What to do with a foreigner who arrives before your credentials do, we found neither in the law nor on the police pages. Ask the UbyPort infoline at ubyport@pcr.cz or by phone on working days from 8 to 11, the contacts are on the police pages.

On its front page the police say a new UbyPort application is being prepared. Check addresses and buttons on policie.gov.cz/ubytovani.

Step 2: log in and report your first foreigner

On the UbyPort login page you enter your login name and password and copy a code from an image. You can then send the data in three ways, which the police describe on the page What are the options for sending data:

• a web form where you type the details by hand, which the police recommend for small facilities,
• uploading a file in the UNL format, a text file with the extension UNL that accommodation software can prepare,
• a web service that the software's developer must add to the program.

For a single cottage the form is enough. That page does not give the structure of the UNL file, so we do not describe it here.

The details you enter about the guest

You copy the details from the guest's document into the form. According to the page Filling in the registration form they are:

• stay from and to: the day of arrival and the expected day of departure, and if the guest leaves earlier you do not report the change,
• surname and first name in Latin letters, with diacritics, without digits and without words such as "tourist",
• date of birth as DD.MM.YYYY, and if the document shows only a year you write zeros for the day and month, for example 00.00.1954,
• citizenship, usually from the document,
• number of the travel document, mandatory, and a citizen of the EU may present an identity card instead of a passport,
• visa number, which guests who do not need a visa leave empty,
• permanent residence abroad: country, town, street and number, as far as they can be determined,
• purpose of the stay, which for a child under 15 travelling with a parent is the same as the parent's.

The guest presents a document to you and fills in and signs the form in person, § 103(b). The police say this can be done on a tablet too. If a guest refuses to fill in the details, you report that to the local foreign police office for the address of the accommodation.

Sending and the receipt

After you send the data, a results page appears with a button for downloading the receipt, which the police mark as recommended. The receipt (doručenka) is a PDF, confirmation that you sent the data to UbyPort. The police advise: "Always save the receipt." It lists the data received correctly, any errors, meaning items that could not be sent, and a submission identifier.

Correcting a mistake and extending a stay

Did you find a typo in a report you already sent? Report the guest again with the correct details and write exactly "PŘEDCHOZÍ OZNÁMENÍ OBSAHOVALO CHYBY" (the previous report contained errors) in the Poznámka (note) field. If a stay is extended, the new report starts on the day the previous one ended and ends on the new expected departure.

What if you miss the deadline: an offence and a fine of up to CZK 50,000

Notifying the police of a foreigner's accommodation is a duty of the provider under § 100(c). Whoever does not meet it commits an offence. If you run the accommodation as a business, it falls under § 157(4)(a), otherwise under § 156(2)(a).

The fine can be up to CZK 50,000. This applies to providers who run a business under § 157(8)(b) and to others under § 156(5)(a). It is a ceiling, not a rate. The police hear offences under this Act, § 157a.

The same ceiling applies when you keep or store the house book in breach of § 101.

The law speaks of failing to meet the duty and does not distinguish a late report from none. How the police treat a report that arrives a day after the deadline, we found neither in the law nor on the police pages, so we promise nothing. The safest course is to report on the day of arrival and keep the receipt.

Summary

• You report foreigners, EU citizens too, to the police within 3 working days of accommodation.
• Whoever runs accommodation as a business must report in UbyPort, others may report on paper as well.
• You get access by requesting registration of the accommodation facility, which takes up to 30 days.
• You send the data by form, UNL file or web service, and for one cottage the form is enough.
• Save the receipt after every submission.
• Failing to meet the duty is an offence with a fine of up to CZK 50,000.

What to do now

1. File the request to register your accommodation facility, even if you expect foreign guests only in a few months.
2. Have guests fill in their details before arrival so you have them at hand when you report.
3. After every report save the receipt and watch the three working days from arrival.