Every guest who stays overnight in paid accommodation in Croatia has to be registered in eVisitor, the national system run by the Croatian National Tourist Board, within 24 hours of arrival, and checked out within 24 hours of departure. The duty applies to hotels, campsites and marinas, to private hosts renting rooms and apartments, and to owners of holiday homes for everyone staying there. Unlike Portugal or France, it is not limited to foreigners: Croatian guests are registered too.
This guide covers who must register, what data eVisitor needs, the deadlines and how to take the data from a passport or ID card without typing it.
Who must register guests
According to the Croatian government's citizen portal:
- Legal persons and sole traders providing accommodation in an accommodation facility or on a nautical tourism vessel.
- Private hosts providing accommodation in a household or on a family farm.
- Owners of a holiday home, suite or apartment, who must register all persons staying there.
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Deadlines
| Step | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Check-in registration | Within 24 hours of the guest's arrival |
| Check-out | Within 24 hours of departure (holiday home owners: on the last day of the stay) |
The registration is also the basis for the tourist tax, so a missing record is both a registration and a tax problem. Inspections are carried out by the State Inspectorate; fines are set by the tourist tax legislation and are applied per infringement. Check the current amounts with your local tourist board — this article is not legal advice.
What eVisitor asks for
The tourist list is filled in from the guest's identity card or travel document: the guest's identity data (name, date of birth, citizenship, and the type and number of the document), plus the dates of the stay. Anything the document does not show — such as the place of residence — has to be asked for.
Registering within 24 hours without typing
The 24-hour window is tight for a host who is not on site. What usually slows it down is copying the document: guests send a photo, and someone has to type it into eVisitor — often late at night during peak season.
- 1Ask each guest for a photo of their ID card or passport when they confirm arrival — WhatsApp is the channel they are already using with you.
- 2Extract the fields as text. The MRZ on passports and most EU ID cards carries name, sex, nationality, date of birth and document number with check digits, so a misread is caught.
- 3Enter the fields in eVisitor and delete the image.
WhappScan does step 2: it returns name, document number, date of birth, expiry and nationality from a photo, with the MRZ decoded and validated. It does not submit anything to eVisitor.
Try it on the free passport and ID scanner — no signup, up to three documents a day.
For every country side by side, see guest registration in Europe by country.
Sources
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