November the 13th, 2026 – Croatia is set to introduce much stricter rules and heightened surveillance for short-term rentals, with around 60,000 units in particular being under the state’s magnifying glass.
Minister of Tourism and Sport Tonči Glavina stated recently that the Hospitality Activity Act, which has been sent for a second reading in Parliament, is one of the most important for tourism and a major step forward in its development. “With this law we want to achieve three fundamental goals: a strong step forward in suppressing unregistered activity, the complete digitalisation of all administrative procedures in tourism, and the introduction of order, transparency and an increase in the quality of the offer, especially in the category of short-term rental accommodation,” Glavina said after the government session.
Poslovni reports that he further explained that the most important goal – suppressing unregistered activity – is achieved through the law in several ways, one of which is the transposition into Croatian legislation of the European Commission regulation and the introduction of a digital registration number whose aim is to prevent service providers who do not have it from appearing and advertising on online platforms.
He assessed these platforms as very important because the largest tourist traffic comes from them, so among the goals is the introduction of more order into the ways they operate, because until now short-term rental and accommodation could be advertised and sold through them without a decision in the member state.
“The penalties for platforms that would ignore this are draconian and they will certainly make an effort across Europe, including in Croatia, to ensure that this does not happen,” Glavina said. He recalled that the new law expands the powers for supervising providers of this accommodation, in addition to the State Inspectorate, to the Customs Administration, cities and municipalities through the activities of municipal wardens, and it has also been agreed that all eventual revenues from fines will go entirely to the budgets of local and regional self-government units.
The State Inspectorate has also been given the possibility of secret supervision of classifieds, groups on social networks and similar, so that it can react and control the facilities. “This year we have significantly strengthened the activities of inspectors against unregistered activity, and when it enters into force, the law will contribute to this even more,” Glavina said. He repeated that private landlords and family accommodation are very important and that they have been accommodated.
When asked whether he knows how many registered apartments for rent to tourists there are in buildings, he said that he does not have exact data because until now no records have been kept of the type of facilities in which the apartments are located, which will change with the new law and digitalisation.
According to our estimate, that is around 60,000 facilities-apartments, Glavina said, noting that other EU countries are also struggling in various ways with short-term rental to tourists because it reduces the available housing stock.
Regarding the objections and complaints of small landlords and entrepreneurs to the draft law, he said that from 2016 until about a year and a half ago, the number of newly registered beds in short-term accommodation for tourists grew by around 25,000 every year, which led to the fact that, despite the growth of overall tourism, growth in that accommodation was smaller. That is why the steps forward with the law and responsible tourism policy were important, and that is why in the last two years we have not had growth in the number of those beds but even a slight decrease, and those beds have gone into long-term rental, which is also the goal of housing policy, Glavina concluded.
