ESTI and address cards: how electronic tourist registration works in Bulgaria
Published: July 18, 2026
Every accommodation property in Bulgaria — from a large hotel to a guest apartment — must keep a register of accommodated tourists and submit its data to ESTI. Here is what that means in practice and how to avoid retyping documents by hand.
What is ESTI?
ESTI (the Unified Tourist Information System) is the Bulgarian Ministry of Tourism's electronic system where accommodation providers submit the data from their register of accommodated tourists. It replaced paper address cards and notebook registers: instead of filling in and storing forms, the data for every stay is entered and sent electronically.
The system's portal is available at esti.tourism.government.bg; access is granted after the property is registered.
Who must submit data?
The obligation applies to every property operating under Bulgaria's Tourism Act — categorised or registered: hotels, family hotels, guest houses, guest rooms, guest apartments and so on. It does not matter whether bookings come from Booking.com, Airbnb or directly — every actual stay goes into the register.
Which data is entered?
The data set is defined by regulation and differs for Bulgarian citizens and foreign tourists:
- Bulgarian citizens — a reduced set: names, arrival and departure dates and the number of nights.
- Foreign tourists — an extended set that also includes date of birth, citizenship, country and identity-document data (type and number).
The data is recorded at check-in, and submission to ESTI must happen within the deadlines set by the applicable regulation — always check the Ministry of Tourism's current requirements.
Ways to submit
ESTI supports three channels:
- Manual entry through the web portal — works, but is slow and error-prone when copying from documents.
- File import — the register is prepared in advance and uploaded in one go.
- API integration — the PMS submits the data automatically.
How Hostello removes the retyping
With self check-in, guests fill in their details themselves via a link on their own phone, and their document is scanned and verified automatically — including a selfie match. The register is filled with the exact data from the document, with no copying at the front desk.
Hostello's ESTI generator then produces a ready export of all stays — all that is left is to submit it. More on the obligations themselves: tourist registration in Bulgaria.