Swiss hospitality compliance guide
Switzerland hospitality compliance and regulations
Swiss accommodation providers report tourism statistics through HESTA, issue invoices under the Swiss QR-bill standard, and often connect to cantonal and federal reporting through tools like Easycheckin. SabeeApp connects to all three.
Quick facts
HESTA at a glance
- Regulation
- HESTAHotel and accommodation statistics
- Frequency
- MonthlySent automatically on the day you choose
- Authority
- Swiss Federal Statistical OfficeSurvey run at national level
- Applies to
- Swiss accommodation providersA national survey covering around 6,000 hotels
- Data required
- Capacity and staysEstablishments, rooms and beds, arrivals and overnight stays by country of residence
- To connect
- A BUR numberPlus the day of the month your report should be sent
First requirement
What is HESTA?
HESTA is Switzerland's national tourist accommodation statistics survey, run by the Federal Statistical Office and covering roughly 6,000 hotels. It collects data on the number of establishments, rooms and beds, along with arrivals and overnight stays broken down by visitors' country of residence, and properties are required to submit it monthly.
Unlike some of the other requirements in this hub, no specific legal deadline or penalty is stated for HESTA on SabeeApp's own source pages; it reads as a standing statistical reporting duty rather than a hard compliance deadline.
What gets sent
The monthly HESTA report
Everything in the report comes from data your property already holds in SabeeApp — capacity, calendar and reservations. Average income per guest per night is always converted to Swiss francs, whatever your account currency.
- Owner's name, phone and email
- Property country
- Number of rooms and beds
- Days open in the reference month
- Next closing period of the establishment
- Total arrivals in the month
- Total overnight stays in the month
- Total occupied rooms in the month
- Average income per guest per night, in Swiss francs
SabeeApp reports the required statistical data from your PMS to the HESTA database automatically each month, once the BUR number and send day are set.
Second requirement
Swiss QR-bill
The QR-bill modernised Swiss payment transactions, in use since 30 June 2020 and fully replacing the orange and red payment slips from 1 October 2022. It uses a Swiss QR code embedded in the invoice, containing the payment information needed for automated processing — guests scan it to pay.
Unlike HESTA, this is a payment and invoicing standard rather than a data submission to an authority, so it carries no reporting duty — but non-standard invoices simply won't be payable the way Swiss payers expect.
SabeeApp automatically generates the QR code and places it on invoices issued from your PMS, so every invoice leaves your property in the Swiss standard format.
Third requirement
What is Easycheckin?
Easycheckin, built by Omnisoftory, is a web application that consolidates guest data once and distributes it automatically to several Swiss authorities, removing the need to submit the same guest information separately to each one.
HESTA reports to the Federal Statistical Office, and Easycheckin submits there too. It isn't clear from either source page whether that's the same HESTA duty routed through a broader tool or a separate, overlapping obligation — worth confirming with your cantonal authority before relying on one to cover the other.
SabeeApp connects to Easycheckin's central tourist-area database gateway, so guest and card data flows through without duplicate entry.
Statistics monthly, invoices daily, guest data at every check-in — all of it from one set of records.
Ready to handle Swiss reporting and invoicing without the manual work?
Connect HESTA, QR-bill and Easycheckin to the platform you already use to run your property.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Not necessarily. Both mention reporting to the Federal Statistical Office, but it isn't confirmed whether that's the same underlying HESTA duty routed through a broader tool, or two separate obligations. Check with the relevant Swiss authority for your canton if you need certainty here.
Monthly. Once connected, SabeeApp sends the report automatically on the day of the month you choose — there's nothing to click. Past exports are listed under the marketplace item and can be downloaded as XML.
A BUR number. You enter it on the connection page along with the day of the month your report should be sent; if you don't have one yet, the connection page links to HESTA's contact page to register.
Owner contact details, property country, rooms and beds, days open in the month, the next closing period, arrivals, overnight stays, occupied rooms, and average income per guest per night — always converted to Swiss francs regardless of your account currency.
Not in the same sense. QR-bill is a payment and invoicing standard, not a data submission to a government authority, though it is treated as a compliance item on SabeeApp's own marketplace.
It has been in use since 30 June 2020, and it fully replaced the orange and red payment slips from 1 October 2022.
For HESTA and Easycheckin, yes — data is transmitted automatically once connected. For QR-bill, SabeeApp generates the compliant QR code on your invoices automatically.
HESTA and QR-bill apply broadly to Swiss accommodation providers and any invoicing business, respectively. Whether Easycheckin is required or optional likely depends on your canton; confirm locally.
This page is for general guidance only and is not legal advice. Requirements change; always confirm current rules with the Swiss Federal Statistical Office or your cantonal authority.