Rostock levies a year-round visitor tax (Kurabgabe) across the entire municipal area. The standard overnight-guest rate is €3.70 per person per day/night, including a €1.45 public-transport component. The reduced overnight rate is €1.45. Day visitors pay €2.25 standard or €0.00 reduced. For qualifying long-term visitors (including second-home owners, permanent campsite pitches and permanent boat berths), the annual flat rate is €63.00 standard or €42.00 reduced. The tax includes statutory VAT; arrival and departure days are counted as two days under the current 2025 statute.
Exempt: children up to and including age 5; persons with a certified disability level (GdB) of at least 80; and accompanying persons of a person with GdB 100 where the official disability card states that constant assistance is required. Reduced rate: children and young people aged 6–14 inclusive, and persons with GdB of at least 50. Persons who work, study or train in the municipality are treated as not being non-resident for the statutory visitor-tax purpose and are therefore not liable; the same applies to qualifying allotment-garden use without residential accommodation.
A paid short-term accommodation provider—including operators of holiday apartments/houses, Airbnb, guest rooms, hotels, campsites and boat berths—is a Quartiergeber. The host must collect the Kurabgabe on arrival, remit it under the city’s assessment notice, issue the named GästeCard, record guest data (name, address, arrival and departure dates, and any exemption/reduction basis), and use Rostock’s electronic registration system. Registration must be completed within one working day after arrival; supporting records must be retained for 12 months and made available to the Tourismuszentrale. The cited materials do not state a separate municipal registration-number requirement. In Warnemünde, conversion of permanent or second homes into holiday apartments is subject to planning/retention controls and the applicable development-plan rules; the official 2026 notice confirms the plan protecting housing from conversion to holiday apartments is in force. No general citywide Zweckentfremdungsverbot or registration-number rule was identified in the cited official materials.