Restaurant or tavern on a farm in Republika Srpska: conditions and registration

A restaurant, tavern (gostionica), café (kafana) or other food and drink venue on a farm must be run by a registered hospitality business (ugostitelj): a company or a sole trader (Law on Hospitality, Articles 5 and 8). There is one exception for rural services. The holder of a family farm who is not registered as a sole trader may offer accommodation, food and drink from the farm's own production in a rural tourism facility only under a contract with a tourist organisation or with a licensed travel agency (Art. 19, para. 4). That case is covered in the article "Hosting guests on a farm in Republika Srpska: who may, and the rules". This article covers the conditions for a registered food and drink venue.

In short

• A sole trader may start work once the municipality or city issues the registration decision. A company may start once it is registered with the court (Law, Article 8).
• The premises must meet the general and special minimum conditions of the Rulebook on classification of catering facilities and conditions for space, devices and equipment (Pravilnik o razvrstavanju ugostiteljskih objekata..., "Službeni glasnik RS" no. 8/20).
• The venue's rooms must not be directly connected to a dwelling (Rulebook, Article 7).
• Star categorisation is mandatory only for accommodation (Law, Article 23). A restaurant may ask the Ministry of Trade and Tourism for a voluntary assessment of service quality and standards (Article 28).
• A sole trader who does not display the business name, issues no receipt, keeps no business book or serves drinks in PET bottles faces a fine of 1,000 to 4,000 KM (Law, Article 45).

What the premises must have

The type of venue depends on what you offer:

• Restaurant (Rulebook, Art. 77): a kitchen, a dining room, a bar counter, a store room for food and drink, and a telephone or mobile phone guests can use.
• Gostionica (tavern) (Art. 78): mainly home-style dishes. It needs a room for preparing food, a serving room, a bar counter and a store room for food and drink. If it also offers accommodation, it may have at most eight rooms with at most 16 beds.
• Domaća kuhinja (home cooking venue) (Art. 84) and konoba (wine and rakija cellar) (Art. 95) must always have a room or area for preparing food.
• Kafana (café) (Art. 87) and krčma (inn serving mainly drinks) (Art. 94) have simpler requirements and need a room or area for preparing food only if they serve meals.

General conditions that most often need attention in the countryside:

• Clear ceiling height in the kitchen, serving rooms and toilets: at least 2.50 m if the area is up to 50 m2, 2.70 m above 50 m2 and 3 m above 100 m2 (Art. 19). For premises over 100 m2 that were already operating when the Rulebook entered into force on 12 February 2020, 2.80 m is enough (Art. 99).
• Kitchen and toilets: walls covered with tiles or other waterproof material up to 1.80 m, waterproof floors, and no slippery floors (Art. 20 and 21).
• Ventilation: at least 30 m3 of air per hour per guest. The kitchen needs extraction of smoke, steam and odours that changes the air 20 times an hour (Art. 16 and 27).
• Water must be safe to drink. Where there is no public sewer, waste water goes to a septic tank (Art. 11).
• Heating to at least 20 °C in guest areas, unless the venue operates only in summer (Art. 14).
• Toilets: a food and drink venue with a dining room of up to 50 m2 may have one shared toilet cubicle with an anteroom; otherwise it needs separate cubicles for women and men. If the toilet is outside the building, the path must be concrete or paved and lit at night, and the way to it sheltered from rain and snow (Art. 39 and 40).
• At least 50% of the outdoor serving area must be covered (Art. 34).
• The main entrance should be accessible to people with reduced mobility. If that is not possible, there must be a clearly signposted alternative entrance (Art. 8).

What to do

1. Choose the business form: sole trader or company (see the articles on choosing a business form and on registering a sole trader or company).
2. Fit out the space in line with the Rulebook and fire safety rules. Before any works, check with the municipality that the space may be used for this activity.
3. Register the activity and obtain the registration decision. The business name must include the type of venue (Law, Article 11).
4. Register the food premises with the competent authority (see the article on registering or approving food business premises).
5. If you have a kitchen, set up self-control based on HACCP principles (Law on Hospitality, Article 36; see the article on HACCP).
6. Before opening, have ready (Law, Article 30; Rulebook, Article 36):
   • the registration decision kept on the premises,
   • the business name and venue type clearly displayed at the entrance,
   • opening hours displayed at the entrance,
   • a price list available to guests and a menu with prices including tax,
   • normativi (standard quantities for food and drinks),
   • a business book with proof of where the goods came from,
   • a visible notice that alcohol is not served to anyone under 18,
   • drinks in glass bottles.
7. Standard opening hours for all venues are set by a decision of the municipality or city. Extended hours are approved by an individual decision (Law, Article 33).

Notes

• Article 9 of the Law requires waiters, cooks and pastry cooks in a restaurant to have at least secondary education, in hospitality or another field. Those without a hospitality qualification can complete retraining, additional training or a publicly recognised training programme.
• On 24 September 2026 the Government of Republika Srpska adopted a Proposal for a new Law on Hospitality. According to the Government's press release, the proposal allows hermetically sealed PET packaging alongside glass, and bans serving drinks in plastic cups, pouches and other open single-use plastic packaging. It also introduces a tasting room (degustacioni prostor) category. Until the National Assembly passes the new law and it is published in the Official Gazette, the current law applies (Službeni glasnik RS no. 45/17 and 1/24). Before investing, check with the Ministry of Trade and Tourism which rules are in force.
• The Ministry of Trade and Tourism lists the Law (Službeni glasnik RS no. 45/17 and 1/24) among the laws in force, and Rulebook no. 8/20 is quoted from the text the Ministry publishes. The official text is in the Official Gazette of Republika Srpska.
• Fiscal receipts, health checks, allergens and packaging waste each have their own article.

Where to go

• Office for Entrepreneurship (Kancelarija za preduzetništvo), City of Trebinje, Vuka Karadžića 2, tel. 059/273-460: trebinje.rs.ba/kancelarija-za-preduzetnistvo
• Department for Municipal Inspection (Odjeljenje za komunalno-inspekcijske poslove), City of Trebinje: trebinje.rs.ba
• Ministry of Trade and Tourism of Republika Srpska (Ministarstvo trgovine i turizma), Trg Republike Srpske 1, Banja Luka, tel. 051/338-769, mtt@mtt.vladars.rs: vladars.rs

Laws and sources

• Law on Hospitality (Službeni glasnik RS no. 45/17 and 1/24), Ministry of Trade and Tourism
• Rulebook on classification of catering facilities and conditions for space, devices and equipment (Službeni glasnik RS no. 8/20), Ministry of Trade and Tourism text
• Government of Republika Srpska: Proposal for a Law on Hospitality adopted, 24 September 2026 (in BHS)