Whether a holiday apartment on the Titisee, an apartment in Hinterzarten or a holiday home in the Hochschwarzwald: successful letting requires professional marketing, the right prices and reliable organisation.
Immohost combines modern booking technology, personal support and ongoing optimisation into a comprehensive letting service.
Our focus regions in the Black Forest
In particular:
Titisee-Neustadt
Hinterzarten
Feldberg
Schluchsee
Todtnau
Todtmoos
St. Blasien
Other locations in the Black Forest can also be considered individually.
Demand in the Black Forest: strong summers, less certain winters
According to Schwarzwald Tourismus, the Black Forest counted 9.3 million guests and around 23.4 million overnight stays in 2025, counted in establishments with ten or more sleeping places. By far the most important foreign market is Switzerland, with around 1.7 million overnight stays. In the Hochschwarzwald, the upper Black Forest, the municipalities recorded almost 3.9 million overnight stays through the tourist tax in 2025, which also includes small holiday apartments (annual report of Hochschwarzwald Tourismus).
Place | Overnight stays 2025 |
|---|---|
Feldberg | 641,435 |
Titisee-Neustadt | 549,297 |
Hinterzarten | 539,384 |
Schluchsee | 416,484 |
Todtnau | 353,596 |
Todtmoos | 257,109 |
St. Blasien | 170,706 |
Source: tourist tax returns of the municipalities in the annual report of Hochschwarzwald Tourismus, for Todtmoos the tourism report of the district of Waldshut, in each case including small establishments.
Holiday apartments carry a lot of weight: in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, almost a quarter of all overnight stays in 2025 were in holiday apartments and holiday homes, and their guests stayed almost five nights on average, compared with 3.6 nights across all types of accommodation (tourism report of the district).
Summer is in highest demand. In the Southern Black Forest travel area, August was the strongest month in 2025 with 1.28 million overnight stays, followed by July; the quietest was February with 0.52 million. Around 62 percent of overnight stays fell between May and October. In winter, the period from Christmas to Epiphany matters most, but snow is becoming less reliable: in January 2026, Todtmoos had to cancel its sled dog race for lack of snow. For your holiday apartment, this means prices and minimum stays have to follow actual demand, not a fixed seasonal calendar.
Guests reach the Hochschwarzwald from the airports of Basel and Zurich in around an hour by car, and by train via the Höllentalbahn from Freiburg and the Dreiseenbahn to Schluchsee.
Guest cards: KONUS and Hochschwarzwald Card
With the tourist tax, your guests in all seven places receive the KONUS guest card from the first night. With it, they travel free of charge by bus and train throughout the Black Forest, from Pforzheim to Basel and from Karlsruhe to Waldshut; long-distance trains and mountain railways are excluded. From 2027, travel to the destination within the KONUS area is also to be included.
In the Hochschwarzwald there is also the Hochschwarzwald Card: from the second night, guests can visit around 100 attractions once free of charge, such as the Feldbergbahn. The card is only available from participating hosts, who pay a levy per overnight stay for it. Whether this pays off for your holiday apartment, we check with you.
More booking potential through professional marketing
The Black Forest appeals to different groups of guests: from hikers and families to wellness guests and short-break visitors.
Professional listings, suitable booking channels and dynamic prices help to make targeted use of different phases of demand.
We optimise marketing and pricing based on each property and its market situation.
Your partner for day-to-day operations
Managing a holiday apartment involves far more than accepting bookings.
Guest communication, organising cleaning, key management, ongoing optimisation and administrative processes take time and attention.
We bring these tasks together and create professional, transparent processes.
What owners in the Black Forest need to know
Tourist tax and tourism contribution
All seven places charge a tourist tax (Kurtaxe) per guest and day, which the host collects and pays to the municipality. On top of this comes a tourism contribution (Fremdenverkehrsbeitrag), which private hosts usually pay as a fixed amount per overnight stay. As of October 2026, according to the municipal statutes (in German):
Place | Tourist tax for adults from 16 per day | Children | Tourism contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
€3.50 in Titisee, Saig and Neustadt, €3.00 in the other districts | free under 6, €1.60 from 6 | €0.45 per overnight stay | |
€3.50 in the village centre, €3.00 in the rest of the municipality | free under 6, €1.60 from 6 | €0.50 per overnight stay for private hosts | |
€3.90 since 2026 | free under 6, €1.60 from 6 | €0.32 per overnight stay | |
€3.50 in Schluchsee village, €3.00 in the other districts | free under 6, €1.60 from 6 | €0.20 per overnight stay | |
€3.20 in Todtnauberg and Muggenbrunn, €2.80 in the other districts | free under 6, €1.30 from 6 | €0.25 per overnight stay | |
€3.90 in St. Blasien and Menzenschwand, €2.40 in Albtal and Schmelze | free under 6, €2.10 and €1.60 from 6 | €0.77 per person and overnight stay | |
€2.30 | free up to 16 | €0.56 per overnight stay from 16 |
Because the municipalities will pay more for KONUS from 2027, the rates may change.
Guest registration
In the Hochschwarzwald, the municipality's electronic registration procedure is mandatory. In Titisee-Neustadt, for example, hosts register their guests within three days of arrival and pay the tourist tax monthly; this also generates the KONUS card. Todtmoos still works with paper registration forms. Where the Federal Registration Act also requires a registration form, since 2025 only foreign guests sign it, including guests from Switzerland. As part of the agreed service, we take care of registration and settlement for you.
Second home and own use
If you also use the apartment yourself, the seven places charge second home tax, between 15 percent in Todtmoos and 20 percent of the annual rent or rental value. If your own use is limited in time by a letting contract, the tax falls to 25 to 75 percent of the full amount, depending on the place and the duration. For your own stays, you pay the tourist tax as an annual flat rate, for example €90 per person aged 16 and over in tourist tax zone I in Titisee-Neustadt, Hinterzarten and Schluchsee.
In Hinterzarten, a permit under Section 22 of the Federal Building Code is required if residential property is newly created or divided. If an apartment that has so far been lived in permanently is to be let to holiday guests, a building permit for the change of use may also be required, depending on the zoning, because under the Land Use Ordinance holiday apartments do not count as residential use. Which rules apply to your apartment, we clarify together before the start; this does not replace legal or tax advice.
Experience from our operation in Switzerland
Guests from Switzerland are the most important foreign market in the Black Forest, and we know them from our own operation: we let holiday apartments in the Bernese Oberland, in Engelberg and in Davos. These figures come from our Swiss operation:
4.8 out of 5 stars on Airbnb, with the Guest Favourite award
Guest service around the clock, with a response within 15 minutes
23.6 percent more revenue for a holiday apartment in Grindelwald, in 2025 with Immohost compared with 2024