Malta Eco-Contribution 2026: A Guide for Hosts

If you rent out a licensed property in Malta or Gozo, the eco-contribution is your responsibility, even when the booking came through Airbnb or Booking.com. From 1 July 2026 the rate tripled, so it is worth checking that your listings, your receipts and your records have caught up. Everything below was checked against the Malta Tourism Authority guidelines in October 2026.

How much is the eco-contribution in 2026?

• Rate: €1.50 per night for every guest aged 18 or over at the start of the visit. Until 30 June 2026 it was €0.50.
• Cap: €22.50 per person per visit, which a guest reaches after 15 nights.
• Under 18s: exempt.
• When it is due: for every night the accommodation is made available to the guest, whether or not they actually sleep there.

A worked example

Two adults and a 12-year-old staying 7 nights pay 2 × 7 × €1.50 = €21.00. The child pays nothing. A couple staying 20 nights each reach the €22.50 cap, so the total is €45.00, not €60.00.

Who has to collect it?

The law calls the person liable "the producer": in practice, the person in whose name the property is licensed. You may agree with someone else to collect it for you, but the responsibility cannot be handed over. A management company registered with the MTA can take over collection, payment and reporting, but only after a formal notification to the MTA. Without that notification, the license holder stays liable.

Does Airbnb collect the eco-contribution for you?

Not automatically: Airbnb's list of places where it collects and remits taxes on the host's behalf does not include Malta (checked October 2026). What Airbnb does offer is a custom tax on your listing: you add a tax, choose how it is charged (for example a fee per guest per night, €1.50), and Airbnb collects it from the guest at booking and pays it to you as a separate payout. You still file and remit the eco-contribution yourself.

That setting has two limits that matter in Malta: it cannot apply the €22.50 cap for stays longer than 15 nights, and it cannot apply the under-18 exemption. A family with children, or a guest staying three weeks, will be charged more than the eco-contribution actually due. The difference is not eco-contribution, and the guest paid it believing it was a tax: refund it, or for those bookings collect the eco-contribution at check-in instead of through Airbnb.

On Booking.com the eco-contribution is normally shown to the guest as a tax payable at the property: check how your extranet presents it. We compare the platforms in Who collects the tourist tax: Airbnb, Booking.com or you?.

Paying and reporting

Licence holders are registered for the eco-contribution by the MTA, which notifies them. Returns are filed online on the facilities indicated by the MTA, and certain operational functions have been delegated to the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA), which is where the amounts collected are remitted. Payment is made with the methods the MTA approves.

The receipt rule most hosts miss

The eco-contribution paid by a guest must appear on a fiscal receipt issued under the VAT Act (Article 51 and the Thirteenth Schedule), and it must be shown separately from the accommodation and related fees, because it is not part of the price of the stay. This applies whether you use a manual fiscal receipt book or a point-of-sale system.

Proving that a guest is under 18

Unless you have evidence to the contrary, every guest is assumed to be 18 or older. To apply the exemption you need a document: the guest's passport (or a parent's passport that names them), an identity card, a birth certificate, or another document the MTA accepts. A digital guest registry where guests upload their documents before arrival makes this evidence easy to keep.

Guests who move between properties

The €22.50 cap applies to the whole visit, even when a guest stays in more than one licensed property. If a guest asks you to apply the cap because they already paid elsewhere, keep a copy of the previous accommodation's receipt as evidence.

How EasyRentFlow helps

• Calculation on every booking: set the rate, the cap per person, the maximum nights and the exemption age once per property, and every booking gets the right amount, including the 15-night cap.
• Who collects it: mark each booking as collected by the portal, paid by the guest at check-in, or absorbed by you, so your accounts stay right.

• A quarterly register of what is due and what you have already remitted.

• Online payment (optional add-on): send the guest a link by WhatsApp or email to pay by card through your own Stripe account, or with your PayPal or Revolut link. The booking turns Paid on its own. The receipt EasyRentFlow gives the guest confirms the payment; it does not replace the fiscal receipt the VAT Act requires.

See all the eco-tax features or start a free 6-month trial.

A quick checklist

1. Update the rate to €1.50 in every channel and template for stays from 1 July 2026.

2. Make sure the cap of €22.50 per person is applied, not a nightly total without limit.

3. Keep evidence for every guest you treat as under 18.

4. Show the eco-contribution separately on the fiscal receipt.

5. File your returns and keep a record of what you remitted.

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules can change: check the Malta Tourism Authority for the official text.