Who Collects the Tourist Tax: Airbnb, Booking or You?

The tourist tax (city tax, eco-tax, imposta di soggiorno, taxe de séjour) is owed by the guest, but someone has to collect it and pay it to the authority. Depending on the platform and the country, that someone is the platform or you, and getting it wrong means either paying it out of your own pocket or charging the guest twice. This overview was checked in October 2026.

Airbnb: it depends on the country

Airbnb collects and remits tourist taxes on the host's behalf only in specific places. According to its help centre (October 2026), these include parts of France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia and Switzerland. Malta, Spain, Greece, Croatia and Poland are not on the list.

• In Italy, Airbnb started collecting on 15 February 2024 in more than 1,200 municipalities, adding the others over time. If your municipality is covered, the guest pays the tax at booking and Airbnb pays it to the municipality.
• In Malta, Airbnb does not collect the eco-contribution: you do. We explain the 2026 rules in our Malta eco-contribution guide.

Where Airbnb does not collect automatically, you can usually add a custom tax to your listing (a percentage, or a fee per guest, per night or per guest per night). Airbnb charges it to the guest and pays it to you as a separate payout; filing and paying it remains your job. It cannot model every local rule: caps, age exemptions or a maximum number of nights are not applied, so check what it actually charged and refund any amount the guest did not owe.

The list changes, so check the "taxes" section of your Airbnb listing and the payout details of a recent booking: if Airbnb collected the tax, it appears there.

Booking.com: usually you

In most countries Booking.com does not pay the tourist tax to the authority for you. Typically the guest sees it as a tax payable at the property, or you include it in the price. Check how your extranet presents taxes for your property: what the guest saw at booking is what they expect to pay.

Vrbo and other platforms

Rules vary by market. Assume the tax is yours to collect unless the platform explicitly says it remits it for your location.

Direct bookings: always you

When the guest books with you directly, nobody collects the tax in your place. Ask for it at check-in or, better, send the guest a payment link before arrival.

Collected by the platform does not always mean "nothing to do"

Even where the platform remits the tax, some authorities still expect a declaration from the host, and the platform only covers its own bookings. Keep a record, per booking, of who collected the tax.

The two classic mistakes

Charging twice: the platform already collected it, and you ask the guest again at check-in. A quick way to get a bad review.

Paying it yourself without noticing: the platform did not collect it, you never asked the guest, and at the end of the quarter you pay the authority from your own margin.

How EasyRentFlow keeps it straight

Every booking records how the tax is collected: Collected by portal, Paid by guest at check-in or Absorbed by host. You set a default per platform for each property (for example "Airbnb collects, Booking does not"), and change it on a single booking when needed. Your eco-tax register then shows what you owe, what the portals already took and what you still have to collect. With the optional online payment add-on, you send the guest a link to pay by card or PayPal, and the booking turns Paid by itself. See the eco-tax features.

General information, not tax advice. Platform policies change: check your listing and your local authority.