The Venice tourist tax, the tassa di soggiorno, is a per-person, per-night fee charged on every paid overnight stay inside the Comune di Venezia. It is small in absolute terms (€1 to €5 per night), capped at five consecutive nights, and collected by the accommodation on behalf of the city. The mechanics confuse first-time visitors more often than the cost itself, mostly because Venice runs two parallel visitor charges and the two are easy to mix up. This guide separates them and walks through the rates, the cap, the exemptions, and the collection method.
The short answer
Between €1 and €5 per person per night, depending on accommodation class and season. Capped at five consecutive nights per stay. Paid through your accommodation, usually in cash at check-in or as a line on the bill at check-out. Children under 10 are exempt. The tax is collected from anyone, of any nationality, who stays in a paid accommodation inside the Comune di Venezia.
For a couple in a mid-range apartment in the historic centre, the typical out-of-pocket cost is around €25 to €40 for a three-to-five-night stay.
The tourist tax is not the same as the access fee (the day-tripper charge). If you are an overnight guest, you do not pay the access fee at all. The two are covered separately; see The Venice Access Fee for the day-tripper side.
The two visitor charges, separated
Venice runs two visitor charges in 2026, and confusing them is the most common reader question.
| Charge | Who pays | When | Cost | How |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City tax (tassa di soggiorno) | Overnight guests | Every night of a stay (capped 5 nights) | €1 to €5 per person per night | Through the accommodation |
| Access fee (contributo di accesso) | Day-trippers, 14 and over | On 60 listed peak days, 08:30 to 16:00 | €5 to €10 per person, per visit | On the cda.ve.it portal or at a tabaccaio |
The two are mutually exclusive. An overnight guest pays the city tax (per night) and is automatically exempt from the access fee for the entire stay. A day-tripper pays the access fee on listed days and never sees the city tax.
The city tax has existed since 2011 and is in line with the Italian municipal tourist tax framework used in Rome, Florence, Milan, and Bologna. The access fee is newer, specific to Venice, and only in its third year of operation in 2026.
The 2026 rates
The official 2026 rates are tiered by accommodation type and season. The high season runs from 1 February to 31 December; the low season is the single month of 1 to 31 January. The rate tiers in 2026:
Hotels in the historic centre and lagoon islands:
- 5-star and 5-star luxury: €5.00 per person per night
- 4-star: €4.50
- 3-star: €3.50
- 2-star: €2.00
- 1-star: €1.00
Short-let apartments, B&Bs, and non-hotel accommodation in the historic centre:
- Higher classification: €3.50 to €4.50 per person per night
- Standard classification: €3.00 to €3.50
Accommodation on the mainland (Mestre, Marghera) and the Lido:
- Roughly 50 percent of the historic-centre rate (a 4-star on the mainland is around €2.50)
Camping and youth hostels:
- €1.00 per person per night
In low season (January only), most rates are reduced by 20 to 30 percent. Your accommodation tells you the exact rate at booking; the city publishes the official 2026 tariff schedule on the municipal website.
The figures above are the published 2026 rates. They can shift modestly year to year; the cap and the structure are stable.
The five-night cap
The most useful rule to know: the tourist tax is charged for a maximum of five consecutive nights per stay.
A two-night stay pays two nights of tax.
A five-night stay pays five nights of tax.
A seven-night stay pays five nights of tax.
A ten-night stay pays five nights of tax.
The cap is per booking, not per trip. Switching accommodations mid-trip (a common Venice pattern: three nights in Castello, then three nights in Dorsoduro for a different angle) resets the count: three plus three is six nights of tax, not five.
The cap is per-person, applied to each guest separately, so two adults sharing a room each get the five-night cap.
The cap does not apply to the access fee, which is charged per visit regardless of length.
Who is exempt
The full exemption list is on the Comune di Venezia page. In summary:
- Children under 10. Fully exempt regardless of accommodation. The most common exemption.
- Residents of the Comune di Venezia. Registered through the accommodation against a national ID card.
- People assisting hospitalised patients. Documentation from the hospital.
- Police, military, and emergency personnel in Venice on official duty.
- Drivers and tour leaders accompanying groups, one exempt per group of 25.
- Members of associations during city-recognised events, on the event’s official list.
Some accommodations give a 50 percent reduction to children aged 10 to 15, but this is not universal and depends on the property’s choice. Confirm at booking if your stay includes children in this band.
Students on study abroad, business travellers, and tourists on package tours have no specific exemption and pay the standard rate.
How the tax is collected
The collection method varies by accommodation type and, to some extent, by booking platform. The three most common patterns:
Cash at check-in. Most common for short-let apartments. The host hands you a card, asks for €X in cash, gives a receipt issued in the city’s standard format. Always ask for the receipt; it confirms the tax was paid and registered.
Card or cash at check-out. Most common for hotels. The tax appears as a separate line on the invoice, alongside any minibar or laundry charges. Card payment is fine; some hotels prefer cash to avoid the card transaction fee.
Collected at booking. Booking.com collects the tax at the time of booking and remits it to the city directly. Airbnb’s collection practice depends on the year and the specific local agreement; in some years and some listings it is collected at booking, in others it is collected by the host on arrival. The booking confirmation tells you which.
The legal point: the tax is owed to the city, not to the accommodation. The accommodation is the collector, with a strict obligation to register every guest in the regional tourist database and to remit the tax monthly. The receipts you receive carry the city’s standard format because they are the audit trail.
What the tax funds
The city tax revenue (around €40 to €45 million per year in recent years) is restricted by law to tourism-related expenses: cleaning and maintenance of public spaces in the historic centre, the upkeep of museums and cultural sites, the lagoon’s environmental protection, the cost of additional vaporetto services during peak season, and the staffing of tourist information offices. The municipal budget publishes an annual breakdown.
This is the substantive case for paying it without irritation. A €3 nightly tax across a five-night stay buys €15 of municipal services that you, as an overnight guest, materially benefit from: cleaner calli in the morning, working public fountains, a vaporetto that runs to the right schedule on a Sunday in May. The access fee for day-trippers feeds the same fund.
For the context of how the city manages tourism in general (the 2021 cruise ban, the bus cap, MOSE), the deeper read is The Venice Access Fee.
Common mistakes
Assuming the tax is included in your apartment’s nightly rate. Usually not. Read the listing’s fine print: “city tax not included” means you pay it on top, in cash at check-in.
Assuming the cap is per trip, not per booking. It is per booking. Two consecutive bookings at different apartments pay tax on each separately.
Assuming children under 16 are exempt. Only under 10 is fully exempt. 10 to 15 sometimes pays half rate, depending on the accommodation; check before booking.
Mixing it up with the access fee. They are separate. As an overnight guest you pay the city tax and are exempt from the access fee for the whole stay including arrival and departure days.
Refusing to pay in cash. Many short-let apartments take only cash for the tax to avoid the card processing fee on a €15 transaction. Bring small bills for the first day.
Asking for an invoice in your name for tax-deductible business travel. The accommodation can issue one, but Italian tourist-tax receipts are personal and the format is fixed by the city. They are not VAT receipts.
What this means for your stay
If you are spending one to four nights in a Venice apartment as a couple, expect €15 to €40 of tourist tax, paid in cash on arrival. That is the realistic budget line.
If you are staying longer, the five-night cap kicks in. A ten-night stay costs the same in tax as a five-night stay; the marginal nights are free of tax even at €4 per night per person.
If you are travelling with a child under 10, halve the household tax (the child is exempt). If the child is 10 to 15, ask at booking whether the property applies the 50 percent reduction.
If the dates of your stay overlap with the access fee window (3 April to 26 July 2026), you do not pay the access fee. The tourist tax already covers the city. Your accommodation handles the access-fee exemption registration; you do not register yourself.
Authoritative external reference: the Comune di Venezia tourist tax page carries the current rates and the exemption documentation in English and Italian. For the day-tripper version, the access fee portal at cda.ve.it is the matching source.
To check rates and book an apartment for the nights the tax is going to land, the full collection is here. For the broader practical context of a Venice stay (water, vaporetto, acqua alta, what to pack), see Practical Venice.
