If you stay overnight in Florence and are not resident in the Municipality of Florence, the municipal tourist tax is calculated for each taxable guest and each overnight stay. The amount depends on the accommodation category, while specific exemptions and a maximum chargeable period affect the total.
The practical way to budget it is to identify the category of your hotel, rental or other accommodation, count the guests who are not exempt, and keep the receipt or separate invoice line. The sections below explain the current rates, who qualifies for relief, how collection works and how the tax differs from other accommodation charges.
Florence tourist tax at a glance
- Tariff status
- The tariff in force on 21 September 2026 was approved on 10 December 2024 and applies from 1 February 2025.
- Collector
- The accommodation manager collects the tax, issues a receipt and remits it to the Municipality of Florence by the 15th of the following month.
That scope covers more than conventional hotels. It can include a short-term rental, a furnished apartment rented for tourist use, a campsite, a residence, a guesthouse, a bed-and-breakfast, an agriturismo or a covered parking area. The deciding points are the Florence location, the overnight stay and the guest’s non-resident status. The rule therefore follows the place where you stay and the guest’s status, not whether the reservation was made directly with the property or through an online platform. Florence’s charge should not be treated as a general tax for every Italian overnight stay: this page describes the municipal rule for accommodation in the Municipality of Florence.
The charge belongs to the individual guest rather than to the room. Your next step is therefore to identify the accommodation category and apply its nightly rate to each taxable person. The table gives the full tariff without mixing in exemptions or unrelated booking charges. The number of bedrooms and the total reservation price do not replace that category-based calculation. As the visitor, you normally deal with the accommodation manager or the platform where the municipal collection arrangement applies, rather than calculating a payment to the City yourself. Keep the receipt or separate invoice line once the charge has been collected, then use the following sections to check reliefs and the limit on chargeable nights.
Rates by accommodation category
| Accommodation category | Tax per person per night |
|---|---|
| 1-star hotel or R.T.A.; 1–4-star campsite; 1-sun agriturismo | €3.50 |
| Youth hostel; holiday home | €4.00 |
| 2-star hotel or R.T.A.; 2-key residence; 2-sun agriturismo | €4.50 |
| 3-star hotel or R.T.A.; 1–3-star campsite; business or non-business guesthouse; CAV; business or non-business B&B; tourist rental; 3-key residence; 3-sun agriturismo | €6.00 |
| 4-star hotel or R.T.A.; period residence; 4-key residence; 4-sun agriturismo | €7.00 |
| 5-star hotel or R.T.A.; 5-sun agriturismo | €8.00 |
The rate follows the accommodation category, not the number of rooms or the booking price. For a simple estimate, identify the applicable row, count the taxable guests and multiply by the number of chargeable overnight stays. For example, two taxable guests staying three nights create six person-nights before any exemption or reduction is applied.
The table groups the categories exactly where the tariff gives them the same amount. “R.T.A.” means residence turistico-alberghiera, a tourist hotel residence. “CAV” means casa e appartamenti per vacanze, or holiday apartments. These labels help you match an Italian property classification to the right row without treating a platform’s room description as a different tax category.
The rates apply from 1 February 2025 and remain the tariff in force on 21 September 2026. The seven-night limit, age exemption, other relief and the treatment of longer stays are separate parts of the calculation, so do not subtract them informally from the category rate.
Taxable guests, exemptions and night limits
Florence’s answer to “per room or per person?” is clear: the taxable unit is each non-resident person and each overnight stay. A room shared by two taxable guests is counted twice for each chargeable night, while a guest who qualifies for an exemption or reduction is treated under that specific rule.
Children are exempt until they reach 12, so the child-specific exemption applies to guests under 12. There is no general exemption for young people. Travellers under 16 receive a 50% reduction only when they are members of sports groups taking part in an initiative or tournament organised in collaboration with the Municipal Administration, with certification from their sports federation.
Other published exemptions cover, among others, people assisting patients in local health facilities, day-hospital patients, University of Florence students, personnel staying solely for official service, employees staying at their workplace for work needs, people with a severe disability plus one companion, Sollicciano prisoners on eligible leave, and people or volunteers accommodated for specified assistance, emergency, humanitarian or healthcare activities. The supporting conditions differ: depending on the case, the provider needs a hospital-assistance declaration, current-year university enrolment attestation, service or other declaration, disability certification or the relevant authority’s documentation.
The rules also provide a 50% reduction for lower- and upper-secondary school groups on educational visits, certified by the school principal. The accommodation provider must request and retain the relevant attestations, so send the document through the provider’s stated process rather than simply announcing that you qualify.
The tax applies to the first seven consecutive overnight stays. If your stay lasts longer, nights after the seventh are not subject to the tax and must be reported as overnight stays exceeding seven nights. This is a Florence municipal rule. Another Italian destination may use a different threshold, scope or exemption list.
Count the guest, not the room
Do
- Count each non-resident guest separately and apply the category rate to each chargeable overnight stay.
- Remove children before age 12 from the taxable guest count.
- Give the accommodation provider the relevant declaration or certificate when you rely on an exemption or reduction.
- Stop the tax calculation after the first seven consecutive overnight stays, recording later nights under the applicable long-stay exemption.
Don’t
- Divide one room’s tax between guests as though the room had a single charge.
- Assume every traveller under 16 is exempt.
- Apply a medical, study, work or service exemption without the required supporting statement or attestation.
- Treat Florence’s municipal rules as a nationwide Italian tourist-tax rule.
Paying at a hotel or rental
- Identify who is collecting. At a hotel, guesthouse or other accommodation, the manager collects the tax from you, while for a short-term rental, responsibility rests with the person who collects the rent or otherwise intervenes in collecting it.
- Pay during the stay when the accommodation manager requests the tax. Florence authorises collection within the stay but does not prescribe a particular check-in or check-out moment.
- Treat Airbnb differently only where the Florence collect-and-remit arrangement applies: Airbnb collects at booking and remits the tax to the Municipality. Another platform may collect only where it has the corresponding agreement. Otherwise the accommodation manager collects it.
- Read the property’s notices on its website, listing or other advertising channel. They must state that the tax applies, the amount applicable at that property and the available exemptions and reductions.
- Keep the nominative receipt, or the invoice showing the tourist tax as a separate line outside VAT, after payment. It is your record that the municipal charge has been collected.
The key distinction is who handles the booking and payment, and whether that platform has a collect-and-remit agreement with Florence. A platform’s involvement alone does not transfer the collection duty. If no such arrangement applies, the host or rental manager remains responsible for collecting the tax and issuing the receipt.
For Airbnb stays covered by the municipal arrangement, the host still has a reporting role: Airbnb-covered stays are identified separately from stays managed directly, and the host must pay any difference if the platform collected less than the applicable municipal rate. That does not change the visitor’s basic task: check who has charged the tax and retain the record.
The rule allows collection at any point during the stay rather than naming a mandatory check-in or check-out stage. This is why the amount may appear in the arrival or departure process, but the exact timing is not itself a separate Florence tariff rule. The required proof is the receipt or the distinct invoice line, not an unexplained increase in the accommodation price.
Separating the tax from other charges
The tourist tax is separate from the price of the room or rental and from charges created by the accommodation contract or booking process. Cleaning, service, booking and payment fees have different purposes and are not converted into tourist tax simply because they appear on the same reservation or final bill.
Florence requires accommodation providers to inform guests through dedicated notices on every advertising channel, including websites and online booking platforms. The notice must explain that the tax applies, state the amount applicable to that property and identify the available exemptions and reductions. The current regulation does not say in this provision that the tax must be included in, or displayed separately from, the room or rental price at a particular booking stage.
For your budget, calculate the municipal tax from the accommodation category, the taxable guest count and the chargeable nights, then keep other accommodation fees as separate lines. Do not invent a combined allowance for cleaning or service charges: those amounts are not part of the Florence tourist-tax tariff. If the provider collects the municipal charge, the receipt or invoice line gives you the record to retain.
Sources & fact-checking
Checks against the sources below cover: services and fares and charges.
