Milan tourist tax and city tax rates for 2026

Every guest who is not a resident of Milan pays the tax on nights spent in a hotel, aparthotel, B&B, guesthouse, hostel, campsite, holiday apartment or short-term rental inside the city. The rate is per person rather than per room, and it depends on the type of property and its star rating, not on the room price or the season. There is no higher band for luxury hotels and no low season. The City of Milan tourist tax page (in Italian) sets out the rules.

The current rates have applied since 1 April 2026, when the resolution setting the rates from April 2026 (in Italian) raised five-star hotels from €10 to €12 and cut the rates for one-, two- and three-star hotels. The city's Milan tourist tax rates from 1 April 2026 (in Italian) list every category, and staff at the Milan tourist information offices can help with questions after arrival.

With the tax worked out, the guide to things to do in Milan helps plan the days in the city, from the Duomo rooftops and the Last Supper to the Navigli canals at aperitivo time.

The tax for a stay is the number of guests aged 18 or over, times the nights that count, times the rate for the property. In hotels and B&Bs every night counts, while holiday apartments, aparthotels and short-term rentals stop charging after 14 consecutive nights. The examples below use the rates in force since 1 April 2026.

The last three rows show why the type of property matters on a long stay: the same 20 nights cost €266 in tax in a holiday apartment and €400 in a four-star hotel. Business trips are not exempt, so a colleague sharing a room pays the same as a holidaymaker.

Many travel sites say the Milan tax stops after 14 nights for every guest. Under article 4 of the Milan tourist tax regulation (in Italian), that limit only covers aparthotels, holiday homes and apartments, non-profit holiday houses and short-term rentals. Hotels, B&Bs, guesthouses, inns, hostels and campsites charge the tax for the whole stay.

In the second group nothing more is due from the 15th consecutive night. If the stay is broken, for example by a few nights in another town, the count starts again on the return. A day-use room booked for a few hours without an overnight stay is not taxed.

Residents of Milan never pay, and the regulation exempts several groups of visitors. The City of Milan tourist tax notice for guests summarises them in English. Anyone who qualifies fills in the exemption self-certification form and hands it to the property, which keeps it.

The English form lacks the box for police and armed forces on duty, which appears only in the Italian version. School groups, coach drivers, tour guides and older travellers have no exemption, and the exemption for athletes and Olympic delegations ended with the Winter Games on 15 March 2026. During major trade fairs and congresses the city can cut the tax by up to 50% when hotels lower their prices by at least 20%. The event organiser and the hotels arrange that reduction, which does not apply to short-term rentals.

The tax is paid to the property, which passes it on to the city. The hotel or host must give a receipt in the guest's name or show the tax as a separate line on the invoice, and the city's guidance says the receipt should be kept for at least six years. The City of Milan page for accommodation providers adds that guests are not entitled to refuse to pay: if one does, the property still owes the tax and can claim it back from the guest.

Airbnb is the exception. It collects the Milan tax when the booking is made and pays it to the city, under an agreement in force since 1 March 2018, so nothing more is due at the apartment. Exempt guests claim the refund from Airbnb, not from the host. For 2026 stays booked before 9 December 2025, Airbnb collected the older rate, and hosts ask for the €3.20 difference per person per night in person.

Booking.com and Vrbo do not collect the tax in Italy, so guests pay it at the property. Under Decree-Law 50/2017, article 4 (in Italian), whoever collects the rent for a short-term rental, a platform included, is responsible for paying the tax to the city. Organisers of congresses and group trips with at least 500 participants can pay it in advance for the whole group.

The Milan tax applies only inside the municipality of Milan. Hotels by Fiera Milano, the airports or the Monza circuit belong to other towns, each with its own tax or none at all, and none of the towns below charges more than Milan. Each rate comes from the town's own resolution, published in the Finance Ministry register of local tax resolutions (in Italian).

Assago, home of the Unipol Forum arena, and Cologno Monzese on the M2 metro line have no tourist tax either. The saving counts most on longer stays: for a trade fair visitor in a four-star hotel at Rho, four nights cost €20 per person in tax, against €40 in Milan.

Italian law caps the tourist tax at €5 a night under Legislative Decree 23/2011, article 4 (in Italian), and from September 2012 Milan charged up to that ceiling. The 2024 rates resolution (in Italian) raised the lower bands by €0.50 to €1.50. Two temporary laws then let the city go higher. The Jubilee surcharge in Law 213/2023 (in Italian) allowed up to €2 more in 2025, applied through the 2025 rates resolution (in Italian). The Olympic surcharge in Decree-Law 156/2025 (in Italian) then allowed up to €5 more in 2026 in towns near the Milano Cortina Winter Games venues.

The January to March 2026 rates resolution (in Italian) used the Olympic surcharge to take four- and five-star hotels to €10. Once Law 199/2025, paragraph 683 (in Italian) extended the €2 Jubilee surcharge to 2026, the city reshaped the rates from April, with €12 for five-star hotels and lower rates for the cheaper hotels. The city earmarks the increases of 2025 and 2026 for public transport, and the City of Milan budget open data (in Italian) show €80.2 million collected in 2024 and €114.0 million in 2025, with €179.4 million forecast for 2026.

Both surcharges were granted for 2026 only. Unless a new national law extends them, the cap returns to €5 a night in 2027, and the city budget already forecasts €88 million in tax revenue for 2027, less than half the 2026 figure. As of 29 October 2026 no 2027 rates have been approved. In recent years Milan has set the next year's rates between late October and mid-November, and the 2027 national budget, approved by the Council of Ministers on 28 October 2026, has not been published yet.

A booking marked "city tax not included" or "excluded" means the tax is paid at the property on top of the price shown. That extra belongs in any comparison between a hotel and an apartment, above all on stays of more than two weeks. The receipt is the record if a refund or a dispute comes up later. Guests booking now for 2027 will pay the rate in force on the night of the stay, which may be lower than today's if the surcharges lapse.