Tourist taxes by city: what you actually pay, and the catch

Amsterdam has the steepest city tax in Europe: 12.5% of the room price (before VAT), added every night, with no cap on the number of nights.

On a €250 room that is over €31 a night, and from 2026 the Dutch VAT on hotel stays jumped from 9% to 21%, so the combined tax bite is around a third of the bill.

The catch: Because it is a percentage, not a flat fee, it scales with how much you spend, so a pricey hotel is taxed hard. It also applies to short-stay rentals and to cruise passengers.

Source: City of Amsterdam (tourist tax)

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Paris raised its taxe de séjour for 2026. The all-in rate per adult per night runs from about €0.65 at a campsite and €1.95 at a hostel up to €3.25 (2-star), €5.53 (3-star), €8.45 (4-star), €11.70 (5-star) and €15.93 at a palace; unclassified places pay 5% of the room rate, capped at €15.93.

Those figures already include the stacked surcharges: Paris adds a 10% departmental tax, a 15% regional tax and a 200% Île-de-France transport surcharge on top of the base municipal rate, so the levy is far bigger than the headline figure.

The catch: It is per adult per night, with under-18s exempt. The surcharges that more than triple the base rate are easy to overlook when you compare hotels.

Source: Paris je t’aime (tourist tax)

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Venice charges two separate things. The overnight city tax is €1 to €4.50 per person per night, capped at five nights and set by hotel category and season.

On top, the day-tripper access fee returns for 2026: €5 if you register at least four days ahead, €10 if you book late, to enter the historic centre between 08:30 and 16:00 on about 60 peak days from 3 April to 26 July (Fridays to Sundays plus some holiday stretches).

The catch: Overnight guests do not pay the day-tripper fee, but they still have to pre-register to get an exemption code. Children under 14 are exempt from the access fee.

Source: Venezia Unica (access fee)

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Barcelona stacks the Catalan regional tax plus a city surcharge. From 1 April 2026 that comes to about €6 a night for a youth hostel, €8.40 at a 4-star, €9.50 for a tourist apartment and up to €12 at a five-star hotel, per person.

The municipal surcharge is set to keep rising by about €1 a year through 2029, so it only goes up from here.

The catch: It is per person and capped at seven nights. Madrid, by contrast, has no tourist tax at all, so the two big Spanish cities are worlds apart on this.

Source: Catalan Tax Agency (IEET)

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Rome's contributo di soggiorno scales with hotel class: about €4 at a 1-star up to €10 at five-star and luxury hotels, with most 4-star stays at €7.50, for up to 10 consecutive nights.

Children under 10 are exempt.

The catch: It is charged per person, so a family adds up fast, and it is usually collected at the hotel (often in cash at checkout) rather than baked into your booking price.

Source: Roma Capitale (contributo di soggiorno)

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New York City hotels carry one of the heaviest tax loads anywhere: roughly 14.75% in combined sales and hotel-occupancy taxes, plus about $3.50 per room per night in flat fees.

It is all added to the room rate, and often only fully visible at checkout.

The catch: On a $300 room that is around $48 a night in tax. Many hotels also tack on a 'destination' or facility fee, which is not a tax but stings just the same.

Source: NYC Dept. of Finance (hotel occupancy tax)

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Las Vegas room tax runs about 13% to 13.38% (the Strip is at the top of that range), added to the nightly rate.

The bigger hit is the resort fee almost every Strip hotel charges, commonly $45 to $60 a night, which is not a tax but is effectively unavoidable.

The catch: The resort fee is the real catch: it is mandatory, charged per night, and usually left out of the headline room price you booked.

Source: City of Las Vegas (room tax)

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Florence sets the rate by hotel category: about €3.50 a night at the cheapest places up to €8 at five-star hotels, with most mid-range stays around €6 per person per night.

It is capped at seven nights and under-12s pay nothing.

The catch: Like the rest of Italy it is per person and usually paid at the hotel, so a couple over a week pays roughly €80 on top of the room.

Source: Comune di Firenze (imposta di soggiorno)

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Lisbon's taxa turística is €4 per person per night for the first seven nights of your stay.

It applies from age 13; under-13s are exempt.

The catch: It is collected by the accommodation, often separately from your booking, so plan for €4 a head a night on top of the room.

Source: Lisboa (Taxa Municipal Turística)

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Greece replaced its old hotel tax with a Climate Crisis Resilience Fee. It is seasonal and set by accommodation type, from as little as €0.50 a night off-season up to €15 a night at top hotels in summer.

The higher rates run April to October, and the same fee applies across Greece, including Santorini, Mykonos and the rest of the islands.

The catch: It is charged per room per night (not per person), and it is steepest in peak summer, exactly when most people travel to the islands.

Source: Greek tax authority (AADE)

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Berlin's City Tax is 7.5% of the net room price (before VAT), for stays of up to 21 nights.

Since 2024 it applies to business trips too, not just leisure stays.

The catch: It is a percentage of the room, so it grows with the nightly rate rather than staying flat.

Source: Berlin.de (Übernachtungsteuer)

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Vienna's accommodation tax (Ortstaxe) is about 3.2% of the room price until 30 June 2026, then rises to 5% from 1 July 2026, and to 8% from 1 July 2027.

A few exemptions apply, so check the current rules when you book.

The catch: Because the increase lands mid-2026, the rate you pay depends on your dates; confirm the current figure at booking.

Source: City of Vienna (Ortstaxe)

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Porto charges €3 per person per night for guests aged 13 and over, capped at €21 per trip (seven nights).

Under-13s are free.

The catch: Cheaper than Lisbon's €4, but still per person, and paid at the property rather than included in the room rate.

Source: Câmara Municipal do Porto (TMT)

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Prague charges a flat fee of about CZK 50, roughly €2, per person per night, for stays of up to 60 nights.

Under-18s are exempt.

The catch: One of the cheaper city taxes in Europe, and a flat fee, so it does not balloon if you book a nicer hotel.

Source: Prague City Hall

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Budapest adds a tourist tax of 4% of the net room price per night.

Under-18s are exempt.

The catch: A percentage, so a higher room rate means a higher tax, but on typical Budapest prices it stays modest.

Source: BudapestInfo (official tourism)

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Dubai charges a Tourism Dirham per room per night, set by hotel class: roughly AED 7 to AED 20 (about €2 to €5), with five-star hotels at the top.

It is per room, not per person, and unchanged for 2026.

The catch: Hotels also add a 10% municipality fee plus service charges and VAT, so the Tourism Dirham is only one line of the total you see on a Dubai hotel bill.

Source: Visit Dubai (official)

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Turkey applies a 2% accommodation tax on the room price nationwide, Istanbul included, but it was temporarily cut to 1% from 1 May 2026 through 31 December 2026.

It shows up on your bill and applies to hotels and short-term rentals alike.

The catch: A small percentage, so it stays modest, but it is charged on the pre-VAT room price across the whole country.

Source: Turkish Revenue Administration

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Tokyo's accommodation tax is a flat ¥100 per person per night for rooms priced ¥10,000 to ¥14,999, and ¥200 for rooms of ¥15,000 and over; cheaper rooms pay nothing.

Tokyo plans to switch to a 3% percentage system in 2027.

The catch: Tiny by European standards. Separately, Japan charges a ¥1,000 international departure tax, which is usually built into your flight ticket.

Source: Tokyo Metropolitan Government (tax bureau)

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Madrid has no general tourist tax. You pay your room plus Spain's VAT, and nothing extra per night.

There has been political talk of introducing one, but as of 2026 nothing is in force.

The catch: This makes Madrid noticeably cheaper than Barcelona for a like-for-like stay, since Barcelona adds roughly €10 a person a night.

Source: esMadrid (official tourism)

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England has had no tourist tax, and there still is none in force. A Tourist Levy for London is proposed but not yet law, and the rate and timing are unsettled, with early talk of a few pounds per room per night.

It depends on new powers being granted, and several other UK cities are weighing similar overnight levies.

The catch: Nothing is collected yet, so treat any specific figure or start date as provisional and check the latest before you book.

Source: Greater London Authority

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Dublin has no tourist tax in force, but the city council is actively weighing one, with proposals of up to €5 per night.

For now you pay nothing extra, but that may change.

The catch: Nothing is collected yet, and Irish hoteliers and the council are still arguing it out, so check nearer your trip.

Source: Dublin City Council

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Milan charges a tassa di soggiorno (tourist tax) per person per night, scaled by the hotel's star rating. Since the rates rose in April 2026 it runs roughly €3 at a 1-star up to €12 at a 5-star. It is paid at the property, separate from your room rate, and capped at a set number of nights.

Under-18s are exempt. As elsewhere in Italy, it is collected in cash or on card at the hotel rather than online when you book.

The catch: Charged per person per night and paid at the hotel, so it is not in your online room price; at a smart hotel it adds up.

Source: Comune di Milano: imposta di soggiorno

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