Airbnb pays the municipality 70,000 euros. Now we are heading towards stopping at the new openings in the center

About 70 thousand euros to repair the damage. That’s what Airbnb managers pushed into the Capitoline lockers after the complaint reached the Court of Auditors. “The company officially informed us that the calculations were wrong and that they were going to send us more money for the tourism tax,” explained Capitoline Tourism Board member Alessandro Onorato. One of his first battles since the board’s inception has been to definitively regulate the payments of contributions to the Capitol by the online leasing giant.

Because a complaint to the Audit Bureau

The applicable tourism tax has always been €3.5, without – according to the municipality – calibrated according to the type of structure, the number of tourists present, and on the accommodation capacity of the same. As is usually the case in traditional hotels and B&Bs. Hence the note to accounting judges and the response of multinational companies. “We want to continue to cooperate with them and with other platforms as long as the rules are respected,” Onorato continues. “It may seem like a small sum (70,000 euros, liberated) but it shows us that our suspicions were legitimate. Now the management will verify in due course the amount they gave us. The new relationship between us will have to contain the accuracy of communication on the exact dates of tourists and overnight stays ” .

“The premise of stopping Airbnb in the historic center”

However, the interventions do not end there. “We are discussing, also in agreement with the Lazio region, the possibility of withholding new licenses in the midst of non-hotel buildings,” the commissioner declared again. The amount of activities concentrated in the heart of the capital has become “unmanageable”. According to data provided by the council, currently on Airbnb alone there are 22,000 exclusive rentals in the historic center. “Tourism in Rome – concludes the commissioner – should not be accidental.”

Easter tourism, data

Meanwhile, regarding the influx of visitors to the capital, the Easter holiday estimates give hope, albeit much lower than the same holiday period of 2019, in the pre-Covid-19 era: the total number of arrivals is estimated at 235 thousand. (-36.9% compared to Easter 2019) compared to 583,000 presences (-39.5% compared to 2019). Data was provided by Federalberghi during Hotel Day, an event held every year at the Parco dei Principi.