I had no idea the Greek system worked the same way as Italy's, Katerina. Yesterday, "italiaOggi" “ one of Italy's leading financial newspapers, ran the following headline: "Airbnb quadruples host fees: short-term rental prices could rise by as much as 36.75%"
According to the paper, hosts who want to keep earning the same net income will have little choice but to raise their nightly rates. Depending on their tax situation, prices may need to increase anywhere from roughly 25% to nearly 37%. In practical terms, a €100-per-night listing could end up costing guests between €125 and €137.
The reason is simple. Starting on October 13, Airbnb will replace its long-standing fee structure for non-professional hosts, increasing the host commission from 3% to 15.5%. That's a staggering 417% increase and a complete departure from the pricing model Airbnb has used since 2008, where service fees were shared between hosts and guests.
But there's another piece of the story that's easy to miss.
Even if a host decided to register as a business and opt into Italy's simplified tax regime for small entrepreneurs (“regime forfettario”) - often seen as the most tax-friendly option - they wouldn't actually be able to deduct these higher costs. Under that system, business expenses aren't deducted individually because the government already assumes a fixed level of expenses through preset profitability coefficients. Only businesses operating under the ordinary tax regime can deduct their actual costs.
So simply raising prices isn't the obvious solution Airbnb seems to suggest.
You end up paying much higher commissions, becoming less competitive, and if you increase your rates enough to offset those costs, you often end up paying more tax as well.
And there's more.
If your business is registered for intra-EU VAT transactions, Airbnb's invoices now arrive without VAT because they're issued by a company established elsewhere in the European Union. However, under Italy's reverse-charge rules, you're still required to calculate and pay that VAT yourself. It's not recoverable, and it has to be paid by the 16th of the following month.
It's not a disaster. It's worse. It's another administrative headache.
And, as anyone who runs a small business knows, it's rarely the big crises that wear you down. It's the endless accumulation of small bureaucratic burdens that slowly turn a business into a full-time exercise in paperwork, deadlines, and accounting.
These days, there's a growing sense of quiet disappointment among Italian hosts. Many industry insiders see this dramatic fee increase for what it is: a bad deal. The house always wins, and you're left holding fewer chips every time you sit down at the table.
Once trust starts to disappear, people do what they've always done. They look for another way.
Some hosts will try to build direct relationships with their guests and rely less on intermediaries. Others will move to Italian booking platforms that charge lower or more flexible commissions. Not because they expect to find paradise somewhere else. Simply because, sooner or later, you start looking for the place where you lose a little less.
In Italy we have a word for that instinct: “arrangiarsi”. It roughly means "finding a way to make things work," even when the system seems determined to make them harder. Italians often dismiss it as a flaw - as if it were merely getting by. In reality, it's usually one of our greatest talents.
