Venice access fee and tourist tax: what each one is

If you sleep in Venice you pay the tourist tax, from 1.00 to 5.00 euro per person per night in the historic center, and you never owed the access fee; the access fee was for day visitors only, ran on 60 days between April 3 and July 26, 2026, and has not applied since July 27, 2026.

Two charges that are easy to confuse

The one line that matters most is the first. The two charges were designed never to fall on the same person on the same day.

The tourist tax is per night and per person

In the historic center, from February 1 to December 31, Venice's tourist tax runs from 1.00 euro per person per night in a 1-star hotel to 5.00 euro in a 5-star, for up to 5 consecutive nights. The rates have applied since April 1, 2025.

In between, a 2-star costs 2.00 euro, a 3-star 3.50 euro and a 4-star 4.50 euro. Tourist accommodation and B&Bs are graded in "lions" rather than stars and pay from 2.00 euro for two lions to 5.00 euro for five. January is low season, and the base rates drop by 30%.

The tax exists under article 4 of legislative decree no. 23 of 2011, the same national law every Italian city uses, which sets an ordinary ceiling of 5 euro a night. Venice's top rate sits exactly on it.

The access fee was a trial, and the trial is over

The access fee was a charge on day visitors to the historic city that ran as a trial on 60 non-consecutive days in 2026, between April 3 and July 26; since July 27, 2026 it has not applied.

When it was active, it cost 5 euro per person if paid by the fourth day before the visit and 10 euro in the last three days, between 8:30 am and 4:00 pm on the calendar days. It was paid on a multilingual portal that issued a QR code to show at checks, under a regulation approved by city council deliberation no. 190³ of September 16, 2025, with fines of 25 to 150³ euro on top of the fee.

What happens next year is not decided. Reintroducing it is up to the city, and until a new decision is published, nothing is owed. The history is on the access fee is not in force.

Sleeping in Venice kept you out of the fee

None of the access fee fell on overnight guests: it applied only to day visitors, and people staying in the city were outside it. That was the logic of the scheme: the fee fell on visitors who don't sleep in the city, and the tax on those who do.

So for anyone who books a night, the question "do I pay both?" has always had the same answer: you pay the tourist tax and nothing else.

Where you sleep changes the tax

Venice sets its tourist tax in three zones: the historic center, the Giudecca and the islands used mainly for hotels pay the full rate; the Lido and the lagoon islands such as Murano and Burano pay 20% less; the mainland pays 30% less.

The zone reduction does not apply to tourist rentals, which pay the same wherever they are. And the 30% January reduction applies on top, so a January night on the mainland is the cheapest combination the rate table allows.

What to budget

Budget the tourist tax: up to 5 nights at your category's rate, per person. On a 3-night stay in a 4-star in the historic center, that's 13.50 euro each, by our arithmetic from the published table.

Don't budget an access fee for 2026. For where to stay and what each zone costs, see where to stay in Venice, and for the current state of the fee, the Venice access fee. If you're weighing Venice against Milan on cost, the rates are on Venice or Milan tourist tax.

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