This page is here to help give you a starting point to find out about some of the obligations that may apply to you if you decide to host long-term stays on Airbnb. It’s for your information only and includes summaries of some of the rules that may apply to different sorts of long-term stays agreements, and contain links to official resources that you may find helpful.
Please understand that these information pages are not comprehensive, and are not legal advice. If you are unsure about how local laws or this information may apply to you, we encourage you to check with official sources or seek legal advice.
Please note that we don’t update this information in real time, so you should confirm that the law has not changed recently.
In Italy, long term rentals are regulated at national level (cf. art. 1571 of the civil code, Law 431/98, Law 392/78 or the Tourism Code), and specific rules may vary between short-term and long-term rentals. Long term rentals can be defined as rentals of more than 30 consecutive calendar days: depending on the purpose of the stay (for example, a temporary stay for professional reasons, or a change of residence), long-term rentals may be subject to different statutory durations and defined as:
Guests who stay in a home or apartment for one month or longer may fall under one of the above categories and grant the guests with special protection under Italian law. Generally, this means that tenancy laws could protect them, and you may not be able to vacate the premise without going through the required eviction processes in the competent court.
Also, each of the 20 Italian Regions (and at times even smaller provinces) has the competence to regulate specific forms of professional or non-professional hospitality (e.g. bed and breakfast, holiday houses etc.) which may also impact on the nature of the LTR and thus subject it to different duration/regulatory requirements.
We encourage you to review your local rules and regulations before accepting a long-term reservation.
These situations are incredibly rare on Airbnb, but if they happen, we'll do our best to help resolve the problem with your guest. Should you face such a situation, let our 24/7 support team know as soon as possible and we'll get in touch with you. Guests who stay over the check-out date without a valid reason and without having previously altered their reservation with host’s approval may be in breach of Italian law (e.g. the guest may be required to compensate the host for the damages suffered due to the unlawful occupancy) or in breach of Airbnb terms of service and expose themselves or to remedies ranging from bad reviews to termination of their account on Airbnb. In those circumstances, we will make sure that guests understand the consequences of an overstay.
If you rent your home or apartment for stays of 30 days or longer, Italian law imposes a written rental agreement to be signed and filed before tax authorities.
The form of the written agreement is generally free, with the exception of certain type of rentals that require you to use legally approved templates, for example:
In those cases, your written agreement shall be concluded on a legally approved template, will have to follow the price range set forth by the law and will be subject to a specific term (length). If that’s your case, you should make these requirements clear in your House Rules before finalizing a booking.
Laws governing these rentals may be complicated, so be sure to contact a landlord-tenant attorney, or representative associations of landlord and tenants in your city, to get familiar with Italian laws and regulations.
Rent control is a special set of laws that regulates rental prices and eviction practices. In Italy, they specially apply to certain rental agreements (e.g. university student rentals or temporary rentals at regulated prices) which have been agreed upon by local authorities, the most representative property owners’ associations and renters’ associations. The advantage of those contractual schemes are mostly tax-related, but impose caps to the monthly rent you can charge as a host. We recommend you contact a landlord-tenant attorney, or the most representative associations of landlord and tenants in your City, to get familiar with Italian laws and regulations and to learn more about rent control and rent stabilization and how these rules might impact a long-term reservation.
Statutes exist in Italy that allow landlords to use interim proceedings to evict tenants. An interim proceeding is a judicial proceeding that lets a landlord regain possession of the leased property in an expedited fashion compared to the regular timing of an ordinary court proceeding. You should contact a landlord-tenant attorney to learn more about eviction laws, as they may affect your ability to evict a guest who overstays a long-term reservation.
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