Occupancy fee

Do you mean 350 euros or 3.50 euros?

There is a city tax of a few euros for each night per person
Different amount depending where it is

You will see it listed on hotel reservations/invoices
Supposed to be paid in cash but we have rarely been asked for cash, they just add on to bill I guess

3.50€

I don’t recall seeing it. I’ll have to check again. Didn’t know if it was still required.

Thanks

In the last few years we have seen an additional fee or tax applied to hotel rooms. But in the range of one or two Euro per night not 350 Euro -- that is way wrong. Unless your meant 3.50 euro. We will pay cash IF we get a discount for cash. Otherwise it goes on the credit card.

It's common for hotels in my price range (budget) to expect the city tax to be paid in cash. That happened in three different lodgings on my recent trip to Rome, Naples and Salerno. The cost in Rome was 4 euros per night. The others might have been a bit cheaper. I think the amount may vary by class of hotel and type of lodging as well as by city.

Yes, lodgings (hotels and short let apartments/villa) charge a per person fee...for first 5 days only. It is on a scale between 1 and 5 € depending on the #of stars of the hotel. Not sure how they determine for AirBnBs, but they have to charge it as well and provide to the city. In cash.
Now that I know this, it is often quite clear on websites when cost of room comes up, there is a separate line stating it doesn't include the country rooming tax.

Thanks everyone

I was charged the fee in Rome for every night of my stay, not just the first five. Perhaps it varies by city.

It is definitely tied to the city. The rules and amount vary, and not every city charges it. Or if they do, in some places it is rolled into the cost of the lodging.

The two places where we had to pay it in cash, separately, on our recent Italy trip were an apartment in Lecce, hbut not a hotel in the same town), and an apartment in Venice.

I have always been asked to pay the fee in cash. Never has it been added to my bill no matter what kind of lodging it is.

Yeah, just like in the US. Politicians prefer to first collect revenue from people who are not called upon to vote for them.

It does seem to be city or region defined, and AirBnB 's rules are a little varied in that there are caps for # of nights. https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/2287
Here's a random Google search post, but if you scroll through, it gives a pretty comprehensive grid with cities and their charges for hotels. https://asprinkleofitaly.com/tourist-tax-in-italy-the-2021-full-and-complete-guide-with-all-rates/

I usually have a request for a few Euro for room tax but NEVER a huge figure. I wonder where you saw 350 per night person!! That's more than I usually pay for a whole visit. 700€ for one night? Never.

A couple or a few Euro is legit.

OP has corrected the typo in their second post

3.50 euros not 350

many places, including our county in South Georgia have a nightly fees for lodging at hotels and BnBs.

https://www.italyvacations.com/tourist-city-taxes-italy

Provides a fairly complete list for major towns, cities in Italy for the tax, how much and how many nights you pay for, which I’m not sure all establishments follow. We have been asked to pay the entire time or for just the required nights. Never made much difference to us, but I can see the Italians on this forum roll their eyes that we would pay the extra!! More tax dodging I suspect with a little bit of extra for the pocket. Maybe we will be more challenging this spring if we feel we are being charged for too many nights.

Thank you for the links. very helpful

It depends on each City, but be aware that Florence just announced in February that effective April 1, 2023 their nightly tax will go up, to become the highest in all of Italy.
The hotel tax, which varies depending on the hotel stars, PER NIGHT/PER PERSON will be (prices below in €):
1 star=3.50
2 star=4.50
3 star=6.00
4 star=7.00
5 star=8.00
Vacation Homes (e.g. AirBnB or VRBO)=5.50
Historic Residence=7.00

https://ilreporter.it/sezioni/lavoro-e-economia/tassa-soggiorno-firenze-2023/

The hotel or landlord does not have to pay it in cash. If they tell you so they are lying. When the law first came out there was confusion about the applicability of the VAT tax if added to the bill. That has been worked out long ago, and since then I’ve always had that tax added to the bill.

Thanks for the heads up on Florence. I actually just went back on all of my reservations, and two places already included that in their charges. Only Venice stated that I will have to pay cash upon arrival.

There is no requirement by any city to have it paid in cash. They just told you to pay cash because they are liars. They probably don’t want you to pay by credit card because of the credit card commission fee. So for example if they collect from your family 50€ in tax for a multiple day stay, and the hotel pays 1% in commission to the credit card, the hotel owner still has to pay €50 to the City within the 15th of the following month, but on top of that they have to pay 50 cents to the credit card if you pay by credit card. For their hotel charges they won’t care about the cc commission because the commission is built into the price of the room, but maybe they feel they don’t want to pay the credit card commission on behalf of the City government for what is in essence something they just collect from you on behalf of the city government. That is why they tell you you must pay in cash. However the law has no such requirement the hotels collect it in cash.

Ah
Interesting Roberto
As I said above I was pretty sure we’ve never paid in cash-just asked my husband and he confirmed

I have been to Italy 11 times, twice in the past four years, and never once have I been asked for the occupancy tax!
I always wait to be asked for it, and have the money available, but nothing.
I now assume it is already included in the price of the hotel or apartment.
Sometimes I have not even met the apartment host.

It should be included in the bill.
The occupancy tax (tassa di soggiorno) is not subject to the Value Added Tax (VAT), which for hotels and restaurants is 10%.
It seems strange they wouldn’t list it separately in the bill, since that would potentially make it subject to the VAT if included in the total hotel room charge.
Regarding the Airbnb landlord, there is a lot of tax evasion going in that business. Funny accounting and the expectation to be paid in cash by property owners is all part of the strategy to dodge the tax man (and the credit card bank commission fees).
However be aware that only some municipalities have that tax. Many have chosen not to have it. Of course not Florence and Venice and Rome. Those cities will not miss an opportunity to plunder tourists’ wallets.