Catalonia will impose one of Europe’s steepest tourism levies, with stays taxed up to €15 per night, to curb visitor numbers and fund affordable housing. The regional parliament doubled the levy on holiday rentals to a maximum €12.50 per night, while hotel guests will pay between €10 and €15 per night from April depending on category. A quarter of the proceeds will go to the housing crisis amid mounting protests over the impact of short-term lets on rents. The tightening accompanies a previously announced plan to prohibit all short-term tourist accommodation by 2028, a step authorities say is needed to balance the city’s global appeal with livability for residents, according to Reuters.
The higher tariff will affect different types of stays. A couple spending two nights in a four-star hotel — nearly half of Barcelona’s hotel stock — could see the bill rise by €45.60 because the city can charge up to €11.40 per person per night. Five-star guests could face the full €15, and cruise passengers will continue to pay about €6. The city’s vast convention trade will not be exempt, and there are signs of price sensitivity among travelers. “I don’t think this added expense is fair. They already make money from tourists spending in shops, visiting their monuments, etc,” said Irene Verrazzo, a 33-year-old nurse from Italy who doubted she would return.
Others in the city are more ambivalent. The increase was unlikely to singlehandedly resolve the housing squeeze but appeared reasonable, said 21-year-old student and local resident Ivan Liu. Before the change, Barcelona placed 11th on a list compiled by the holiday-rental platform Holidu for 2025, trailing Amsterdam, where the daily levy reached €18.45. Hoteliers warned that escalating costs risk deterring too many of the roughly 15.8 million people who visit the city each year. “One day they will kill the goose that lays the golden eggs,” said Manel Casals, general director of Barcelona’s hoteliers’ group, who added that proposals for a gradual rise to assess impacts were set aside.
City and regional officials are preparing a longer-term framework that restructures how the levy is built and where the proceeds go, including a municipal surcharge that starts later and then rises stepwise. The new design raises the base regional rate for five-star hotels to €7 per night and pairs it with a city surcharge that begins at €5 on April 1, 2026, then increases by €1 each year until it reaches €8 in 2029. For tourist apartments, the base rate doubles to €4.50, with the municipal add-on bringing the total to as much as €12.50. Adults are charged for up to seven nights while children under 17 remain exempt. The law enables Barcelona to apply the combined rates so that luxury stays can reach a total of €15.
The city plans to steer revenues through a Tourism Reinvestment Fund launching in 2026 to support public transport, safety and climate projects in the neighborhoods that attract the greatest visitor pressure. Officials say a quarter of the take will be used to tackle the housing shortage by converting tourist flats into residential units. Projections suggest the fully phased model could yield an additional €100 million annually by 2029 to ease tourism-driven strains on residents, according to Travel And Tour World.
This article was produced with the assistance of a news exploration system.