Many local administrations have started to charge a “Tourist Tax” (similar to the French system) for people staying in rented accommodation. It is a trend that has started recently and each town seems to be picking different rates, different cut-off points and different rules. But they are gradually all joining in, so you need to know that there may be extra charges. Here’s what we know so far:

1. The charges are per person per night.
2. There is a maximum number of nights, usually around 5 but sometimes 7, beyond which they will not charge.
3. The charges range between 50 cents to 3 euro.
4. Children are sometimes included, sometimes not.
5. The charges should be collected by the property owners.
6. Some properties are excluded, but it’s unclear what the parameters are.

So staying in a house for four people for a week can cost from 10 euro (50 cents by four, for 5 nights) to 84 euro (3 euro by four, for 7 nights). So it’s an “interesting” situation in the Chinese sense of the word, and we’re doing our best to keep up with it. Where possible, in this first year, owners are trying to cover these extra costs, but this is not the case in all properties. The best we can say at the moment is: contact us if you want to know the situation of your particular booking. We’ll tell you what we know at the moment, but new towns are instituting these charges from day to day.