--- title: What Your Next City Break Will Really Cost in 2027, and Why a Longer Stay Costs Less description: Amsterdam moves to 16%, Vienna to 8% and Barcelona's surcharge to €6 in 2027. What a city break will cost, and why longer stays pay less. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-01T08:45:01.186Z updated: 2026-11-01T08:45:01.203Z canonical: https://richtravelmagazine.com/article/tourist-taxes-europe-2027 image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-18240652.webp categories: Smart Travel, Destinations content_type: Guide region: Europe publication: Rich Travel Magazine schema_type: Article --- A couple booking four nights in Amsterdam next spring, in a room costing €250 a night, will pay €160 in tourist tax on top of the room. This year, the same stay carries €125. The extra €35 will not appear in the headline price on most booking sites, and it is one of several increases arriving across Europe in 2027, just as many travellers sit down this winter to plan their spring and summer. The changes follow a clear pattern. Cities with the most visitors are charging them more, and several that never had a tourist tax are introducing one. Many of these taxes also stop counting after a set number of nights, which rewards the traveller who stays longer in one place. ## Amsterdam: 16% in 2027, then a little more every year Amsterdam already charges the highest tourist tax in Europe: 12.5% of the room price, calculated before VAT. The new city coalition of PRO Amsterdam and D66 set out plans in June to raise it to 16% in 2027, then by one percentage point a year until it reaches 20% in 2031. The city's 2027 budget includes the first step, and councillors are due to debate the budget this month. The city says it wants to bring the number of tourist overnight stays below 20 million a year. Visitors also feel the effect of a national change: VAT on hotel stays in the Netherlands rose from 9% to 21% in January 2026. The tourist tax is not charged on the VAT, but together the two now make up a large share of the bill. On a €250 room, the 2027 rate adds €40 a night, against €31.25 now. ## Vienna: from 5% to 8% on 1st July 2027 Vienna's accommodation tax, the Ortstaxe, rose from 3.2% to 5% on 1st July 2026 and is set to reach 8% for stays from 1st July 2027. The tax is charged on the price of the room, with breakfast left out of the calculation. Under the city's own guidance, the rate depends on the night of the stay, not on when the booking was made or paid for, and a stay that runs across 1st July 2027 is taxed at 5% up to that night and 8% after it. Vienna's hotel associations, led by the city's Chamber of Commerce, have asked the city to freeze the rate at 5%, pointing to slightly lower occupancy and room prices this year. The city has rejected the criticism, and its official guidance still sets 8% from July 2027. For a four-night stay in a €250 room, the tax rises from €50 to €80. Travellers with flexible dates can save by visiting in June rather than July. ## Barcelona: the city's surcharge climbs again on 1st April 2027 Barcelona charges two taxes on every night. The first is set by the Catalan government, which doubled its rates in the city on 1st April 2026, so a five-star hotel now carries €7 per person per night and a four-star hotel €3.40. The second is the city's own surcharge, which rose to €5 at the same time and climbs to €6 from 1st April 2027, then by €1 a year until it reaches €8 in 2029. From next April, a five-star stay will therefore cost €13 per person per night in tax, and a four-star stay €9.40. A couple spending four nights in a five-star hotel will pay €104. Outside Barcelona, the rest of Catalonia completes its own doubling on the same date, with five-star hotels moving to €6 per person per night. The Catalan tax counts a maximum of seven nights per person. A couple staying ten nights in a five-star Barcelona hotel next summer would pay €182, not the €260 that ten taxed nights would cost. ## San Sebastián: a tourist tax for the first time from 1st January 2027 San Sebastián, the Basque seaside city famed for its pintxos bars, has never charged visitors a tourist tax. In July, the city government gave initial approval to a new tax due to start on 1st January 2027, ahead of a final vote by the full council. The rate depends on the type of accommodation: €1.25 per person per night in rural agritourism stays, €6.50 in the highest category of hotels and in holiday flats, and €7 for cruise passengers. Under-18s are exempt, and the tax stops after six consecutive nights. A couple spending four nights in a top hotel will pay €52. Bilbao and Vitoria are preparing their own versions for the same date. ## Closer to home British travellers will meet the same trend without crossing the Channel. Edinburgh introduced Scotland's first visitor levy on 24th July 2026: 5% of the room price before VAT, for the first five nights of a stay. Glasgow follows on 25th January 2027 with the same 5%, but it applies to every night, however long the stay. Cardiff begins charging £1.30 per person per night on 1st April 2027. ## Why a longer stay costs less The caps on taxed nights make a real difference to the final bill. Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia stop at seven nights, San Sebastián at six and Edinburgh at five. Lisbon charges €4 per person per night for a maximum of seven nights, so no guest pays more than €28 per stay, and Porto charges €3 a night on the same seven-night limit. A ten-night trip to Portugal shows how this works. A traveller who spends all ten nights in Lisbon pays €28 in tax. One who splits the trip between five nights in Lisbon and five in Porto pays €35, because each city starts counting again from the first night. Scotland gives a sharper example. Ten nights in Edinburgh in a room costing £200 a night before VAT carry £50 in levy, because only the first five nights are taxed. Five nights in Edinburgh followed by five in Glasgow at the same price carry £100. The same logic sits behind the trend towards [travelling slower](https://richtravelmagazine.com/article/slow-travel-6-ways-to-take-fewer-longer-trips): fewer check-ins mean fewer taxed first nights, as well as more time to settle into a place. Where a tax is a percentage of the room price, as in Amsterdam, Vienna and Glasgow, the room rate drives the bill, so a well-priced room matters more than the length of the stay. ## Before you book Tourist taxes are often left out of the price shown on booking sites and collected at check-in. Before booking, it is worth checking whether the quoted rate includes the tax, whether the tax is charged per person or per room, and how many nights it covers. Percentage taxes are usually calculated on the room price before VAT, and in Scotland the levies apply to stays from their start dates even when the booking was made months earlier. For a family of four, every per-person charge counts four times, although many cities, including San Sebastián and Lisbon, exempt children.