The scene repeats every summer, at every reception desk in the country. Last morning, suitcases in the lobby, taxi in ten minutes. The guest paid for everything online months ago, and hears: “and one hundred and five euro for the fee, before you go.”
At another property, the same day, the guest pays nothing extra. The fee was already inside the price they saw. But they are handed a second piece of paper with an amount on it, and wonder whether they are being asked for the same money twice.
Both happen. In both cases the guest leaves with a question. And the question is not a legal one, it is yours: where were they supposed to have read it?
What it actually is
It is called the climate resilience fee and it replaced the old accommodation tax on 1 January 2024, under Article 30 of Law 5073/2023. Today it lives in Article 44 of Law 5177/2025, the Code of Indirect Taxes on transactions within the scope of the Tax Procedure Code, where the amounts set by Article 24 of Law 5162/2024 were codified.
Three things in the text of the law make the difference.
First: the fee “is borne by the person staying”. You do not pay it. You collect it and remit it with a monthly return. It is their charge, passing through your hands.
Second: it is imposed “after their stay at the property and before their departure from it, by issuing a special document, a receipt of collection”. Note carefully what is being fixed here: the timing of the document. Decision A.1217/2023 says the same and adds its minimum content: the guest’s name, the dates of the stay, the total amount.
Third: it is calculated “per day of use and per room or apartment”. Not per person. Four people in one room pay what one person pays.
The amounts
Two periods. The expensive one, April to October. The cheap one, November to March.
| Category | Apr to Oct | Nov to Mar |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel, 1 or 2 star | 2.00 | 0.50 |
| Hotel, 3 star | 5.00 | 1.50 |
| Hotel, 4 star | 10.00 | 3.00 |
| Hotel, 5 star | 15.00 | 4.00 |
| Rented furnished rooms and apartments | 2.00 | 0.50 |
| Short term rental property | 8.00 | 2.00 |
| Detached short term rental house over 80 sq m | 15.00 | 4.00 |
| Tourist furnished villa | 15.00 | 4.00 |
| Tourist furnished residence under 80 sq m | 8.00 | 2.00 |
| Tourist furnished residence from 80 sq m | 15.00 | 4.00 |
Two details that are easily lost. The table holds the categories the law names: if your property is not among them, do not infer an amount, ask. And the two 80 square metre thresholds are not worded the same: for detached short term rental houses the law says “over eighty”, while for tourist residences it says “from eighty and above”. A detached house of exactly 80 square metres is not in the same position as a tourist residence of exactly 80.
Seven nights in August in a five star hotel comes to 105 euro. In a villa, the same. In a short term rental, 56. That is not rounding on a bill, it is an amount the guest will remember.
And if the stay spans both periods, say from 28 October to 3 November, each month’s amount applies separately. The same paragraph says so: for stays covering months with different fee levels, the special document is issued per month and not on departure.
The question everyone asks: can I put it inside the price?
Here I have to be precise, because this is easily misread.
The law sets who bears the fee and when the document is issued. Decision A.1217/2023 adds what the document contains and when the fee is remitted. Neither of them regulates how you present your price. Nor do the tax authority’s published questions and answers: the question is not answered there.
In practice there are two models, and I see both.
Collected separately. The price the guest sees does not include it, and the amount is asked for at the property. Typical for hotels with a reception desk.
Included in the price. The price they see is final and nothing extra is asked for. Typical for short term rentals through a platform, where there is no desk and everything is paid in advance. The special document is issued either way, and the fee is remitted either way.
Which of the two fits your legal form and your documents is a question for your accountant, not for me.
Why, in both models, it comes as a surprise
Because it is a separate document. It does not go inside the accommodation receipt. Its own “special document, receipt for collection of the climate resilience fee” is issued, which under the law is not subject to VAT.
If you collect it separately, the guest sees an amount they did not expect. If you have included it, they see a piece of paper with an amount they think you are asking for a second time. In both cases the cause is the same: they had not read about it anywhere beforehand.
On the property websites I open, I rarely find it written. Not on the rates page, not in the booking form, not in the confirmation email.
What the law says about the price
This is where tax law stops and consumer law begins.
Article 3b of Law 2251/1994 covers distance contracts, which is exactly what a booking from your site or a platform is. Paragraph 1 point e requires that the consumer be given, before being bound, “the total price of the goods or services, including VAT and any other fee”, or, where the price cannot be determined, the manner in which it is to be calculated.
The climate resilience fee is, on the face of it, another fee. And it is not one of those that cannot be determined: it follows from three things you know at the moment of booking, your property category, the number of nights, and the month.
There is also a paragraph worth reading with your lawyer. Paragraph 6 of the same article says: “If the supplier has not complied with the information requirements on additional charges or other costs as provided in paragraph 1 point e), the consumer shall not bear those charges or costs.”
I am not telling you this applies automatically to the climate resilience fee. Whether a public fee you collect on behalf of the state is an “additional charge or other cost” within the meaning of the provision is a matter of interpretation and needs a lawyer. I am telling you it is a question you would not want answered for the first time on your own booking.
What to write, and where
Three places. The wording changes with your model, the position does not.
On the rates or rooms page. One line under the price.
If you collect separately: “The price does not include the climate resilience fee, X euro per room per night.” Use your own amount, not a range.
If you have included it: “The price includes the climate resilience fee. Nothing further will be asked for at the property. You will receive a separate receipt for the fee, as the law requires.” That last sentence is what saves you from “why are you handing me a second piece of paper”.
In the booking form, next to the total. Not in a footnote. A guest who sees “total 700 euro” and pays 805 has reason to be annoyed, even if you wrote it three pages earlier.
In the confirmation email. With the exact amount calculated for their nights, and whether it has already been paid. That is the email they will open at the airport.
And a commercial argument for anyone who includes it: a final price is a selling point in itself. “Nothing extra at the property” is a line the guest reads with relief, especially after three properties that said nothing at all.
Two things it is not
It is not a tip and it is not optional. It is public revenue that you remit with a monthly return.
It is not your profit, and it is worth saying so. A property that explains “we do not keep this, we pass it to the state” sounds completely different from one that simply asks for another 105 euro, or hands over an unexplained second document.
Free stays, under the same paragraph of the law, are not charged.
The point
The fee is not your problem, until the moment it becomes one. And it becomes one not because it exists, nor because you picked the wrong model, but because the guest meets it for the first time at the worst possible moment, with a suitcase in hand.
The last image they take with them is the one they will put in the review. The difference between a bad review and a neutral transaction is three lines of text on your website.
If you would like us to look at what is missing from your rates page and your confirmation email, get in touch.