Romania's plan for Airbnb homes: fiscal controls and higher taxes. Other European countries are trying to stop the phenomenon

More and more European cities are trying to limit the number of homes listed on platforms such as Airbnb and Booking, after locals complained that they could no longer afford to live in certain neighborhoods that have become exclusively touristic. However, Romania is far from imposing such restrictions. At the moment, the authorities are only planning better monitoring of those who have such incomes, to ensure that the taxes are also paid.

• This article was produced as part of the Pulse cross-border project by Vlad Barză (HotNews, Romania), Ana Somavilla (El Confidencial, Spain), Martin Putschögl (Der Standard, Austria), Julie Šafová (Deník Referendum, Czech Republic), Kostas Zafeiropoulos (Efsyn, Greece) and Emma Louise Stenholm (Føljeton, Denmark)

From 2023 to 2024, the number of homes converted to Airbnb increased by 60%, as HotNews wrote in the first part of the article. In Bucharest, this is how apartments have multiplied in the city center, where there are blocks of flats and old houses, which are more difficult to sell or rent. Also in the historic center of Brașov, in the historic area, a lot of Airbnbs have appeared.

The rental price, implicitly the profit, depends on the area where the apartment is located, as well as on the number of tourists. For example, Brașov is a destination city for Romanians as well, not just for foreigners.

How much you can earn from an apartment on Airbnb

“At an occupancy rate of 60% and an average rental price of 75 euros per night, you can earn a monthly income of about 1,350 euros. However, from this amount you have to subtract the costs related to cleaning and those for publishing the property on profile sites such as Airbnb, which amount to about 500 euros. Thus, at the end of the month, the owner is left with a profit of about 850 euros,” he wrote Imobiliare.ro, in an analysis.

Two owners of Airbnb apartments in Bucharest and Brașov told HotNews that the amount earned is not what the client sees when renting. They have to pay commissions to the online platform, cleaning expenses, as well as maintenance and upkeep of the home.

The owner from Bucharest said that he has a profit of approximately 2,500 lei. Sometimes it also has higher energy bills because tourists often leave the air conditioner on when they are away.

He also said that, at two apartments put on Airbnb, cleaning services end up costing more than 2,500-3,000 lei per month, so a better solution is for him or someone from the family to do it himself.

And in addition to these expenses, taxes are also added. Thus, for both Airbnb “hosts”, earned income cannot replace salary. It is added.

In addition, from 1 January 2026, the tax regime has been substantially changed for people who rent homes

For the income obtained from the short-term rental of a number of 1–7 rooms, the net income is calculated by deducting a flat rate of 30% from the gross income, and the 10% tax is applied to the resulting net income.

The authorities' plan: to make sure people declare what they earn

And since in Romania, Airbnb homes are not a problem, the authorities' plan is to ensure that their owners declare their income and do not operate “in the dark”.

According to ANAF, approximately half of the 18,288 who declared that they have income from apartments rented under the Airbnb regime do not declare all income.

“The analyzes carried out show that approximately 50% of these people do not fulfill their declaration obligation or declare only a part of the income obtained from the rental activity”, ANAF reported to HotNews.

In 2023, 5,487 natural persons were notified, “as a result of finding differences between realized and declared incomes”. The institution stated that the data for the year 2024 is in the risk analysis stage, with compliance notifications to be sent later.

What do those who are illegal risk? ANAF explains that law no. 207/2015 on the Fiscal Procedure Code provides for a contravention fine between 50 and 500 lei for non-declaration of the rental contract.

“Persons who did not voluntarily comply after receiving the notices were subject to control, following which payment obligations representing income tax, CAS and CASS, as well as ancillary obligations (interest and non-declaration penalties) were established. We note that, by applying these ancillary obligations, the initially owed amount can even be doubled.”

In Austria the “building police” can knock on your door at 7am

Illegal renting of apartments to tourists or non-declaration of income is a problem encountered in other countries, even on a larger scale than in Romania.

For example, in Salzburg, a city facing a housing crisis, the city administration is actively looking for illegal ads. Last year, more than 100 apartments were removed from airbnb rentals. The city collected fines in the amount of 168,000 euros, and the maximum fine is 25,000 euros. There are politicians who are lobbying for the maximum fine to reach 50,000 euros, writes Der Standard.

In Vienna, the rental of apartments to tourists was already heavily restricted in 2018, but from mid-2024 an even stricter regulation came into force. The apartments can only be rented out to tourists for 90 days a year, and those who want to exceed this period need a special authorization that is difficult to obtain, Der Standard points out.

And, in both Austrian cities, there are special departments within the city administration that do unannounced checks. For example, in Vienna, since 2024, a team of nine inspectors has been working to investigate suspicious cases online and then carry out on-site inspections, the journalists from Der Standard explain.

The schedule of these inspectors starts at 7 in the morning, when they start knocking on the doors of apartments where tourists are suspected of being illegally housed. Two “illegal hotels” were recently discovered following such an operation. The inspectors introduce themselves with the formula: “Good morning, we are from the Vienna Building Police!” He then requests the booking confirmations, which he photographs. In most cases, bookings come from the Airbnb.com and Booking.com platforms.

In Greece, the law that was supposed to temper the market had the opposite effect

Different country, different issues with Airbnbs. For example, in October 2025, Greece restricted the granting of new licenses in certain areas of the center of Athens, writes the publication Efsyn.

Basically, the law blocks the issuance of new permits for this type of rentals in the central areas of Athens as well as in other cities. Until then, anyone could list a home on platforms like Airbnb or Booking, but by law some neighborhoods were completely excluded.

Before it came into effect, however, authorities gave residents a deadline to list their homes. They had a year to do so, so the law ended up making the situation worse, Efsyn journalists write.

What actually happened?

• An accelerated expansion of short-term rentals followed, to the point of saturation, in major cities
• spurred a “race against the clock” of landlords rushing to register their homes ahead of schedule.

According to the publication Efsyn, between February 2023 and February 2024 there was an explosive increase in the number of apartments listed in Athens on the Booking and Airbnb platforms.

The Czech Republic is also preparing a law for Airbnbs

What is the law in the Czech Republic, a country whose capital is affected by the large number of tourists? Airbnb accommodations must be licensed as guesthouses or hotels, not apartments. Suppliers are required to hold a commercial license, pay income tax, social and health insurance contributions, register for VAT if they meet the legal conditions, pay local tourist taxes, but also keep a guest register and a foreigner register.

Last year, the Czech government presented a plan to regulate platforms and owners offering short-term accommodation. The main change will be that each accommodation offer will have a unique registration number, to facilitate checks.

Initially, municipalities were to be able to set the maximum number of days per year and the period during which short-term accommodation can be offered in their territory, through online platforms. They could also have set the minimum number of square meters per person staying. However, it seems that this possibility will be removed from the draft law, write those from Deník Referendum.

The authorities will also have to check that each home used for short-term accommodation has all the necessary approvals.

Denmark sets limits and relies on the severity of tenant associations

Journalists from the publication Føljeton write that, as in the rest of Europe, Airbnb and Booking have long been the subject of debate in Denmark's big cities. Among the negative effects are mentioned: the artificial increase of prices, the driving away of locals from tourist towns, unfair competition with the hotel industry and the negative impact on local urban and commercial life.

In 2019, a large political majority introduced a limit of 70 days per year for renting private homes. However, it was found that Airbnb does not report to the authorities the number of days when the homes are rented, which makes the actual application of the law impossible to control.

One of the candidates for the mayor's office of the capital city of Copenhagen proposed a restriction that would allow the rental for tourist purposes only of the home where the person has the official address of residence.

It is common for tenants' associations to ban short-term rentals, for example through platforms such as Airbnb, often citing the fact that tourists do not have the same sense of responsibility compared to permanent tenants, concludes the Føljeton publication.

Measures across Spain against Airbnb apartments

By far the hardest hitting country with tourism platforms is Spain, which is experiencing both mass anti-tourism protests and housing market imbalances due to these homes.

However, there is no unified national regulation, and the rules and authorizations vary according to the region, each province having legal decision-making autonomy, write the journalists from El Confidencial.

Barcelona is the most radical of the cities, with local authorities announcing that they will no longer renew tourist licenses for short-term rentals after 2028.

In Madrid, the city council has tightened restrictions on tourist homes in residential buildings, imposing separate access for them and limiting their presence in certain tourist areas, El Confidencial journalists also write.

In Palma de Mallorca, tourist rentals are banned in certain types of buildings, while resorts such as Benidorm have stepped up inspections and penalties for illegal tourist apartments.

In Seville, restrictions have been put in place on the number of days a year that an apartment can be rented out as tourist accommodation, to prevent the massive conversion of residential accommodation into tourist accommodation.

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