How to open a B&B in Italy in 2026: requirements, permits, taxes and the rules region by region

What is a B&B in Italy, and what isn’t?

In Italian law a bed and breakfast is a struttura ricettiva extralberghiera, a form of non-hotel accommodation: you offer a few rooms, plus breakfast, in the home where you live. There is no single national definition any more. In judgment 80/2012 the Corte costituzionale (Italy’s Constitutional Court) struck down the national rules classifying non-hotel accommodation, because tourism is a matter for the Regions. That’s why the maximum number of rooms, the residence requirement, opening periods and the procedure all change from one region to the next.

A B&B is not a short-term rental (locazione breve). With a short-term rental you let a whole apartment for up to 30 days, with linen and cleaning at most, without living there and without serving breakfast. If that’s closer to your plan, read how to start a short-term rental in Italy. The Italian terms you’ll meet on forms are explained in our short-term rental glossary.

Can a foreigner open a B&B in Italy?

The regional rules we checked are about where you live, not about your passport. In Lombardy, Lazio, Campania and Puglia the person running the B&B (in Puglia, the family B&B) must live in the house: depending on the region, that means registered residence, stable domicile or a room reserved for the owner (see the table below). So a B&B suits owners who have moved to Italy, or plan to, and want to host guests in their own home.

If you’ll stay abroad and visit only now and then, a B&B is usually the wrong format. The alternatives are a short-term rental of the whole apartment, which doesn’t require you to live in Italy, or one of the other types of non-hotel accommodation your Region defines (such as affittacamere or case vacanze), each with its own requirements. The Comune’s business desk can tell you which ones apply. And if you’re moving from outside the EU, settle your residence status with an immigration lawyer before you file anything.

Whatever you choose, you’ll need an Italian tax code, the codice fiscale: it links you to your property in the national database that issues the CIN, and you use it for your Italian tax return.

What do you need to open a B&B? The steps

1. 01

   Read your Region’s law

   Check the maximum number of rooms and beds, whether you must live there, bathrooms, minimum room sizes and opening periods set by the regional law.

2. 02

   Get the house ready

   Make sure the building is in order on agibilità (its fitness-for-use status) and on its systems, such as wiring and gas, and that the rooms meet the regional requirements. For breakfast, follow the Region’s food-hygiene rules.

3. 03

   File the SCIA

   Send the SCIA (Segnalazione Certificata di Inizio Attività, a certified notice that you’re starting an activity) to the Comune through the SUAP (Sportello Unico per le Attività Produttive, its one-stop desk for businesses), with any classification your Region requires.

4. 04

   Request the CIN

   The national identification code comes from the Ministry of Tourism’s accommodation database (BDSR). It must be displayed outside the property and in every listing.

5. 05

   Set up the recurring duties

   Ask the Questura (provincial police headquarters) for Alloggiati Web credentials, and register on your Region’s ISTAT portal and on the Comune’s tourist-tax portal.

6. 06

   Decide your tax set-up

   With a commercialista (an Italian chartered accountant), establish whether the activity is occasional (miscellaneous income, no VAT number) or a business.

B&B requirements region by region

L.R. stands for legge regionale (regional law) and R.R. for regolamento regionale (regional regulation). The other regions have their own rules too: for example Tuscany (L.R. 61/2024), Veneto (L.R. 11/2013) and Sicily (L.R. 32/2000). Before you invest, read the text in force on your Region’s website or ask the Comune’s SUAP.

Occasional or business B&B: tax and VAT number

If you run the B&B occasionally, in the home where you live and without a business organisation, the Agenzia delle Entrate (Italy’s tax agency) treats the earnings as redditi diversi, or miscellaneous income, under art. 67(1)(i) of the TUIR, Italy’s income tax code. You declare them in your income tax return without opening a partita IVA (VAT number). From 2027 the same category moves into the new income tax code (Legislative Decree 117/2026, art. 76).

The cedolare secca, the flat tax on rental income, does not apply: in circular 24/E of 2017 the Agenzia delle Entrate excludes the short-let regime when breakfast is provided, as it is in an occasional B&B. If the activity becomes habitual and organised, or your Region classifies it as a business (Puglia’s business B&B, for example, has higher thresholds), discuss a VAT number and social-security contributions with your commercialista. For how short-term rentals are taxed instead, see our guide to the cedolare secca.

What must you do from the first guest?

The CIN is compulsory for non-hotel accommodation too: operating without one costs €800–8,000, and not displaying it €500–5,000. Full details are in our guide to Italy’s CIN code; for police reporting, see how Alloggiati Web guest registration works; for the tax, the guide to the tourist tax for hotels and B&Bs. Regional ISTAT portals and deadlines are compared in our Ross1000 guide.

B&B or short-term rental: which should you choose?

In short: a B&B is a way to host in the house you live in; a short-term rental is a way to earn from a home you don’t live in. If you own a property in Italy but live elsewhere, our checklist for managing a rental in Italy remotely shows how owners abroad organise keys, cleaning and paperwork.

How do you run a B&B without being glued to your phone?

Once the B&B is open, the hardest work isn’t breakfast. It’s the messages at all hours, the arrival times to coordinate, the documents to collect and the police registrations to send. Maurice is the AI agent that does it for you, from booking to check-out:

• answers guests 24/7 in their language about breakfast, house rules, access and the area, and involves you only when a decision of yours is needed; you read every conversation in your own language;
• online check-in from a link, with no app: arrival time, ID documents, house rules, tourist tax and paid extras;
• Alloggiati Web and ISTAT sent automatically, with the receipts in your dashboard;
• connects to the booking platforms and to any PMS with an API, with a new integration set up within 24 hours if yours isn’t supported yet: see the integrations.