Contents
This article reflects the state of our research and is not legal or tax advice. What applies to your property depends on the zone, the municipality, the house rules and your contract; only the competent authority gives binding information.
Key facts
- Airbnb has collected and remitted Zurich's accommodation levy automatically since 1 August 2018.
- On Booking.com, your own website and direct bookings you collect and remit it yourself.
- The levy is a pass-through item: the guest pays, you forward it — but it raises the total the guest compares.
- The duty to register guests is a different matter and stays with you in every case.
What Airbnb takes care of for you
Airbnb has an agreement with the canton of Zurich on the automated collection of the accommodation levy. It has been in place since 1 August 2018. In practice that means: the guest pays the levy with the booking, Airbnb remits it to the responsible tourism organisation, and you see it in the statement as a pass-through item.
According to Airbnb, such agreements exist with several cantons — besides Zurich, those named include Lucerne, Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt, Zug, Geneva, Schaffhausen and Fribourg. The canton of St. Gallen was added later.
That is a relief worth knowing about: without this agreement you would have to collect, account for and remit the levy for each guest — with twelve bookings a month, an administrative task nobody enjoys.
Where the agreement does not apply
It applies to bookings through Airbnb. To nothing else.
Anyone letting through Booking.com, through their own website or directly has to collect and remit the levy themselves — where it falls due for the municipality. This is the point at which owners building a second channel stumble: with Airbnb it happened by itself, on their own channel it no longer does, and nobody tells them it is different there.
What is likewise not covered: the duty to register guests. It is not a levy but a statutory duty, and it exists regardless of the booking channel and regardless of any agreement. In the canton of Zurich the recording runs through hotelkontrolle.zh.ch, and the duty lies with the host.
- Airbnb bookings: the levy is collected and remitted.
- Booking.com, your own website, direct bookings: you collect and remit it yourself, where it falls due.
- Guest registration duty: always yours, regardless of the channel.
Your figures, not our examples
The calculator takes the number of rooms, the neighbourhood and the fit-out and shows you a range — with the arithmetic beside it, not as a single figure you have to take on trust.
Estimate the returnWhat that means for the calculation
The levy is a pass-through item and not a cost: the guest pays it, you pass it on. But it raises the total the guest sees — and that is what decides the booking, not your nightly rate.
For the calculation that means two things. When comparing your price with another listing, compare the final total, not the nightly rate displayed. And on your own channel, where you collect the levy yourself, it has to go into the stated price — quietly absorbing it is a reduction of your income that nobody notices.
What we supply on this: the statement with the levy itemised separately. What we do not take on: establishing which levy falls due in your municipality, and registering for it. That is a matter for the municipality and for you.
Frequently asked questions
For bookings through Airbnb, no — the platform collects and remits it, on the basis of an agreement with the canton of Zurich in place since August 2018. For other channels, yes, in so far as it falls due in your municipality.
No, and the two are frequently confused. The levy is money, the registration a statutory duty. Registration runs through hotelkontrolle.zh.ch, lies with the host and cannot be transferred to a platform.
The municipality will tell you. The amount, and whether a levy arises at all, differ; only the information from there is binding. We do not advise on it.
And for your property?
Sources
State of our research: 31 July 2026. Official rules change — check the current position with the competent authority.
