Airbnb and Booking in Albania 2026: the 15% tax, tax inspections and the new rules

Yes: income from letting a flat by the night on Airbnb or Booking in Albania is taxed at 15%, and individuals must declare it in DIVA, the annual personal income tax return (Monitor, 15 August 2026). What changed in summer 2026 is enforcement. In August the Tax Administration started checking 100 hosts who, it says, earned about €24.9 million through Booking.com, and in July the Ministry of Finance put out a draft law requiring platforms to report hosts' income every year. Here is what you need to know if you own, or are thinking of buying, a flat for short-term rental.

Cover photo: Ahmet Çötür / Pexels

Tax on short-term rental income, declared in DIVA

15%

Hosts selected for tax checks in August 2026

100

Their Booking.com income, October 2022 – December 2025

€24.9m

Units listed for short-term rental in H1 2026 (AirDNA)

27,700

How much tax you pay on Airbnb and Booking income

The basic rule, restated by Monitor in August 2026, is simple: individuals who let property through Airbnb and Booking must declare the income in DIVA and pay 15% tax. According to the same source, for 2024 alone the tax authorities identified more than 8,400 individuals and businesses earning from Airbnb, with bookings worth about 3.8 billion lek.

A simple example: if the short-term rental income you declare for the year is €6,000, the 15% tax is €900. Which expenses can be deducted and how platform commissions are treated is a question for your accountant; we did not find a recent official source that clarifies it.

If, instead of a single flat, you run an accommodation business, different rules apply. The tax authorities' 2026 tourism plan refers to 6% VAT on accommodation services (Sarandaweb, 5 June 2026).

Tax checks begin: what happened in August

On 27 August 2026 it emerged that the Tax Administration had selected 100 individuals and businesses letting flats, villas and rooms through online platforms. According to the published figures, these 100 taxpayers earned about €24.9 million through Booking.com between October 2022 and December 2025. The checks aim to establish whether this income was declared and whether the tax was paid. The authorities warn that failing to declare, or declaring incorrectly, can have administrative and criminal consequences (Sarandaweb, 27 August 2026).

This is not a one-off. In its plan for the 2026 season, the Tax Administration announced ongoing checks on Booking and Airbnb to identify every unit, comparisons of online prices, capacity and reviews with declared income, and the use of artificial intelligence to analyse invoices (Sarandaweb, 5 June 2026).

Photo: Tapas S / Pexels

Platforms will report your income

On 16 July 2026 the Ministry of Finance put a draft law out to public consultation on the automatic exchange of information by digital platform operators, as part of aligning with EU law. Under the draft:

• operators of short-term rental platforms such as Booking and Airbnb, as well as transport and online service platforms, must collect, verify and report every year to the tax authorities data on sellers and their income;
• for Albanians earning through platforms abroad, the tax authorities will exchange information with EU countries;
• failing to report carries fines of 100,000 to 1 million lek, while inaccurate data or failing to register as an operator carries 500,000 to 1 million lek (ABC News and Sarandaweb, 16 July 2026).

The sources do not yet give a start date or the first reporting year. But the direction is clear: the tax authorities will see platform income directly, not only through inspections.

Property tax: a holiday let would no longer count as a "home"

Another change comes from the draft law on a market-value property tax, published for consultation on 17 June 2026. Under it, homes used for tourist accommodation are classified as buildings for economic activity, taxed at 0.15–0.25% of market value, while ordinary homes would pay 0.1–0.2% with a deduction for your first home (Alprofit Consult, 23 June 2026). The new system starts for buildings in 2029. Details and worked examples are in our article on the market-value property tax.

Is short-term letting still worth it?

The market is still growing. According to AirDNA, quoted by Monitor, short-term rentals in Albania earned €48.8 million in the first half of 2026, 14.4% more than a year earlier, or an average of €760 a month per unit before expenses. In June, net stays reached 284,329, up 22.6% on June 2025 (Report TV, 3 August 2026).

But competition has grown just as fast: in June 2026 Albania had 28,074 listed units, 15.34% more than a year earlier and the fastest growth in the region according to AirDNA (Report TV, 3 August 2026). According to Monitor, long-term letting is gaining ground. In Tirana, a flat on Airbnb earned about €25.50 a day, or roughly €765 a month, before energy, water, cleaning, maintenance, commissions, depreciation and tax, while a one-bedroom flat on a long-term lease rented for €590 a month on average (Monitor, 15 August 2026).

We compare cities (Durrës, Vlorë–Sarandë, Golem, Shkodër, Shëngjin) in our article on where short-term rentals earn most.

Sources

• Monitor: Long-term letting gains ground while short-term letting loses its edge (in Albanian), 15 August 2026
• Monitor: Short-term rental income reaches €50 million in January–June 2026 (in Albanian), 15 August 2026
• Sarandaweb: Booking and Airbnb under the tax authorities' lens, checks begin (in Albanian), 27 August 2026
• Sarandaweb: New tax action in tourism (in Albanian), 5 June 2026
• ABC News: Airbnb and Booking income, draft requires annual reporting by operators (in Albanian), 16 July 2026
• Sarandaweb: Government seeks mandatory reporting of platform income (in Albanian), 16 July 2026
• Report TV: Why short-term rents rose by a quarter in June (in Albanian), 3 August 2026
• Alprofit Consult: The new real property tax 2026 (in Albanian), 23 June 2026