Albufeira Tourist Tax 2026: What Hosts Actually Owe
Quick Summary
The Albufeira tourist tax (Taxa Municipal Turística) is €2.00 per person per night. There is no seasonal rate and no low season rate. The tax is only due on stays falling between April and October inclusive, and nothing is charged between November and March. It applies to guests aged 13 and over, capped at 7 consecutive nights per guest per stay, so the maximum a single guest can owe is €14. Hosts collect it at check-in and declare it through the municipal platform, which was replaced in 2026 and now requires re-registration.
Status: IN FORCE since 21 May 2024, under Regulamento n.º 488/2024, published in Diário da República, 2.ª série, n.º 84, 30 April 2024.
Albufeira is Portugal's second-busiest municipality by overnight stays. The regulation's own economic justification puts it at 7,159,362 dormidas in 2022, or 10.3 percent of the national total, against a resident population of 44,707. That ratio is why the tax exists, and why the câmara audits.
If you host in Albufeira, this guide gives you the numbers from the regulation itself rather than from a copied table.
How much is the Albufeira tourist tax in 2026
Article 2(2) of the regulation sets a single value: €2.00 per overnight stay. That is the entire rate structure. There is no high season figure and no low season figure.
What varies is the payment window, not the rate. Article 3(2) states that the tax is payable to the Município de Albufeira in the months of April to October, inclusive. Outside that window no tax is due at all.
Rate: €2.00 per person, per night Chargeable period: 1 April to 31 October Outside that period: no tax due Minimum age: 13 and over, regardless of the guest's country of residence Night cap: 7 consecutive nights per guest, per stay Maximum per guest per stay: €14
Why some guides list a €1 low season rate for Albufeira
Because several neighbouring Algarve councils genuinely do run a seasonal two-tier structure, and Albufeira gets swept in with them. Loulé, for example, charges €1 from November to March and €2 from April to October, with a 5-night cap and a 16 age threshold. Those are Loulé's rules, published in Loulé's regulation. They are not Albufeira's.
Albufeira's regulation contains no winter rate. Charging a guest €1 per night in February is charging them for a liability that does not exist, and you would then be holding money you have no mechanism to declare, since the declaration period only covers April to October.
This is the single most common error in Algarve tourist tax content. If you manage properties across more than one Algarve council, assume nothing transfers. The only binding document is your own municipality's regulation.
How to calculate it: worked examples
The formula is eligible guests multiplied by nights, capped at 7, multiplied by €2.
2 adults, 5 nights in July: 2 × 5 × €2 = €20.00 2 adults, 10 nights in June: 2 × 7 × €2 = €28.00, the 7-night cap applies 3 guests aged 14 or over plus 2 children aged 12, 8 nights in August: 3 × 7 × €2 = €42.00, children exempt and cap applies 4 adults, 3 nights in January: €0.00, outside the chargeable period 2 adults, arriving 29 October for 5 nights: only the nights falling within October are chargeable, so confirm the treatment of the straddling nights with the Gabinete da Taxa Turística before invoicing
Who is exempt
Guests under 13 are exempt under Article 4(1). Guests whose stay is motivated by medical treatment are exempt, and that exemption extends to one accompanying person, on production of documentation confirming the appointment or the provision of medical services. Guests who fall ill during the stay or require medical care are exempt for the duration of the illness, again on production of proof. The câmara may also grant further exemptions case by case by deliberation in Reunião de Câmara.
Whenever a guest claims an exemption, collect the supporting document and keep it on file. Article 8 gives the municipality the power to request information for verification purposes, and it names AIMA guest listings specifically as one of the sources it may use. In practice that means the guest data you submit to SIBA and the nights you declare for tourist tax are cross-checkable against each other. If they do not reconcile, that discrepancy is visible to the municipality.
Who issues the invoice, and why that surprises people
Article 5 splits the job. The operator processes the tax, and payment is due at check-in in a single instalment. The invoice, however, is issued by the Município de Albufeira, not by you.
That matters practically. Some guests who booked earlier in 2026 paid the tax through the previous municipal platform and hold a fatura from the câmara. The municipality's guidance is that those guests should present that invoice and give the operator a copy as proof the tax has already been paid. Do not charge them twice, and keep the copy.
It also means the tourist tax is not your revenue and should never appear as income in your Categoria B accounts. You are an intermediary holding municipal money.
The 2026 platform migration, and what you have to do
This is the part most guides have not caught up with.
On 26 February 2026 the Câmara Municipal de Albufeira announced that the existing Tourist Tax Management Platform had been deactivated with immediate effect, pending migration to a new platform. At the same time the câmara opened the administrative procedure to revise the regulation itself.
What this means for you as a host:
Every operator must register on the new platform. The municipality contacts operators by email once the platform is available, but registration is your responsibility. Registration requires validation by the municipality before you can submit anything. Until you are registered and validated, you cannot file a self-assessment declaration. Hosts who did not re-register lost the ability to declare at all. Collection itself continues under Article 5, at check-in. Where there is no direct contact with the guest, which is normal in Alojamento Local, the municipality's guidance is to request payment by whatever means you consider appropriate. The collection period for 2026 began on 1 April.
The Gabinete da Taxa Turística remains contactable at taxa.turistica@cm-albufeira.pt for confirmation of current procedure. Given that both the platform and the regulation are in flux, Albufeira is one council where checking directly is worth the ten minutes.
Is there a collection commission for hosts
Not currently. Status: NOT IN FORCE.
The regulation in force contains no provision for compensating operators for collecting the tax. A collection commission of 2.5 percent has been discussed as part of the revision now underway, and it would bring Albufeira into line with Lisbon, Porto and Loulé, where operators retain 2.5 percent of the amount collected. But until a revised regulation is published in Diário da República, there is nothing to retain. Do not deduct it.
Do Airbnb and Booking.com collect it for you
Do not assume so. The municipality's position is that the tax is collected directly from the guest at check-in and declared by the operator. Where the tax is collected through a platform, the municipality's guidance is to keep the existing procedure and reconcile.
The practical risk is a split process: some bookings where a platform collects, some where you do, and one declaration that has to reconcile against all of them plus your SIBA submissions. Check your Airbnb host settings and your payout breakdowns to confirm what is actually being collected on your listings, rather than assuming. Even where a platform does collect, the obligation to declare the overnight stays to the municipality remains yours.
What non-compliance costs
Article 9 sets out the coimas, and they are not nominal.
Failure to charge the tax: €500 to €10,000 for individuals, €1,000 to €20,000 for companies. Failure to remit collected amounts to the municipality: €1,000 to €20,000 for individuals, €2,000 to €40,000 for companies. Negligence is punishable, with the minimum and maximum reduced by half. Paying the fine does not discharge the underlying tax. You still owe it.
Note the asymmetry. Collecting the tax and failing to hand it over is treated as roughly twice as serious as not collecting it in the first place, which is the correct way round: at that point you are holding municipal money.
Telling guests before they arrive
Most tourist tax disputes are not about the money, they are about the surprise. One line in the listing description, one in the pre-arrival message, one in the house manual:
A municipal tourist tax of €2 per person per night applies to stays between April and October, for guests aged 13 and over, up to a maximum of 7 nights. It is collected at check-in and paid to the Município de Albufeira.
Guests who are told in advance almost never object. Guests who find out at the door sometimes leave a review about it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the tourist tax in Albufeira? €2.00 per person per night, for guests aged 13 and over, capped at 7 consecutive nights per stay. The maximum per guest is €14. The tax is only due on stays between April and October inclusive.
Is there a low season rate in Albufeira? No. Regulamento n.º 488/2024 sets one rate, €2 per overnight stay, and restricts payment to the months of April to October. No tax is charged between November and March. Guides listing €1 for the winter are applying a neighbouring council's structure.
Do children pay the Albufeira tourist tax? Guests under 13 are exempt. A 13-year-old pays the full €2. This threshold is lower than Faro's, which starts at 16, so do not carry assumptions between Algarve councils.
How do I pay the Albufeira tourist tax as a host? You collect it from the guest at check-in and declare it through the municipal platform. Albufeira deactivated its previous platform in February 2026 and replaced it, so you must register on the new platform and wait for validation before you can file.
Is the Albufeira tourist tax the same as a city tax? Yes. City tax is the term most international guests use. Officially it is the Taxa Municipal Turística, set by the municipality under its own regulation, independently of national government.
Does Airbnb collect the tourist tax in Albufeira? Not reliably. The municipality's guidance is that hosts collect at check-in and declare themselves. Verify your listing settings rather than relying on the platform, and remember the declaration obligation stays with you regardless.
Do hosts keep a percentage for collecting it? Not under the current regulation. A 2.5 percent collection commission is under discussion as part of the 2026 revision, but it is not yet law and should not be deducted.
What happens if I do not declare? Coimas run from €500 to €40,000 depending on the breach and whether you are an individual or a company, and paying the fine does not cancel the tax owed. The municipality can request AIMA guest listings to verify what you declared.
Do I need an AL licence before collecting the tax? Yes. Without a valid Alojamento Local registration, a displayed AL number and the required safety equipment, the tourist tax is the smaller of your problems.
Staying on top of it
Albufeira in 2026 is a live example of why municipal compliance does not sit still. One platform deactivated, one replacement requiring fresh registration and validation, and a regulation revision that may change the rate, the exemptions and the collection commission before the year is out. None of it was announced loudly.
The habit worth building is checking your municipality's regulation page at the start of each season, and treating the Diário da República publication as the only version that counts. Anything else is someone's summary, and summaries are how the €1 winter rate got into circulation in the first place.
Sources Regulamento n.º 488/2024, Diário da República, 2.ª série, n.º 84, 30 April 2024 Município de Albufeira, Comunicado Taxa Turística, 26 February 2026 Município de Albufeira, Nota Informativa, Gabinete da Taxa Turística
