Algarve tourist tax — Albufeira, Faro, Lagos, Vilamoura and the seasonal rate trap

How Algarve municipalities charge tourist tax in 2026 — Albufeira's seasonal rate, which councils charge and which do not, the night caps, exemptions and monthly filing for AL hosts.

The Algarve is the messiest tourist tax region in Portugal because the councils did not move together and several use seasonal rates. If you manage units in more than one Algarve municipality, you are running several different rulebooks at once.

The seasonal rate trap

Albufeira and several other Algarve councils apply a higher rate in the high season and a lower rate in the low season, with the season boundaries fixed by municipal regulation (typically a spring-to-autumn high season). Two guests staying identical five-night stays in March and August pay different amounts.

This is the single biggest source of wrong declarations in the region: hosts apply one annual rate and are short — or over — every summer.

Which councils charge

Coverage across the Algarve's sixteen municipalities is uneven and has expanded steadily. Albufeira, Faro, Lagos, Loulé (which includes Vilamoura and Quarteira), Portimão, Vila Real de Santo António and others operate a tax; a handful of interior councils still do not. Verify the current status directly with the council before your first declaration, because new regulations appear each year.

Common mechanics

Where a tax exists, it almost always follows the same pattern:

charged per guest per night;
capped at a maximum number of nights per stay (commonly seven);
children below an age threshold exempt;
medical-treatment stays exempt with documentation;
declared and paid monthly per AL registration.

Some councils, like Santa Cruz in Madeira, pay the operator a collection commission. In the Algarve this is council-specific — check your regulation, because unclaimed commission is real money.

Filing

1. Split stays that cross month boundaries; declare only nights slept in the month.

2. Apply the correct seasonal rate to each night, not to the stay as a whole. A stay that straddles the season change uses both rates.

3. Submit on the council's platform and archive the receipt.

How Chave AL handles the Algarve

Set the municipality on each property. Chave AL applies the right rate to each individual night — including stays that cross both a month boundary and a season boundary — applies the night cap per stay, excludes exempt guests, and produces the monthly declaration PDF per council.