Who collects the tourist tax — Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia in 2026

A booking-by-booking guide to which OTAs collect Portuguese tourist tax on your behalf, when they pass it to you, and how to avoid double-charging or missing declarations.

"Does Booking.com pay the tourist tax for me?" is one of the most common questions AL hosts ask — and the honest answer is: it depends on the booking, the city, and the month. The OTAs' collection coverage keeps changing, and getting it wrong means either double-charging the guest at check-in or under-declaring to the câmara.

Here is the practical 2026 picture.

Booking.com

Booking.com collects the municipal tourist tax directly from the guest at booking in most Portuguese municipalities that have a tax, including Lisboa, Porto, Funchal, Santa Cruz, Machico, Albufeira, Faro, and most others with active regimes.

The tax appears as a separate line item on the guest's receipt.
Booking.com then remits the tax to the host, not directly to the câmara. You still owe the câmara — Booking is not your collector of record.
On your Booking extranet, look under Reservation details → Guest charges → City tax collected. If a number appears there, it has been added to your payout.

Practical rule: do not charge the guest again at check-in for that booking. But you still declare and pay the câmara for those nights — the money has already been passed to you.

Airbnb

Airbnb's collection coverage in Portugal is partial and expanding. As of 2026, Airbnb collects tourist tax automatically in Lisboa, Porto, and increasingly in Madeira and Algarve municipalities, but coverage varies month to month.

When Airbnb collects, the tax appears as "Occupancy tax" in the payout breakdown.
When Airbnb does not collect for a given city, hosts are expected to add a custom tax charge in the listing settings or collect at check-in.
Airbnb does not always remit directly to the câmara — in most Portuguese municipalities the money still flows through the host.

Practical rule: check the payout line for every Airbnb booking. If "Occupancy tax" is present, don't charge again. If it's absent, collect at check-in.

Expedia / Vrbo

Expedia group (Vrbo, Hotels.com) rolled out Portuguese tourist tax collection later than the others and coverage is still uneven. Some Vrbo listings show a "Local tax collected" line in the reservation summary; others don't. Do not assume — check every reservation.

Direct bookings

No platform is in the middle, so you collect at check-in and declare as normal. This is the simplest case and the one Chave AL's guest form is built around.

The three mistakes to avoid

1. Double-charging the guest because the OTA already collected. This shows up in reviews as "we were charged twice for city tax" — one of the fastest-growing complaint categories on Booking.

2. Not declaring at all because you assumed the OTA remits directly. In most Portuguese cities, they don't — the money passes through your payout, and the câmara still expects you to declare and pay.

3. Declaring the guest's OTA payment as your revenue without noting it as tax. Your accountant needs the tax figure separated for VAT and reporting.

How Chave AL handles it

Chave AL's monthly tourist tax declaration lets you flag each booking as "OTA-collected" or "collected at check-in" and produces two totals: the amount you owe the câmara (always the full amount) and the amount you actually collected at check-in (net of OTA amounts). This makes the reconciliation with your accountant straightforward.