France's tourist tax, and the Paris surcharges.

The taxe de sejour is a local tax, voted by each town or inter-communal body, so whether it applies and how much depends on where you stay. It is charged per adult, per night. Under-18s do not pay, which is the big difference from Italy and Spain, where the exemption is usually only for young children. Your accommodation collects it and passes it to the local authority; on Airbnb and Booking, the platform usually collects it for you.

For a classified hotel the rate is a set amount per night by star level. For an unclassified or not-yet-rated place, it is instead a percentage of the room price (5% in Paris) per person, capped at the top rate. As with Italy, the charge is rarely in the online total, so expect it at check-in or checkout. For the broader money picture see the France money guide.

Paris used to cost a few euros a night. That changed. On top of the base city rate, the Ile-de-France region now adds a 200% surcharge to fund regional transport, and there are further add-ons: a Grand Paris projects surcharge and a departmental surcharge. Stacked together, these can more than triple the base figure.

The practical result for 2026 is that a night in a classified Paris hotel runs from roughly 6 euros at the mid-range up toward the mid-teens in euros at 5-star and palace properties, per adult, per night. An unclassified Paris rental is charged at 5% of the nightly price, capped at about 15.93 euros per adult per night. Sources differ on the exact per-star numbers because of how the surcharges are applied, so treat these as a 2026 range and confirm the figure with your hotel.

Away from Paris the tax is much gentler. Most towns charge somewhere in the 1 to 6 euro range per adult per night depending on the accommodation category, and campsites and hostels sit at the bottom, often about 1 euro. On the Riviera, Nice and Cannes are around 1.50 to 6 euros.

A few departments beyond Paris (in the Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhone and Var, and some south-western departments) also add a regional surcharge, but nothing like the scale of the Paris region. Wherever you are, the per-adult, per-night shape is the same, and the amount is set locally.

The clearest saving is built in: children under 18 pay nothing, so a family pays only for the adults. People staying for seasonal work or in certain emergency or social housing are also exempt in most communes, and some places cap the charge, with Paris limiting it to a set amount per person per month for very long stays.

There is no legitimate way to avoid the tax at a real property, and you should not try. As with Italy, the honest levers are a lower accommodation category and, in Paris specifically, understanding that the headline surcharge goes to the region's transport system, not to the hotel.

Common questions

Quick answers.

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