A month in Olbia

Thirty days is the line. Up to 30 days a whole flat let by a private owner is a locazione breve under article 4 of Decree-Law 50/2017, with cleaning and linen included, booked directly or through a portal. Beyond 30 days in total in the year, the lease must be registered with the Agenzia delle Entrate within 30 days of signing or of the start date, whichever comes first, and an unregistered lease is void under Law 311/2004. Landlord and tenant are jointly liable for the registration tax.

A holiday month is a tourist let governed by the Civil Code, which Law 431/1998 excludes from most of the ordinary lease rules while still requiring written form. Sardinia's own guidance describes tourist leases running beyond 30 days and up to 18 months, registered and keeping a tourist purpose. For a documented work or study need there is the transitory lease, up to 18 months on the standard form set by the ministerial decree of 16 January 2017. A residential deposit may not exceed three months' rent under Law 392/1978; whether that cap binds a tourist let under the Civil Code is not settled in the texts read.

Olbia's regulation charges the imposta di soggiorno on at most seven consecutive nights in any lodging in the comune, and the comune's English information sheet is explicit that the allowance cannot be fractioned: a guest who has paid seven consecutive nights owes nothing on later nights in the same year, even in another season. A month therefore costs the same as a week.

What a week costs is the open question. The Giunta sets the amounts, and the newest table published is the 2023 one, where B&Bs, room lets and rented houses paid EUR 2.50 per person per night and houses of cadastral category A7 and above paid EUR 5. At the 2023 rate for a rented house, seven nights is EUR 17.50 per person. The 2026 amounts are unverified, so ask the host for the current figure and for the receipt the regulation requires. If a portal collected the rent, the regulation lets the comune tax that stay as a percentage of the price instead of by category, capped at EUR 5 per person per night.

The centro storico and the port side are the two areas that work through the year. Shops, offices and restaurants stay open, the ferry terminal is about 2 km away, and the Aspo zone 1 and zone 2 bays are charged only on working days and only in daytime bands, so a car costs nothing overnight or on a Sunday.

Porto Rotondo and the beach frazioni are summer places. Aspo charges Porto Rotondo at EUR 3.00 an hour in the summer season only, which says plainly when the village is busy and when it is not. For a month with a car, Aspo sells one monthly product: a subscription at EUR 20.00 for the Acquaviva area, which is open 24 hours. No monthly subscription was found for zones 1 and 2, so a long stay in the centre works best in a flat with its own space or a garage.

EU citizens may stay three months without formalities; past that they register with the comune's registry office, and Italian law says registration is required once three months from entry have passed. Non-EU visitors, UK and US passport holders included, have 90 days in any 180 across the whole Schengen area, and since 10 April 2026 the EU Entry/Exit System has registered those short stays at the external border. A non-EU visitor who arrives from another Schengen country rather than from outside declares presence to the questore within eight days; whether a host's police registration covers that declaration is not settled in the sources read.

Whatever the length of stay, the host registers every guest with the police within 24 hours of arrival and may accept only guests carrying an identity document or passport. The 2024 Interior Ministry circular, upheld by the Council of State in November 2025, requires the host to identify the guest in person or by a video link at the door, so a key box code sent after an upload is not the practice to expect.

Airbnb calls 28 nights or more a monthly stay. It charges the first month up front and releases it to the host 24 hours after check-in, then charges each later month 10 days before that period starts. How other platforms label long stays in Olbia is unverified as of September 2026.

A listing that cannot show a national CIN and a Sardinian IUN is worth questioning before a deposit is paid. Both codes must appear in the listing and at the entrance of the unit, and the Region suspended the IUN codes of lets that had not met their statistical reporting duties in a determination of June 2026.

Assuming the tourist tax runs for the whole month. It stops after seven consecutive nights, and a host who keeps charging beyond that is charging more than the regulation allows.

Signing a month without registration. Over 30 days in the year the lease must be registered within 30 days, and an unregistered lease is void.

Booking a flat inside zones A or B and expecting to park. The ordinance bans parking throughout the ZTL at all hours, even for authorised vehicles.

Counting Schengen days only in Italy. The 90 days in any 180 run across the whole area, and the Entry/Exit System now records the crossings.

Taking a summer rate as the year-round one. Porto Rotondo's street tariff and the beach areas work on a season, and the comune publishes no winter tariff for them.