Bed & Breakfasts in Italy: The case of the Emilia-Romagna Region

Italy is excluded from the worldwide phenomenon of expansion of the bed & breakfasts until the late '90s. At first, the formula was not successful, perhaps because of a legal vacuum in the field. In fact, the starting point is represented by the Law n. 217 of May 17th 1983, “Legge Quadro per il turismo e interventi per il potenziamento e la qualificazione dell’offerta turistica”, which allowed the single Regions to regulate the matter by themselves, but it was actually put into action for the first time only in 1997. In that year, because of the need to face the expected increase in tourism flows during the Jubilee, the Lazio Region thought of this simple and flexible formula, able to integrate the extra-hotel receptivity without excessive bureaucratic constraints. First the Capital – with the Regional Law n. 18 of the 29th of May 1997 - and then all the other cities of Italy have chosen to open the doors of their homes to tourists, offering them a bed and a breakfast.

In 2001, with the Constitutional Law n. 3, the whole tourism subject has been transferred into the hands of the Regions. According to the current art. 117 (paragraph 4) of the Italian Constitution, the Regions have legislative powers in all of the subject matters not listed in paragraphs 2 and 3. Since the subject matter “Tourism” is listed neither in par. 2 nor in par. 3 of art. 117, it can be considered included in the provision stated in par. 4.

ISTAT has collected data on B&Bs for the first time in 2001 and, year after year, it has always recorded an increase of double-digit percentages. In 2007 they reached 15.094 businesses with 76.701 beds (an average of 5.1 beds per structure). These figures were equivalent to 15.6% of the units and 3.3% of the beds of the entire complementary receptive accommodation sector in Italy.

Gradually, all the Regions have taken steps to recognize the B&B with specific regulations (with considerable differences between one Region and the other, but this issue will be discussed in the following chapter), and this form of alternative tourism always kept growing. In the years that followed the Jubilee, we notice a profound change in the structures and in the services offered. Although the formula has remained almost unchanged, room fares significantly increased, abandoning the typical characteristic of affordability that was original of the Anglo-Saxon countries (around three shillings per night) in favor of prices comparable to three-star hotels’.

Today in Italy there are more than 30.000 Bed & Breakfasts that offer a total of almost 157.000 beds; the percentage change compared to 2014 is positive (respectively +6,4% and +6,1%).