Frequently asked questions

Sassi Villas provides a luxury-first management and booking service for high-standard properties in Puglia. We work across two commission-only plans: Platform Listing and Full Property Management. Each plan is designed for a different type of owner, from owners who prefer to run their own operations to a fully hands-off partnership.

Sassi Villas is commission-only. Platform Listing is 5%, charged only on bookings generated through the Sassi Villas platform. Full Property Management is 20% of rental income after OTA platform fees are deducted. There are no setup, onboarding, photography, or subscription fees on either plan.

Both plans include a listing on the Sassi Villas platform, guest access to in-villa services and local experiences, guest screening, property inspection, and active GEO and SEO optimisation. The plans differ in how much of the operational and commercial work Sassi Villas takes on beyond that.

Platform Listing keeps pricing, distribution beyond the Sassi Villas platform, and day-to-day operations with the owner. Our AI-assisted guest concierge handles routine guest questions on the owner's behalf, with anything it can't resolve passed back to the owner. Full Property Management is end-to-end: full guest communication (the concierge with our team taking the escalations rather than the owner), dynamic pricing, multi-channel distribution, cleaning and maintenance coordination, property protection monitoring through Minut, professional photography, and the Collection Standard.

An AI-assisted guest concierge runs on both plans. It answers around 99% of routine guest questions and requests directly (check-in details, wifi, local recommendations, simple logistics), using property-specific notes you provide at onboarding. On Platform Listing, anything the concierge can't resolve is passed to the owner. On Full Property Management, our team takes the escalations, so the owner is fully hands-off on guest matters. Anything that touches the platform itself (payments, refunds, account questions) is handled by Sassi Villas regardless of plan.

We work with owners whose properties meet a high presentation and quality standard, and who want a partner that treats the home as a curated asset rather than inventory. Villas, masserias, and trulli all fit naturally. Submit an enquiry through the owners page and we will tell you honestly whether we can do right by the property.

Sassi Villas is a UK-registered platform that operates as a withholding agent under Italian law for private-individual hosts. We withhold 21% cedolare secca on each booking (calculated on the rental income for the stay, including the cleaning fee) for private-individual owners letting one or two properties. If you let a second property, Italian law taxes that additional property at the higher 26% rate while your first property stays at 21%; we still withhold only 21%, so you remain responsible for remitting the extra 5% due on the additional property. We remit the withholding to the Agenzia delle Entrate on the legal monthly schedule and issue you an annual Certificazione Unica setting out the rental income collected and the cedolare withheld in your name. Owners letting three or more Italian properties from FY 2026 are presumed entrepreneurial and fall outside the cedolare regime; in that case we do not withhold and you handle your own VAT and IRPEF. We also charge Italian VAT at 22% on our commission to non-business owners; VAT-registered businesses with a Partita IVA self-account under the B2B reverse charge. Filing your own income tax return remains your responsibility, supported by the Certificazione Unica we issue.

The Collection Standard is a defined presentation and experience standard applied to every home under Full Property Management. It covers curated in-villa amenities (soaps, towels, linens, welcome touches), subtle Sassi Villas branded details, premium partner integrations, and a consistent atmosphere across the Collection. The goal is a consistent level of care beneath each home’s own character, not to homogenise properties.

Under Full Property Management, we install non-invasive monitoring technology through our partnership with Minut. It helps enforce house rules and flag issues such as excessive noise, smoking, unusual occupancy patterns, and internal climate conditions. There are no cameras in the home and no microphones recording conversations. The technology exists to protect the property, not to watch guests.

Under Full Property Management, Sassi Villas coordinates both. Cleaning is passed through to the guest, as is standard in the luxury villa market. Maintenance is coordinated by our team and charged to the owner at cost, with no markup. Under Platform Listing, the owner runs all operations.

Under Full Property Management, professional photography is included and paid for by Sassi Villas. We use the same photography partner across the Collection, which is part of how we maintain visual consistency on the platform.

These three obligations stay with the property owner as the host, across both plans. Alloggiati Web: Italian law requires the host to register every guest with the local Questura within 24 hours of check-in, or within 6 hours for stays of 24 hours or less. You collect each guest’s identity document at check-in and submit the registration directly; Sassi Villas does not collect or hold guest identity documents. CIN (Codice Identificativo Nazionale): the owner applies for and renews the CIN with the comune; we display it on the listing in line with the disclosure rules effective from 1 January 2025. Tourist tax: the owner collects the imposta di soggiorno from the guest at check-in and remits it to the comune at the local rate. The platform handles the Italian tax mechanics that sit on the platform itself (commission VAT, cedolare withholding, Certificazione Unica, DAC7-equivalent reporting); the on-the-ground compliance obligations stay with the owner.

On Full Property Management, Sassi Villas actively manages pricing. Rates adjust with seasonality, demand, market positioning, and booking pace, so the home stays competitive across the calendar without compromising guest fit or brand positioning. On Platform Listing, pricing sits fully with the owner.

On Full Property Management, we distribute across the relevant booking channels alongside our direct platform. Every listing, on both plans, benefits from active GEO and SEO optimisation, so the property is discoverable through both traditional search engines and modern AI-driven discovery surfaces.

Yes, on every plan. Sassi Villas provides a dedicated owner dashboard covering bookings, revenue, occupancy, reviews, and operational activity in one place. No spreadsheet chases, no fragmented updates.

Funds for each booking are released to your own Stripe balance 24 hours after the guest's check-in, net of (a) the applicable commission, (b) Italian VAT on the commission where it applies, and (c) any cedolare secca withholding; your Stripe balance then pays out to your nominated bank account each week. Guest payments are processed by Stripe Technology Europe, an authorised electronic money institution; we do not hold them in our own bank account. SEPA settlement is free. Every payout is itemised in the owner dashboard with a line-by-line breakdown of gross revenue, commission, VAT, withholding, and net amount transferred.

Submit your property through the form on the owners page. If we think we can do right by your home, we will be in touch to discuss the right plan and the onboarding process. Founding properties are being accepted now, which means more attention per home and a direct say in how the Collection takes shape.