Payments & Payouts

Sassi Villas operates a marketplace payment architecture in which the guest pays once at checkout and the money is held inside a regulated payment environment until it is released downstream. The guest enters card details on a payment form hosted by our payment processor; the funds are captured into a regulated electronic-money account held by the processor; 24 hours after the guest’s check-in the funds are released into the Owner’s own Stripe balance, net of the platform commission, applicable Italian VAT on that commission, cedolare secca withholding where it applies, and any damage charges or guest refunds that have arisen in the interim; and the Owner’s Stripe balance then pays out to the Owner’s nominated EUR bank account at the end of each calendar month. The tourist tax does not pass through this architecture: where a comune applies one, the guest pays it to the Owner directly at check-in. Sassi Villas Ltd is not a deposit-taking institution and does not at any stage have custody of guest funds in its own bank account. The architecture is deliberate: it keeps card data out of our systems, keeps guest money inside a regulated environment until the moment of disbursement, and removes the operational risk of an intermediary holding pooled client funds. The rest of this policy explains each component of the stack, with the figures and timings that apply. The statutory basis for the Italian tax lines is set out on our Italian Tax & Platform Reporting page.

All card payments on sassivillas.com are processed by Stripe Technology Europe, Limited (“Stripe”), an electronic money institution authorised and supervised by the Central Bank of Ireland under reference C187865 and listed on the Central Bank of Ireland’s register of authorised firms. Stripe operates under the Irish transposition of the EU Electronic Money Directive (Directive 2009/110/EC) and the Payment Services Directive (Directive (EU) 2015/2366, PSD2), and is certified as a PCI DSS Level 1 service provider, the highest level of certification under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Cardholder data is captured directly by Stripe through its hosted payment elements; Sassi Villas does not see the full primary account number, the security code, or any sensitive authentication data, and does not store this information on its own infrastructure. The guest’s payment relationship in respect of the card mechanics (authentication, 3-D Secure, network rules, dispute rights) sits between the guest, the issuing bank, and Stripe; Sassi Villas’ role is as the merchant of record for the booking and as the operator of the platform on which the booking is made. Strong Customer Authentication under PSD2 (and its UK equivalent under the Payment Services Regulations 2017) is applied to every transaction where it is required by the issuer, and the guest may be redirected to a bank-hosted authentication step at checkout.

The guest pays a single charge at checkout, in EUR, comprising the villa rental, the platform service fee, and any add-ons elected at the time of booking (for example, in-villa services or local experiences arranged through our partner Holiday PA). The total is displayed in full before the guest authorises payment; there are no separate later charges, no balance instalments, and no surprise additions to the online bill. Cleaning is included in the villa rental as set by the Owner. Where the comune applies a tourist tax (imposta di soggiorno), the guest pays it to the Owner directly at check-in; it is not collected by Sassi Villas at checkout and does not form part of the online total. The service fee is broken out as a discrete line so that the guest can see what is being collected in respect of card processing. Where the payment is made on a card denominated in a currency other than EUR, the issuing bank performs the conversion at its own rate and may apply its own cross-border fee; the EUR amount captured by Stripe is the amount agreed at checkout, and any spread or fee applied by the issuing bank is between the guest and that bank. We do not surcharge any additional payment processing on top of the published service fee.

The service fee is a single flat pass-through charge, the same for every guest regardless of card type or country of issue. Sassi Villas retains none of it: it is collected at checkout and applied against the underlying processor costs. It is sized to the typical cost of a EUR-settled card, roughly 2.5%, so that on a standard card it matches Stripe’s take and passes straight through. On pricier cards (non-EEA cards cost up to 3.25% + GBP 0.20) Sassi Villas absorbs the difference rather than varying the fee or passing it to the guest, so the Owner’s rental price is never touched.

Stripe bills our UK-registered Stripe Connect account in pounds sterling (GBP). The flat fee covers two payment costs that we deliberately keep off the Owner’s rental and place on the guest’s side instead, shown as one clean line at checkout:

Italian VAT at the statutory rate of 22% is applied to the service fee where the place-of-supply rules require, and is shown at checkout. The result is a single transparent line: the guest sees it, and the Owner is not penalised by it.

All booking totals are quoted, captured, and settled in euros. The Owner is paid out in euros to the nominated EUR IBAN by SEPA credit transfer. Where Stripe bills its processing fees in GBP, the GBP charge is matched in EUR on the booking by Stripe’s internal currency facility at the point of capture. The flat service fee is sized to the typical EUR-settled card cost; where the guest pays with a non-EEA card whose billing currency is not GBP, Stripe applies a 2% currency-conversion margin on the processor side, and Sassi Villas absorbs that excess rather than passing it to the guest, so the flat fee shown at checkout does not change with the card presented. Sassi Villas does not operate a multi-currency wallet for guests; the platform is EUR-denominated by design, reflecting the Italian situs of the underlying accommodation and the EUR-denominated tax position. The guest’s issuing bank may show the transaction on the cardholder statement at its own conversion rate plus any cross-border fee it elects to charge; that part of the journey is between the guest and the issuing bank, and any discrepancy between the bank’s rate and the European Central Bank reference rate at the time of payment is not a matter that Sassi Villas can adjust.

Sassi Villas Ltd does not hold guest funds in its own bank account at any point in the booking lifecycle. From capture at checkout until release to the Owner’s Stripe balance 24 hours after check-in, the funds sit within Stripe’s safeguarded environment, ring-fenced from Stripe’s own corporate assets under the safeguarding requirements applicable to authorised electronic money institutions in Ireland. Stripe segregates customer funds and holds them in accounts at one or more authorised credit institutions, in a manner that is intended to make those funds available to merchants and (where applicable) to guests in the event that Stripe itself were to be wound up. Sassi Villas does not commingle these funds with its own working capital, does not earn interest on them, and does not use them to fund its own operations. This is a structural choice and a regulatory consequence: as a UK-resident platform that does not hold a payment-institution permission of its own, Sassi Villas relies on Stripe’s authorisation for the regulated activity, and Stripe accordingly assumes the safeguarding obligations that would otherwise sit at the platform level.

Funds for a booking are released into the Owner’s own Stripe balance 24 hours after the guest’s check-in date, on the booking total received from the guest, net of the platform commission (5%, 10%, or 20% according to the plan the Owner has selected), Italian VAT on the commission (where applicable and not subject to reverse-charge treatment), cedolare secca withholding where the Owner is a private individual within the locazioni brevi regime, and any refunds or damage settlements that have arisen on the booking. The tourist tax does not enter this calculation: where a comune applies one, the guest pays it to the Owner directly at check-in. The Owner’s Stripe balance then pays out to the Owner’s nominated EUR IBAN by SEPA credit transfer at the end of each calendar month. SEPA credit transfers within the single euro payments area are free of charge to the originator and to the beneficiary at the point of settlement, and the small Stripe transfer fee on the monthly payout is covered within the guest’s service fee, not borne by the Owner; where the Owner’s bank applies its own inbound posting fee or maintains the account in a currency other than EUR (necessitating a conversion at the Owner’s end), those charges and conversions are between the Owner and the receiving bank and fall outside our scope. The 24-hour hold before funds reach the Owner’s balance is deliberate: it means the operational risk of an early-stay issue (a non-arrival, a serious property fault, a guest dispute opened in the first hours) can be addressed while the money is still inside our infrastructure, without clawing back from the Owner. The Owner sees pending and settled payouts in the owner dashboard, with a transaction-level breakdown of every line in the calculation.

The payout calculation is set out in full on each booking in the owner dashboard. The Owner receives the gross villa rental captured at checkout, less the following:

• the platform commission, as a percentage of the gross rental in line with the Owner’s plan;
• Italian VAT on the commission, where the Owner is not a VAT-registered business (where the Owner has a valid Partita IVA, the B2B reverse charge applies and no VAT is added);
• cedolare secca withholding on the gross rental consideration, where the Owner is a private individual within the locazioni brevi regime;
• any refunds, damage settlements, and reversals processed on the booking before the payout date.

The tourist tax does not enter the Owner’s payable balance at all: where a comune applies one, the guest pays it to the Owner directly at check-in, and the Owner remits it to the comune. The statutory basis for each tax line, including the second-unit reconciliation and the position where the cedolare regime does not apply, is on our Italian Tax & Platform Reporting page.

Refunds under the Booking Policies are processed to the original payment method through Stripe and are typically credited to the guest’s card within five to ten business days, depending on the issuing bank’s posting rules. Where the refund falls within the relevant free-cancellation window, the funds have not been released to the Owner; the refund is processed directly from Stripe to the guest and there is no clawback against the Owner. Where the refund falls outside the free-cancellation window but before the payout date, the refund reduces the eventual payout to the Owner by the corresponding amount and is recorded as a deduction on the booking line in the owner dashboard. Where the refund is processed after the payout date (for example, in respect of a successful chargeback or a discretionary post-stay credit), the refund is funded out of the Owner’s subsequent payouts under a netting arrangement; the Owner sees this clearly on the dashboard, and the platform does not advance funds on the Owner’s behalf. Refunds are made in the same currency in which the original payment was captured (EUR); the guest’s issuing bank may apply a different rate for the reverse conversion to the cardholder’s billing currency, and any spread between the original capture rate and the refund rate is between the guest and the issuing bank.

Stripe’s processing fees on the original payment are not refunded by the network when a transaction is refunded. This is industry standard across regulated card-processing networks and across every major platform that operates on Stripe. Where a refund is made, the processor recovers its fee on the original capture from the merchant of record (Sassi Villas, as the platform), and the refund amount paid to the guest is correspondingly reduced by the unrecoverable processor fee element where the cancellation policy contemplates a partial refund. For Flexible, Moderate, and Strict cancellations within the free-cancellation window, the cancellation policy is configured to absorb this cost as a platform-level concession to the guest, so that the guest receives a full refund of all line items including the service fee; outside the free-cancellation window, the non-refundability of processor fees is reflected in the calculation of the partial refund. This treatment is disclosed at checkout, restated in the booking confirmation, and explained on the cancellation flow before the guest commits to the cancellation. The non-refundable nature of processor fees applies symmetrically to refunds raised by Sassi Villas and to refunds raised by the Owner on the platform.

A chargeback is a dispute initiated by the guest against the issuing bank, asking the bank to reverse a card payment on one of the network-defined dispute grounds (for example, services not provided, services not as described, fraudulent use of the card). Where a guest opens a chargeback on a booking, Sassi Villas manages the dispute with Stripe and the issuing bank as the merchant of record. We will involve the Owner where the bank requires evidence that only the Owner can supply (the booking confirmation issued at the time, the communications log around the stay, the condition record, photographs of the property on arrival and departure, and so on), and we ask the Owner to respond promptly to evidence requests in the owner dashboard. The card networks operate fixed response windows; missing them generally results in the chargeback being decided in the guest’s favour by default. Where the chargeback succeeds, the disputed amount is refunded to the guest and the corresponding sum is netted out of the Owner’s next payout under the arrangement described under “Refunds” above. Where the chargeback fails, the disputed amount remains with the booking and is settled in the ordinary course. Stripe imposes a chargeback fee for each dispute regardless of outcome; this is absorbed at the platform level and is not deducted from the Owner.

A small number of payouts fail to settle on first attempt because the Owner’s bank rejects the credit transfer (for example, because the IBAN is invalid, the account name does not match, the account has been closed, or the receiving bank applies an enhanced verification step that requires an updated payee mandate). Where a payout is returned by the bank, Sassi Villas is notified by Stripe, and the funds are held inside Stripe pending instruction. The Owner sees the failed payout in the dashboard with the underlying return reason, and a re-issue is initiated as soon as the Owner has confirmed corrected payout details. Where the failure is on the inbound side at the guest’s payment (for example, a card chargeback initiated on a fraud-related ground, or a SEPA direct-debit pullback in markets where that flow is available), the booking is treated as in dispute and is held in the dispute workflow until the position is resolved. We do not pass on Stripe’s incidental costs of a returned payout to the Owner where the failure is not attributable to the Owner; where the IBAN was provided in error or has changed without notice and the failure is therefore attributable, a small administrative cost may be deducted from the next successful payout.

The Owner sees a full transaction-level breakdown of every booking on the owner dashboard, with downloadable monthly and annual statements covering gross rental, commission, VAT, cedolare withholding, refunds, damage settlements, and net payouts. The annual statement is the basis for the Owner’s commercialista to prepare the Italian tax return and for the Owner’s UK accountant to prepare the corresponding self-assessment return (where the Owner is a UK-resident taxpayer with a foreign-property income reporting obligation). Where Sassi Villas has acted as a withholding agent for cedolare secca on the Owner’s bookings during a given tax year, the platform issues a Certificazione Unica, downloadable from the dashboard and sent by email to the address on file, setting out the gross amount collected and the cedolare amount withheld and remitted on the Owner’s behalf. The platform’s reporting obligations to HMRC and the onward exchange of that information with the Agenzia delle Entrate and other tax authorities are set out on our Italian Tax & Platform Reporting page. Guests may obtain receipts and statements covering their own bookings from the booking confirmation and from the account screen.

Sassi Villas operates a risk-based anti-money-laundering and sanctions-screening programme as part of its onboarding and ongoing monitoring of both guests and Owners. Guest screening is described in the Booking Policies; Owner screening forms part of the Stripe Connect onboarding, under which the Owner provides verifiable identity, business, and beneficial-ownership information to Stripe directly through the Stripe-hosted KYC flow. Stripe carries out the identity verification and screening as part of its own regulated obligations as an authorised electronic money institution, and is responsible for reporting suspicious activity to the relevant Financial Intelligence Unit in line with the applicable Irish AML legislation. Sassi Villas conducts a parallel, lighter-touch sanctions screen at the platform level against published lists (the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation list, the EU consolidated sanctions list, the United Nations Security Council Consolidated List, and the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control SDN list to the extent it applies to UK persons under the secondary-sanctions framework). Where a match arises that cannot be cleared on review, Sassi Villas declines or suspends the relationship and refunds any captured funds to the original payment method to the extent permitted by law.

Sassi Villas may amend the operational mechanics of payments and payouts from time to time, including to reflect changes in Stripe’s published rate card, in the Italian VAT or cedolare position, or in the platform’s commission structure. Material changes affecting the published rate card or the structure of the payout calculation are notified by email to registered Owners at least thirty (30) days before they take effect, and are mirrored on the owner dashboard. Changes that solely reflect underlying processor or tax changes outside our control (for example, a change in Stripe’s published interchange rates flowing through to the service-fee calibration) take effect with notice as soon as reasonably practicable. Changes to the guest-facing checkout disclosures that materially affect the total payable are not applied retroactively to confirmed bookings; the terms in force at the time the booking was confirmed continue to govern that booking through to settlement. Questions about any aspect of the payment stack, or about an individual booking, are best directed to support@sassivillas.com, where the platform team is able to walk through the underlying figures for any specific transaction.