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 settlements or guest refunds that have arisen in the interim; and the Owner’s Stripe balance then pays out to the Owner’s nominated bank account each week. Where a property carries a security deposit, it is captured in the same payment but is not released to the Owner: it stays in that regulated environment until it is refunded to the guest or applied against assessed damage under our Damage Policy. 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. The merchant of record for the booking depends on the country of the Owner’s Stripe account: where it is in a eurozone country, the payment is taken on behalf of the Owner, who is the merchant of record; where it is in the United Kingdom or the United States, Sassi Villas Ltd is the merchant of record. The name on the guest’s card statement follows the merchant of record. In either case, Sassi Villas’ role is to collect the payment as the operator of the platform on which the booking is made and to administer the settlement, any refund, and any dispute that follows. 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, any cleaning fee the Owner prices separately, the platform service fee, and any in-villa add-ons elected at the time of booking. Where the property carries a security deposit, the same charge also includes it, shown as its own line and separate from the price of the stay. 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. The end-of-stay clean is always paid within the checkout total: some Owners include it in the villa rental, others price it as a separate cleaning fee shown as its own line, and in either case nothing further is collected for cleaning at the property. 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 the cost of facilitating the transaction. 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 charge, the same for every guest regardless of card type or country of issue. It is sized to cover the cost of facilitating the transaction: it is collected at checkout and applied against the underlying Stripe costs, and may run slightly above them because the payout transfer fee is calculated on the booking total rather than on the net amount paid out to the Owner. It is one simple rate: 2.75% of the total the guest pays, which works out at about 2.85% of the villa rental, cleaning and any extras before the fee is added, because the card cost falls on the whole charge including the fee itself. That rate covers card processing (around 2.5% on a EUR-settled card) and the Stripe transfer on each payout to the Owner (0.25%), rather than a figure that changes booking by booking. Italian VAT at 22% is charged on the fee, and the two are collected together as the single service-fee line shown at checkout. On pricier cards (non-EEA cards cost up to 3.25% + EUR 0.25) Sassi Villas absorbs the difference, along with the small fixed per-transaction and per-payout amounts Stripe adds, rather than varying the fee or passing it to the guest, so the Owner’s rental price is never touched. Where a property carries a security deposit, the deposit is part of the charge, so the fee is worked out on it too; that part of the fee is not refunded when the deposit is returned, because the processor keeps its fee on a refunded payment, as explained under Non-Refundable Processor Fees below.

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 Sassi Villas declares and pays it through the non-Union One Stop Shop. 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’s share is sent in euros. Where the Owner’s payout bank account is held in euros, it is paid out in euros by SEPA credit transfer; where it is held in another currency (a GBP account for a UK-resident Owner, or a USD account for a US-resident Owner), Stripe converts the Owner’s share into that currency when it reaches the Owner’s Stripe balance, and only the Owner’s share is converted. Sassi Villas bears Stripe’s fee for that conversion, so it is not deducted from the Owner’s share. Processing fees are settled in euros against the platform’s EUR balance, so there is no separate currency conversion on the booking. The flat service fee is sized to the typical card processing cost; where a guest pays with a card issued outside the country or region of the merchant of record, the processor charges a higher rate, and Sassi Villas absorbs that difference 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. A security deposit stays there until it is refunded to the guest or applied against assessed damage. 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 villa rental and the cleaning fee the guest paid, net of the platform commission (5% or 20% according to the plan the Owner has selected, charged on the villa rental and never on the cleaning fee), 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 reversals processed on the booking. The guest’s service fee is not part of it: that fee is collected to cover the cost of processing the payment and does not pass to the Owner. Nor is any security deposit: it is held until it is refunded to the guest, and any part applied against assessed damage reaches the Owner with a later payout, like any other damage recovery. Damage does not reduce this figure: it is recovered from the guest under our Damage Policy and added to a later payout once collected, never deducted from the payout on the booking it relates to. 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 bank account each week, by SEPA credit transfer where that account is held in euros. 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 each payout is covered within the guest’s service fee, not borne by the Owner; where the Owner’s payout account is held in a currency other than EUR, Stripe converts the Owner’s share into that currency as described under Currency & Foreign-Exchange; and where the Owner’s bank applies its own inbound posting fee, that charge is between the Owner and the receiving bank and falls 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 made through Sassi Villas in the owner dashboard, and applies only to bookings made through the platform, not to bookings the Owner takes through other channels. The Owner receives the villa rental and any cleaning fee captured at checkout, less the following:

• the platform commission, as a percentage of the villa rental (never the cleaning fee) 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 (the villa rental plus any cleaning fee), where the Owner is a private individual within the locazioni brevi regime;
• any refunds or 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. Damage does not enter it either: it is recovered separately from the guest under our Damage Policy and added to a later payout once collected. 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. 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 in their Stripe payout records, 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 account that collected the payment, which is the Sassi Villas platform account, and the refund amount paid to the guest is correspondingly reduced by the unrecoverable processor fee element where the cancellation policy contemplates a refund. Where a cancellation falls within a free-cancellation window, under any of the standard policies or under a Custom policy that provides one, the guest receives a refund of everything paid except the processor fee element; outside that window, or under a policy that provides none, 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 on the Owner’s behalf, as the platform that collected the payment. 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 our evidence requests. 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 is notified of the failed payout 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 a downloadable annual statement covering gross rental, commission, VAT, cedolare withholding, 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 the Owner a Certificazione Unica 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. Stripe issues the guest a payment receipt for the booking by email.

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 payments are verified by Stripe as described in the Booking Policies; Owner due diligence 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 relies on Stripe’s regulated identity and sanctions screening rather than operating a parallel screen of its own, and may decline or suspend a relationship, and refund any captured funds to the original payment method to the extent permitted by law, where Stripe flags a match or where we are otherwise required to act.

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.