Italy Clamps Down on Self-Check-ins and Key Boxes for Short-Term Rentals

Police and workmen are removing illegally placed key boxes from public property in the historic centers of Rome and Florence. 

The key boxes, which allow tourists to enter short-term rentals without meeting hosts in person, have become symbols of the social tensions surrounding overtourism.

Italy's interior ministry issued a notice in November that short-term rental hosts must remove the key boxes hanging from railings, external gates, and lamp posts. The notice (embedded below) said property owners risked a fine of €400 (about $420) for not complying.

In a recent Instagram post, Alessandro Onorato, Rome’s tourism councilor, pointed to several key boxes hanging from the railings of a public garden and said: “Can you imagine how demeaning it is to have to say to a tourist: ‘So, for the keys to the apartment, you need to go, more or less, to the third post on the railings to the right of the bush.’ This is not the kind of tourism we want.” 

Late last year, activists using the "Robin Hood" label vandalized key boxes for short-term rental properties in Rome, Turin, Bologna, Naples, and other cities.

The Robin Hood activists received local media attention, such as a recent video by La Prensa. In Rome, some activists publicly instructed others to damage boxes with glue and wire cutters to