How to write a vacation rental listing in Sicily: photos, description, prices, CIN and CIR

How your listing is created

Hosts register themselves, and listing is free. You write in one language of your choice, and Terra Mia Immobiliare produces the other two versions. In the owner area you fill in seven steps: Basics, Location, Description, Rooms & amenities, Pricing, Calendar and, last, Photos. Then you submit the listing for approval. Terra Mia Immobiliare reviews every vacation rental listing before it goes online.

The details, photos and amenities come from you, and guests rely on them. Write exactly what is true: that several houses share the pool, that only two of three bedrooms have air conditioning, or that the plot is smaller than the view suggests.

Terra Mia Immobiliare mediates the booking and is not a party to the rental contract. The contract between you and the guest is formed once the deposit reaches you within seven days of the booking confirmation. Unless stated otherwise, the deposit is 25%. A commission of 16% plus VAT is charged only when a booking is made, and the guest pays you directly.

Photos

Photos shape the first impression. A listing can be published with five photos, and you can upload up to 40. Terra Mia Immobiliare recommends:

• 15 to 20 photos, preferably landscape and in high resolution;
• natural light, ideally during the day;
• every room, plus the garden, terrace, pool and view;
• a short video, if you have one.

Guests renting a house in Sicily are also renting its outdoor space, from a terrace in the Ragusa countryside to a courtyard in Palermo. Show the house as it looks today. A photo of an earlier state is an inaccurate statement.

The description: numbers, not adjectives

A complete description covers:

• living area and plot area in square meters;
• the number of bedrooms, beds and other places to sleep;
• how the living room, kitchen and bathrooms are equipped;
• features such as a balcony, garden, pool, Wi-Fi, air conditioning, washing machine, dishwasher or parking.

"Two bedrooms, one double bed and two singles, 85 square meters of living space, a 600-square-meter garden" answers the questions a family has before it books. The Terra Mia Immobiliare price index (snapshot of October 29, 2026) shows how much the bedroom count shapes the price: homes with one bedroom have a median of 87 EUR per night, three bedrooms 176 EUR, five or more 374 EUR.

Add a few quotes from genuine reviews and tips on the area, such as sights, restaurants or the village festival in summer. For bookings through the platform, Terra Mia Immobiliare asks the guest for a review two days before departure.

Prices and extra costs

Terra Mia Immobiliare recommends weekly prices that already include the commission, prices per season, and an open list of extra costs such as final cleaning, the security deposit, electricity or a pet fee. The 16% commission is calculated on the total price the guest pays you, final cleaning included. Tourist tax, electricity, water, gas, heating, air conditioning and the security deposit are not part of it.

VAT applies to the commission only, never to the rent. Without a confirmed VAT ID, Italian IVA of 22% is added, 19.52% in total. To receive 100 EUR per night, set about 124.25 EUR. With a confirmed German VAT ID, 19% German VAT is added; with a confirmed VAT ID from another EU country, the reverse-charge procedure applies.

If you have not agreed your own cancellation terms for the house, the standard fees apply. They are calculated on the total price without tourist tax and utilities, and they are paid to you.

Calendar

A current calendar prevents double bookings. In the Calendar step, under “Calendar sync”, you connect your Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo or FeWo-direkt calendars by iCal, or Terra Mia Immobiliare sets up the connection for you. The platform reads connected calendars every three hours. Under the mediation terms, bookings from other sources must be blocked in the calendar within 24 hours.

Required items: CIN and CIR

The CIN (Codice Identificativo Nazionale) is assigned by the Ministry of Tourism through its BDSR database. Under Art. 13-ter para. 6 D.L. 145/2023, it must be displayed outside the building and “in ogni annuncio ovunque pubblicato”, in every ad wherever it is published ¹. The duty also covers intermediaries and portals. Enter the CIN and CIR in the Basics step. They then appear on the listing page below the description.

If the CIN is missing from an ad, Art. 13-ter para. 9 D.L. 145/2023 provides for a fine of 500 to 5,000 EUR per unit and the immediate removal of the ad. Renting out without any CIN at all risks 800 to 8,000 EUR ¹. For a CIN sign missing from the building, Sicily applies its own range instead: 500 to 2,500 EUR under Art. 38 para. 5 L.R. 6/2025, doubled for a repeat within two years ³. The municipality enforces the rules through the local police ¹.

The CIR is Sicily's regional code. It is assigned through the Turist@t system (Art. 1 D.A. 1783/2022) ² and normally comes first: the Region converts the regional code into the CIN (Art. 13-ter paras. 2 and 3 D.L. 145/2023) ¹. Art. 7 D.A. 1783/2022 requires the CIR in all ads, and Art. 9 sets a fine of 500 to 5,000 EUR, doubled if repeated ².

Landlords who filed the Allegato B notice by June 30, 2026 but still owe technical documents must submit them by December 30, 2026 under Art. 4 D.A. 1920/2026. Otherwise the property can be closed and its CIR and CIN revoked ⁴.

Next step

Once you have the CIN and CIR, the photos and the facts about the house, register as a host and create the listing in the owner area. The mediation agreement can be ended with one month's notice, at least 30 days, to the end of a month.