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Milan has officially joined the list of Italian cities banning key boxes used for short-term rentals.
Starting in January 2026, the use of these boxes will no longer be permitted following a city council resolution that specifically targets their installation.
The ban applies to key boxes placed on street furniture, road signs, fences, gates, light poles or other structures placed on public land. Those who do not comply with the new rules risk a fine of between €100 and €400, in addition to covering the cost of removal.
Key boxes are commonly used to allow guests to check in independently. However, the municipality emphasises that, without authorisation to occupy public space and payment of the relevant fees, these boxes constitute an improper use of public property for private gain.
The resolution also refers to safety reasons, stating that key boxes can be used for illegal activities, including drug dealing, as highlighted in recent judicial investigations.
Flat owners have thirty days to comply and remove the boxes; if they do not, they will have to pay the fine and cover the costs of removal by the municipality.
Other Italian cities already ban key boxes
Milan is not the first city to take such measures. With the increase in short-term rentals, tourist cities such as Florence, Bologna, Rome and Venice have already banned key boxes to protect urban decorum and ensure public safety.
In Florence, for example, a resolution passed last February bans the installation of key boxes on public property, requiring their removal within 10 days and the imposition of administrative fines.
From the Tar to the Council of State
Rome, too, has launched an operation to remove key boxes on its streets, but not without some hiccups.
Deputy prosecutor Alessandro Di Cicco declared the seizure of the boxes carried out by the local police as illegitimate, because it had been initiated ‘without a preliminary ascertainment of the accommodation facilities to which they could be linked and whether or not the manager or owner of these facilities had personally identified the guests’.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of the Interior has made it mandatory for accommodation facilities to conduct in-person check-ins, citing public order and safety concerns to prevent risks associated with hosting unidentified or potentially dangerous individuals.
Self-check-in via key boxes made it harder to track guests, creating an accountability gap. Municipal removal operations were therefore based on this directive. The ministry also tied the measure to the rise in short-term rentals, which could be amplified by major public and tourist events, such as the Jubilee 2025, potentially increasing both visitor numbers and the misuse of accommodation facilities.
In May 2025, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court annulled the Viminale circular requiring in-person guest identification and banning key boxes, ruling it disproportionate and insufficiently justified in terms of security objectives. However, in November 2025, the Council of State overturned that decision, confirming that in-person guest identification remains mandatory and that self-check-in via key boxes is prohibited unless valid methods of visual verification are employed.
In light of this legal framework, the Municipality of Rome continues to consider the installation of key boxes illegal, with particular reference to public spaces or parts of buildings visible from public spaces.
Citizens protest against the proliferation of key boxes
The proliferation of key boxes has also triggered strong grassroots reactions in Italian cities, where residents and local committees denounce the impact of short-term rentals on the urban and social fabric.
In Trastevere, a historic neighbourhood in Rome, a number of boxes have been sabotaged, covered with stickers or posted on social networks as a symbol of protest against the proliferation of tourist rentals and overtourism.
Citizens’ actions aim to draw attention to the fact that key boxes contribute to gentrification, with rising rental prices and the gradual disappearance of available housing for historical residents and traditional businesses.
Also in central districts of Florence, Venice and Milan, citizens’ groups have reported and removed suspicious key boxes on their own, promoted online petitions and organised awareness-raising campaigns to demand more control by municipalities.
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