A combination of grant and subsidised loan for investments between €1 and €15 million. What it funds, who can apply, and how to prepare before submissions open.
The 2026 Italian Hospitality Facilities Grant has features that make it one of the most attractive instruments for the hospitality sector at the present moment. It puts €109 million on the table, combining grant and subsidised loan, and covers investments between €1 and €15 million per project. It is aimed at facilities looking to make a step change — not a routine refresh, but a repositioning.
The funds are not unlimited, and experience with grants of this type teaches two lessons: those who present a solid file have a strong chance of succeeding; those who arrive unprepared lose weeks of work. The preparation phase is decisive.
The measure has five stated objectives: development of the national tourism offer, deseasonalisation, digitalisation of the tourism ecosystem, alignment with ESG criteria, improvement of attractiveness. These are broad criteria, but indicative: a winning project demonstrates how the proposed interventions concretely impact at least two or three of these points, not just one.
In practice this means that a hotel applying for a grant simply to install double-glazed windows will struggle. A hotel proposing an integrated plan for energy efficiency improvement (at least 2 class shifts), digitalisation of building management and the addition of extra services such as a thermal pool to extend the season has considerably better prospects.
Applications may be submitted by tourism sector businesses with eligible ATECO classification codes. One of these two requirements must be met:
The project must be exclusively functional to the activities admitted by the measure. Mixed projects, where part of the investment relates to non-tourism business, are excluded.
The structure combines grant and loan, configured as follows:
The minimum investment threshold — €1 million — excludes smaller-scale projects, while the €15 million ceiling makes the instrument suited to both ambitious SMEs and larger structures.
The five admitted intervention lines are designed to be combined, not treated as alternatives:
For a hospitality operator today, the highest-impact items are often the first three: they cut structural costs in the long term, and their effect on competitiveness is visible at equal pricing. The fourth item — wellness, congresses, events — is by contrast the one that raises positioning value and opens new markets (corporate, MICE, premium leisure).
For a concrete reference: a 4-star hotel with 45 rooms in Sicily, operating since 1996, classified as a small enterprise. Planned investment of €1.34 million, mixing energy efficiency, digitalisation and service expansion.
In this case the operation breaks down as follows: over €300,000 of non-repayable grant, approximately €938,000 of subsidised 5-year loan, with a Gross Grant Equivalent benefit estimated between €54,000 and €94,000 above standalone market financing.
Translated into operational terms: the business reduces the equity required to launch and finds itself with project financial margins significantly improved from year one.
Between the publication of a grant of this scale and the actual opening of submissions, weeks typically pass during which much of the preparation is played out. The steps worth taking now:
On grants of this scale, the difference between a file that passes and one that stops at assessment almost never comes down to “what you propose”. It lies in “how you demonstrate it”.
If you operate a hospitality facility that could qualify and want to understand how competitive your position is before submissions open, write to us or book a call. The earlier the preparation begins, the less the grant becomes a race against the clock.