The Centre Fee is sometimes a tricky one to explain to customers who feel they are paying for nothing. In reality we had to come up with a fee that reflects the cost of running the art centre with all the overheads and staff etc and we have taken pains to make this fee reflect a fair proportion of those costs not associated with the residential side of the business. These costs are 'hidden' effectively in the room fees of those staying on-site. One particularly important element of the fee is the membership of the association (€65) which is absolutely a legal requirement to be covered by our insurance should anything happen to someone in our buildings and applies to anyone who stays for more than one meal at the centre (I.e. a non participating partner would need to be included in the insurance by paying the membership fee). It is to do with how we are founded as a 'cultural association' in Italy.

I know it can seem strange when you have paid a course fee or tuition fee to the tutors for the course, however these are retained by the tutors to cover their costs and services and not passed on to the Art Centre. So if we didn't charge a 'Centre Fee' to those staying off site it would place the burden of all our Art Centre costs on those staying with us and make the rooms seem rather expensive.

I hope this explanation is clear and doesn't seem unreasonable and the fee doesn't make the trip work out too expensive overall.