So the resort tax or room tax is now on the agenda here at home.Having found out we shall be paying tax in America for nothing as i can see,it's for using the hotels facilities wi-fi gym etc,Edinburgh are now going to try it on.A small charge of just £2 per night for a total of seven nights.Yes we all know how it starts it's where it finishes and when one city gets it going others will follow.Geed well good luck Edinburgh.
Greed knows no bounds.
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MrBeanz
Guest
- Location
- Ontario California
Resort fees suck! Going to Las Vegas we end up paying another $35 for nothing. No getting around it. I don't use their pools and real stupid thing is, they charge you a resort fee even if the pool is closed during winter months. Really sucks, all greed!
BTW, it's crazy. We can get a room for $60 during the week, plus another $35 for the resort fee.
Then the same room on the weekend can be up to $400.
BTW, it's crazy. We can get a room for $60 during the week, plus another $35 for the resort fee.
Then the same room on the weekend can be up to $400.
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Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
This is fairly common in Germany: the more enterprising towns have a 'visitor card' which gives discounts on some attractions when you pay the tax though. To be fair It also helps so the city can have things like free Wifi or extra public transport services in the tourist season.
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Joey Shabadoo
My pronouns are "He", "Him" and "buggerlugs"
York council are also trying to jump onto the bandwagon of greed, with a proposal for a £1 per night "tourist" tax, which will allegedly be voluntary. As of yet they haven't revealed how they propose to collect it, or indeed whether the hotels/guesthouses etc are on board with this proposal.
At face value £1 per night doesn't sound too bad, but as we all know this will be the thin end of the wedge and their innate greed will ensure it gets revised upwards.
To illustrate @Diogenes post above, the city centre car parking fees can only be described as utter robbery with more and more residents opting to use the out of town shopping centres. The city centre is slowly dying.
At face value £1 per night doesn't sound too bad, but as we all know this will be the thin end of the wedge and their innate greed will ensure it gets revised upwards.
To illustrate @Diogenes post above, the city centre car parking fees can only be described as utter robbery with more and more residents opting to use the out of town shopping centres. The city centre is slowly dying.
It gets better,i have now found out,Bath Oxford and York are pushing to charge visitors.Where will it end,in York it is stated it will be used to keep the streets clean ,er what how about the council just do their job,or for policing bad behaviour sorry again what are we paying the Police to do.Well again good luck greedy councils.
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Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
Trouble is with budgets being reduced because of "Austerity" councils are finding it harder I expect, but they have obligations that need to be fulfilled: they're stuck between a rock and a hard place. Police cuts have been in the news as well: if you want police on the streets someone has to pay them, ditto rubbish clearance.
The three cities you mentioned are on the major tourist routes and they're rammed in tourist season, and it does cost a lot to provide the infrastructure for this. I guess they're looking for some way to plug the holes in the budgets so they can spend more on on other things like schools and libraries, or in the case of a town where one friend worked, feeding children one decent meal a day...
I'd prefer if they did something like road pricing in the centre which would create a revenue stream and improve the centres of the cities as well, but that would upset the motorists which is about the only group that isn't allowed to experience any disadvantages.
srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
Greed knows no bounds. But this isn't greed, it's simply tourist towns asking visitors to pay directly for some of the costs they force local authorities to incur. Good on the cities concerned for finally learning from our neighbours across the channel, who have been doing this for years.
Oh, and anyone who has been to Oxford or York recently will know that they have already put in place significant measures that upset motorists. And in each case make the place much more pleasant.
Oh, and anyone who has been to Oxford or York recently will know that they have already put in place significant measures that upset motorists. And in each case make the place much more pleasant.
Once again people are confusing resort fees and tourist tax.
Resort fees are charges by the hotel and are designed to make the headline room price on booking sites lower. This is done for two reasons, to make the price appear more attractive and competitive and to lower the commission paid to the booking site
Tourist tax is a real tax charged not by the hotel but the local authority.
Resort fees are charges by the hotel and are designed to make the headline room price on booking sites lower. This is done for two reasons, to make the price appear more attractive and competitive and to lower the commission paid to the booking site
Tourist tax is a real tax charged not by the hotel but the local authority.
srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
https://en.parisinfo.com/practical-paris/money/tourist-tax
A big hit as in considerably less than the price of a coffee, or the metro fare from your £35 room way out of the city centre to where the tourist sites are.
Unless you've found a £35 a night room in a Palace (yes, that's a real classification), in wjiwh case the rest of us want the tip.
Joey Shabadoo
My pronouns are "He", "Him" and "buggerlugs"
Except many of those towns would barely exist without tourism. It's tourists that sustain the cafes, restaurants, attractions and geegaw shops - all of these create jobs and generate income directly to local authorities through business rates. Instead of looking at tourists as generating "costs authorities are forced to incur", such expenditure should be looked upon as investment to encourage tourism.
Cycleops
Legendary Member
- Location
- Accra, Ghana
If you think that postie then all taxation is greed.
LonesomeWanderer
Veteran
- Location
- Sherborne, Dorset
The population of Edinburgh doubles in the summer months and it’s extra wear and tear on the local facilities. When I lived there you couldn’t walk along Princes street without tripping over several tourists staring at maps and wandering into your path. The annoying thing is AirBNB users won’t be paying it.
