http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/new-bed-tax-threat-faces-edinburgh-tourists-1-3930011
How does the word "threat" work here?
Is the world full of people who avoid cities with tourist taxes??
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"New bed tax threat faces Edinburgh tourists"
(7 posts)-
Posted 8 years ago #
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In a word, No.
Paris, Rome, pretty much every ski resort I have ever been to. Its accepted practice, unless you are editorialising for the EEN, of course.
Posted 8 years ago # -
The one annoying thing I've seen with "Tourist taxes" levied elsewhere is they way they've been levied. Hotels in Brussels seem to insist on taking it direct when checking out, even if the room is prepaid, and wouldn't let us pay on check in. Bit of a pain when you're living on the currency you have bought. Much better if you could simply include it in the room price and prepay it when booking, even if it's itemised separately.
In Berlin it was marked through Hotels.com as being prepaid, but required a lot of discussion with the hotel to prove it! Interestingly in Berlin it is not payable if you are travelling on business.
No issue with charging one in itself as long as it is implemented sensibly, is properly disclosed to those booking, and is not set at a ridiculous level.
Not sure how the suggested levy on bars and restaurants would work though. A mandatory cover charge? Extra tax on these establishments which would work its way into higher prices? Bars & restaurants already have a hard time without adding more to it.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Threat, my erse. No one's going to avoid Edinburgh because of a hotel bed tax. Most heavily visited places in Europe charge it and no one bats an eyelid. If it's used to pay for festivals and cultural stuff, even better - then tourists know it's doing something useful.
Posted 8 years ago # -
The uk does already have higher indirect taxes than many European destinations for tourist. From air tax, to VAT (in the uk hotels charge full vat, unlike many European countries, the full VAT is more than the room charge at times), to alcohol duty to our smaller subsides for public transport system resulting in a higher user fee.
http://www.vatlive.com/vat-rates/european-vat-rates/eu-vat-rates/
Many European countries charge reduce VAT on hotel rooms even a charge of 5 euro is less than the difference between our VAT on the typical room, there is also discounted rates for eating out unlike the UK. Bars & restaurants in the UK are possibly already charing higher fees from VAT and duty than some european tourist charges plus VAT and duty at there local rates.
In France Germany and the Netherlands the governments subsidies tourists holiday to a greater extent through the discount railed service.To consider if the uk should charge additional bed tax, it would not just be question of do other countries charge it, but the total tax and duty a tourist visiting the uk would pay in relation to other European locations, it is somewhat arbitrary how we choose to define the charges or classify the charges, the tourist concern is the cost not if we call it VAT or room charge etc.
If you travel to some European countries and got a trains pass and travelled a lot could possibly have a holiday with an effective negative tax rate, although I am happy with UK rail as can take bikes on etc, on UK rail you do pay nearer the actual cost on uk rail service than many others.
I may be wrong but I am guessing if did the numbers with current UK tax/duty/charges/subsidy that tourists are already paying at least the same, possibly more, in total charges compared to many European countries that have a room charge it’s just its taken in different basket of collection.
Irrespective of whether the uk has higher charges the question may also be how would the increase impact demand if was looking it from a “business” perspective.
With new charges there is also the cost of collection and administration , to achieve the same revenue a change to current rates already VAT/duty collected may be able to do this more cheaply.
Posted 8 years ago # -
General taxes are kind of by-the-by here. Foreign tourists will have a view on whether the UK is an expensive place to visit anyway and factor that into considerations. It doesn't seem to put too many of them off.
The crucial point with a bed tax is that is locally-assigned and deployed for a local purpose. It is an additional money-raising power for the Council that it can ring-fence and use to fund the events and venues that draw a lot of tourists to Edinburgh in the first place. It stays in Edinburgh. A change to VAT etc would simply disappear into central government coffers, never to be seen again.
From a business perspective, a £2 addition to a £100+ hotel room is not going to have much impact on demand, if any.
Posted 8 years ago # -
If money raised by bed tax impacts on a lower settlement from Scot gov to city of ed then no better off. Similarly if Scot gov raised income tax but Westminster then reduced grant clearly we would be no better off.
Posted 8 years ago #
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