Sacramento Tourism Marketing ​District Assessment (STMD)

[Taylor117]

Recently a few hosts in the Sacramento area have been receiving letters from STMD requesting that every month we pay a certain percentage of gross income depending on a zone we live in. I know AirBnB pays for the TOT tax on our behalf but yet now we are getting this form asking for more money from us. Which I think is extremely unfair and I was hoping that maybe AirBnB would be able to step in on our behalf since this fee came out of no where for us and little notice. Not to mention I question the legality of the fee that can be imposed since it's not a Tax. 

Here is the website if anyone is interested: https://www.visitsacramento.com/aboutus/stmd/

They claim it helps pay for tourism but they don't even advertise AirBnB on their website. 

[Beth3412]

Agreed, this assessment came totally out of nowhere! It is certainly not clear how this assessment is helping the Airbnb host community. Airbnb please look into on behalf of all of us! 

[Emmanuel694]

Totally! I didn't receive any notification prior to the letter asking for more money. I don't even know how and when the bill got passed in the city council... If we have to pay the fee, is there any way Airbnb can help pay it on our behalf like TOT, so that we don't need to manually raise the price? Because according to the letter we need to specify the fee is for "tourism assessment"

[Jennifer1774]

Agreed!  We got this letter too and I did some research on it. The money will funnel to Visit Sacramento an employee of which told me point blank that they “do not now nor will they ever” promote AirBnB. The assessment (3% for me since I’m in midtown) is supposed to be used to promote tourism and hotel stays.  

There is no mention of AirBnB in the management district plan. It might be good for us to get together and form a plan to either be excluded or ensure we have representation on the committee.  Right now it is all hoteliers on that committee and it was the hotel lobby that worked hard to try and keep AirBnB out of Sacto.  City council likely won’t be helpful but it’s worth calling your Councilmember.  

Who else is down for a meet up?  

We should also reach out to the policy team for AirBnB and see if they’ll help us. 

[Virginia530]

Hi Jennifer- I would be down to meet up (after the COVID-19 risk dies down).  Have you contacted the Air BnB policy team?  

[Chantal959]

I’m down for a meet up. 

[Bill-And-Marni0]

I received the letter as well.  A gift for getting the permit and being legal even though the city doesn’t enforce since only like 15 percent of the listings are legal.  I’m down to meetup about this.  

[Virginia530]

I would like to be kept in the loop on this as well; especially if Air BnB steps in from a policy perspective or to lobby for a seat on the council.  I am starting to wonder if this is the City of Sacramento's way of discovering the monthly gross income of each individual Air BnB property since, as I recently found out, the 12% Transient tax collected by Air BnB is paid to the city on a gross basis for all properties and the city does not really know from whom they are collecting it.

[Joel881]

I’m very troubled by some research did below on this. The next virtual committee meeting is on Oct 12 and I highly recommend many Airbnb hosts join. We should ask detailed questions about excluding Airbnb unless the committee agrees to adopt new rules that cease use of funds that directly benefit any specific hotel or cause any appearance of a conflict of interest.   If they refuse, we should contact the media to run a story about the corrupt use of these funds Airbnb hosts are now being forced by the city to pay.

The funds collected are used for funding applications approved by a committee of hotel managers, selected by the hotel lobbying association (Sacramento Hotel Association).  You can read the past meeting minutes on Visit Sacramento site.

There are dozens of examples that prove the use of funds is to directly benefit the hotels that sit on this committee.  I read many that show funds used to market events hosted at specific hotels, support hotels to setup booths at trade conventions, transport hotel guests between over flow hotels. One shows they previously denied and/or reduced funding for events that benefit other hotels not represented in the Committee, such as Downtown Commons.  

It’s not clear how an assessment collected by the city (government), but run by private business is legal and not considered taxation without representation. Anyone a lawyer here?

The most recent committee brought up Airbnb, and it was stated that a few hosts said they didn’t mind paying this “assessment”.  There is another committee on Oct 12. I strongly believe hosts should attend and ask detailed questions about excluding Airbnb unless the committee agrees to adopt new rules that cease use of funds that directly benefit any specific hotel. 

“The funding, raised by the hospitality industry, is directed by the hospitality industry. The funds flow directly into sales and marketing activities that will be reviewed and monitored by a Tourism District Committee of industry peers - hotel managers appointed by the Sacramento Hotel Association.”

[Tania698]

Hello there! I am new to hosting but I want to know how so many people get away with hosting more than 90 days? I am also wondering if there was resolution to this above situation? 
thank you!