Las Vegas Occupancy Tax

[Sarah706]

After getting a notice from the city, I am in the process of getting my business license for my owner-occupied listing (I only rent out one bedroom in my home). I have to apply for a Special Use Permit because there's already a home with a license within 660 sq ft. Fingers crossed, I will get the license if I survive the nightmare process.

In the meantime, I want to find out how other Las Vegas hosts are handling the collection of the Occupancy Tax. Since there isn't a "Collect & Remit Taxes" feature available for Las Vegas listings, I want to find out:

- Where do you post in your listing about the additional occupancy tax you are required to collect for a booking? What wording do you use?

- Do you send a Special Offer requesting additional money for the occupancy tax  AFTER a guests books or...? What's the best way to handle this? 

- If a guest Instant Books with you, is it still possible to send a Special Offer for the occupancy tax? 

- Have you noticed a decrease in your bookings because of this occupancy tax collection process?

- Have any guests cancelled their reservations because of the occupancy tax collection request? 

I know we have the option to collect these taxes in person but there is no way I'm doing this. Sometimes I'm not home when a guest arrives and I don't need the stress nor the awkwardness of requesting cash from a guest as soon as they check-in.

I contacted Airbnb for assistance (and requested the Collect & Remit feature for Las Vegas!) but I only received a generic, stock answer that wasn't helpful. Needless to say, I'm not thrilled about having to do any of this since it will only add to my workload and stress as a host. However, I'm going to have to deal with this soon and any help from other hosts in the same situation would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Zacharias0]

shouldnt the licensing dept help you with that? alternatively you can rent out the room for a minimum of 30 days. the person wont usually stay 30 days but itll satisfy the req of not having to get a license. its also a lot less work and you wont have to remit taxes. the licensing is a gift and a curse. everyone in the county starting doing this and it drove rates down and the city started adding licenses so that drove rates down as well. people arent doing there numbers and are working like crazy for $1k net per room when id settle for $700/ room and just get a monthly renter. 

Also, for a few listings i stayed at in spain they collected the tax upon arrival in cash. you may want to state clearly in your listing how you plan to collect it and what the percentage is. it certainly adds up for the guest but they should expect it by now. you could do a special money request based on what the guest is paying and not what you are receiving. 

[Tracy339]

Hi Sarah.  I’m new to hosting in Las Vegas and was wondering if you were able to get any answers regarding the best way to charge for the transient occupancy tax?  I know I can up my daily rate but I want to stay competitive (so hopefully, everyone else at VDara is doing the same:)... Plus, doing it that way, the guests and myself pay a higher service fee :/.  

I plan to get the liscence and pay the yearly fee of $500 for each of my units to be in compliance with the county-eek.  Do you happen to know of any other hurdles I will need to jump other then that?   Hope you got your liscense and are rolling in the dough.  Thanks for your time!  

[Leslie416]

Hi Tracy, I just posted the answer below. Yes, you can add the tax. The instructions are posted in my response. (My response disappeared!!!).

Let's try again.

To add option to manually add Room Tax (which I assume is the same as Resort Fee):

1. Under your picture icon, select Account (or you may instead see Settings). Select whichever appears. 

2. On the next page, left hand side, select Settings.

3. On the next page, click on Professional Hosting Tools. Your hosting portal will now include additional features.

4. Go back to your listing and select Pricing.

5. Scroll down to Standard fees and charges. Select Edit.

6. Scroll down to Other Standard Fees. Select Resort Fees from the drop down.

7. Then select %. Then add the numerical percentage. For instance, as of 6/2019 in Las Vegas, the fee is 13%. So your options should show Resort Fees, %, 13 in that order.

[Leslie416]

You also need an inspection. The info is all over the place, but you can piece it together. The list of requirements can drive you crazy trying to meet them. But you may discover that you're being too exacting in your interpretation. The inspector can come to your home to let you know what you're still missing and to let you know if your interpretation of the requirements is correct before you spend a lot of money and then find out you didn't need that. You can go down to the city to meet with someone in the planning department, but they may interpret things differently since they aren't focused on short term rentals only and may try to adapt code that doesn't quite fit short term rental requirements.

[Leslie416]

AIRBNB, for some inexplicable reason, doesn't make the answer straight-forward right there in the portal. But the option is available. Here's how:

To be able to automatically add Room Tax (which I assume is the same as Resort Fee tax), follow the steps below.

1) Go to account Settings (click on your picture icon and select Settings).

2) After you go to account settings, look at the left side of the web page for a list of options, under which you'll find a second listing for "Settings." Click that.

3) In the new window, you should see an option to add Professional Hosting Tools. Click on it. Other features are now available in your hosting portal. 

4) Now go back to your listing and then select Pricing. Scroll down to Standard fees and charges and select Edit.

5) In the new window, scroll down to Other standard fees. There's now a drop down where you can select Resort Fees. Then select the % option in the next drop down. Then enter the percentage. For instance, Las Vegas as of 6/2019 is 13%. So add 13 to the text field after you select %. So it will read Resort Fees, %, 13 in that order.