Occupancy Tax

Karen262
Level 1
Netherlands

Occupancy Tax

Hi all,

 

Does anyone know how to add an occupancy tax in the price guest can see when they book? The listing is in Amsterdam.

I looked for a lot of places, but just cannot find it!!

Many thanks if I can get some help here!!

 

 

Karen

14 Replies 14
Bob43
Level 10
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Hi Karen,

 

You shouldn't. Since Airbnb collects the tax directly with the guest and transfers it directly to the tax department of the city of Amsterdam, hosts don't get involved. During the reservation process, your guest will see a total price, broken down by:

 

- Rental price

- Airbnb guest fee (and its VAT)

- Cleaning fee

- Taxes

Frank--Bud-0
Level 1
Vineland, NJ

Looking for someone's assistance. I'm in the state of Pennsylvania and it appears that i too have set up the occupancy tax however i don't remember how i did it and i can't find it as well. My big question however is that if they are collecting it, so they send it to me to pay the state or do they pay the state direct.? If they are paying the state direct then why is the stat of PA sending me notifications to pay the tax if AIRBNB is already collecting?....seems like I may be paying twice if they are paying and I'm paying too..?

 

Please help or point me in the right direction so i can get this rectified. Contacting AIRBNB has been difficult to get resolution too.

 

Thanks 

I have the same question. Do we file seperately apart from Airbnb? My business with the county and state is a under different name than with what Airbnb has...So am I getting credited for my personal name or is my business getting credited? The last thing I want to do is double pay. 

Linda108
Level 10
La Quinta, CA

In the Help Center, there is a couple of articles about the tax collection.  Enter occupancy tax and one of the articles lists the US cities by state that Air BNB collects tax and it describes what tax.  Some cities have both a city and a state tax.  As mentioned before, the tax collected is listed on the reservation confirmation for the host as well as the guest.  

 

Please check the tax amount is correct.  I discovered that Air BNB was incorrectly over-collecting the transient occupancy tax for my city by taking 10% of the whole amount including cleaning fees.  In my city, cleaning fees are excluded from taxation.  Only the rental fee should be taxed.  I alerted both the city and Air BNB.  Heard from the city that there was a meeting scheduled with Air BNB about this.  I want to ensure the guests get a refund as well, so I will be following up.

Mara24
Level 2
Scottsdale, AZ

I too am having problems with Airbnb and the occupancy tax. In my city guess that stay over 30 days should not be charge occupancy tax, yet Airbnb chooses to do so. I have one ticked off guest and I am one ticked off host. Airbnb refuses to take care of the situation in a timely manner. I am about ready to lose my guest. It even says in the Airbnb community information that gas would not be charged for staying over 30 days in the city of Phoenix.any suggestions before I turn Airbnb over to the authorities for collecting illegal occupancy tax?

@Mara24  Air BNB collecting any type of required tax is a good idea but with flawed implementation.  Here are some suggested steps you could take:

  1. Send an email to the responsible manager in your city advising of the collection error and requesting a refund from the city as that is where the funds are.
  2. Advise your guest of the correspondence to the city.  Enter a screenshot via the Air BNB message system.  
  3. Contact Air BNB via Twitter and refer to your message to the guest with the screenshot of the email to Phoenix. 

Are you familiar with the Phoenix Home Home Sharing Club? Here in La Quinta, the City entered into an agreement with Air BNB to collect and remit the occupancy tax only to cancel 3 months later due to problems with how Air BNB remitted the collected tax.  BTW, I alerted Air BNB to a problem with their collection through the Air BNB staff person assigned to work with the Home Sharing Club.

 

I know you are upset about this and you are trying to keep a guest.  Dealing with both the Air BNB system and Phoenix system in a perfect world shouldn't be your problem, but advocating for your guest may be.  I would think the guest would be appreciative of your efforts.  Good luck!

 

[**bleep** edited]

Kirstie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hi @Linda108,

 

I apologise you still have some words showing as **bleep** in this post - we had some issues with our filter yesterday. I have edited the **bleep**s where I was able to find the original text but I cannot access the original text to replace the other ones here. If you would like to restore it to the original text please send me a message (click on your name in the top right corner of the Community Center, then 'Inbox', then 'New message' and type 'Kirstie'). Send me the words/sentences that have been hidden with **bleep** and I can restore it for you. 

 

Thanks!

Kirstie

Hi, Property in Montana.
Montana requires accommodations tax totaling for city and state 10 %. AIR BNB So Frustrating. I have spent 8 hours going in and out of Air BNB website to place an accommodation tax yet have not been able to do so. Unable to find the site to enter the information. No real person with Air BNB to speak with. My Question do I just charge the guest after they have booked the 10% additional. So unprofessional to do it that way and my rates are already rock bottom. Any Suggestions. I am lost and done with this process.  Thanks for any help.......Mona

Hi @Ramona42  You are posting on a year old discussion thread so you might not get the response you are expecting.  Hopefully you have read some of the responses and have a better understanding of the issue.

 

Since Air BNB is an international booking forum, something that makes sense here in the US does not fit for other countries.  Anyway,  what I do is include my City tax in the nightly rate.  I do that for several reasons but formost is to allow the guest to not have to experience a number of extra charges.  Hotels add the charges when you check in.  I always experience sticker shock even though I understand.  There are arguments not to do what I do.  If you want to collect at the time of the check in, you can go to the reservation and select "request money" to get the tax.  Be sure to explain to the guest you are doing this.

I have been on VRBO and Home Away for nearly 7 years.  Because my property manager retired, I took over and decided to add myself to Airbnb.  Completely frustrated after I got my first bookings to realize they don't even have a line item . . . . . . here is what I have sent the company.  You should write them to, this is ridiculous and they have gotten in trouble for these sorts of things in Australia in the past: 

 


March 28, 2018


Brian Chesky, CEO
Belinda Johnson, COO
Nathan Blecharczyk, CSO
Joe Gebbia, CPO
Kenneth Chenault, Board Member
Michael Curtis, VP Engineering
Airbnb
888 Brannan Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

 

Dear Madam and Sirs:

 

I very much appreciate that I am able to list my vacation rental on your site, but am completely frustrated with one single aspect of your site. A line item for Occupancy Tax or VAT.

I purchased my rental unit in Oceanside, California in 2012 for the sole purpose of renting it as a vacation rental until my retirement. From the time of my purchase until approximately two weeks ago, I had a part-time employee acting as the property manager in order to earn additional income as an older single mother. For some time, I suggested we list my property on Airbnb, and not exclusively on VRBO. While there were significant bookings on VRBO, I made the suggestion on more than one occasion that we list the property on your site, but each time I met with resistance from her. My employee told me that the Airbnb site was not ‘host friendly.’ Frankly, I am far too busy in my law practice to have pressed her with specifics; she has been a long term employee and I trust her judgment.

 

Just a couple of weeks ago, my employee unexpectedly retired. I was forced to take over the listing on VRBO. I decided to list the property on Airbnb. It has only taken me a very few days to realize what my employee was talking about with respect to not being ‘host friendly,’ it has to do with occupancy tax.

 

Attached as Exhibit 1, is a screen shot of a page of my VRBO quote sent to someone that booked my home. As you can see, there is a line item for ‘tax.’ Attached as Exhibit 2, is a form that the City of Oceanside provides to each and every property that is used as a vacation rental. It is due to be paid each and every quarter to the City of Oceanside. [by the way, VRBO/Homeaway also allows the renter to have an additional option of purchasing, for a nominal price a renter’s insurance policy, up to $1,000,000. I am not aware of Airbnb having this as an option for renters].

 

A copy of the pricing page for my listing on Airbnb is attached as Exhibit 3. Airbnb does not
provide me, as a host, that line item for occupancy tax. It is absurd that Mr. Curtis, and the host of computer engineers that are at the heart of your site, cannot simply add a line item. At the very minimum, there should be a line item that explains the tax, and if you insist it go through the resolution center, then prior to charging the final amount, that should be included in the price that the renter needs to pay - and be known right up front.

 

When I was trying to determine how many cities have Airbnb hosts, I came across an old article that provided the following: “Pricing transparency: When customers search for lodging, Airbnb displays per-night prices that exclude its own per-night service charges as well as possible additional costs such as cleaning fees. The total price is not revealed until the customer selects an individual property and is ready to book. In late 2015, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission took action against Airbnb for this form of drip pricing. Consequently, users of Airbnb's Australian web site now see the total price of a stay including all unavoidable charges at every stage of the booking process.” Per this article, without the line item regarding occupancy or VAT being included, then Airbnb pricing transparency is still a problem that you have not rectified, at least here in the United States.

 

For hosts, the entire Local Laws section is a waste of space because it really explains nothing, except for a host to check local laws. I have to imagine that a majority of average renters don’t even realize there may be additional charges because there is no line item OR an explanation of the tax for them to be made aware of. While your site may be trying to appease each jurisdiction in which you have hosts, what you provide is useless, when there is no mention to renters or a line item for hosts.

 

As a host, who has been listing a property for more than 6 years, there really must be either a line item represents ‘Occupancy Tax’ or ‘VAT,’ OR, at a minimum a line item, that explains to the renter what the tax is and then immediately directs them to the resolution center. According to Bloomberg, there are more than 2.3 million listings on your site, yet, you are only micro managing a very few jurisdictions, leaving the rest of us with a problem that your site has created.

Attached as Exhibit 4, is about the most absurd proposition that I have ever heard. When a property is listed on Airbnb, YOU are in charge of providing the total cost through YOUR billing the prospective vacationer. However, that you do not make a guest aware of an additional cost, because YOU do not provide for the occupancy tax, is falling into the problem that is documented you experienced in Australia. Your suggest in the literature for the host, in order to collect the tax, “ask your guest to pay it in person.” You have to be kidding?! That is an outrageous suggestion.

I phoned your help line, when I discovered that you do not provide a line item or any notice of occupancy tax. The poor young man on the phone told me that lots of people complain about this lack of functionality in your web site, and he directed me to write a review, send a comment and he would be sure to let his supervisor know he had another complaint. Seriously?! The alterative you provide is to go to the ‘Resolution Center’ AFTER a guest checks in, to ask them to pay the respective tax. This is absolutely absurd.

 

Your suggestions on collecting taxes that you are aware are mandatory in most jurisdictions, potentially puts all hosts in a position of either looking like we are falsely advertising, or getting a bad review because there is no where that you allow each individual host to give an explanation prior to a booking that the occupancy tax is not included in their charge, and is extra.

The other suggestion that was made to me by the young man on your phone line was that I could raise my prices in order to include the 11.5% occupancy tax in my area. That is an equally absurd suggestion, when you don’t even allow an explanation of what the total nightly includes and represents.

 

Mr. Curtis, I can’t imagine that it would cost Airbnb any more than a few thousand dollars to add to the pricing menu ‘TAX,’ with a notation that allows the host to explain their respective jurisdiction charges x% occupancy or x% vat. If you then want to direct guests to the resolution center to pay it to the host separately, fine. However, you HAVE to allow us a place on the payment page to even have it as a line item, or something that guests will be expected to pay. Anything less is not being host friendly. Frankly, it is not being guest friendly, either.

 

I hope that you will take action to do something right by your customers in this regard. You are making billions of dollars off of our listings, and this aspect of your site is absolutely not ‘host friendly.’ And, neither is ‘guest’ friendly.

 

Sincerely,

 

Hi @Alexandra435  Did you confirm that Air BNB collects occupancy tax for Oceanside?  I didn't see Oceanside, CA on the list of municipalities that have tax collection and remittance by Air BNB. 

 

Given the quality of your correspondence and your suggestions, would you be willing to post your suggestion on Host Voice?  That is a vehicle for the hosts to support (or not) an idea from a host.  Sufficient host support results in the issue being forwarded to Air BNB team.  Just a thought for your consideration.

Yes, when I got 2 bookings and realized what was happening I searched and found Oceanside not listed.  That is what prompted me to phone them and speak to someone.  I am happy to post anywhere you like..... just link me to it and will do so. 

Linda108
Level 10
La Quinta, CA

At the top of the Community Center home page is "discuss" . Select and you will find Host Voice.  Good luck!

Carla427
Level 2
Arlington, VA

Hi,  I have just communicated with air bnb and they only collect the state tax.  When I called my county and asked why I still have to pay them, they said this is a separate tax.  So I think that earlier I wasn't paying the state tax at all because I didn't know it existed.  There is no way to add a line item for the county tax.  The line item that is on some listings must by the one air bnb adds. 

 

So what I'm wondering is what kind of luck people have with asking people to pay the tax in person.  I don't always see the people, plus it is a lot to expect people to have cash on hand.  Maybe I can get a venmo account.  How are other people doing this?