How to deal with request from host to pay additional taxes, which are in addition to the taxes in breakdown of "total cost"?

[Ronald583]

I have never reserved a condo through AirBNB, so I don't know if the message below from the condo manager is correct. Do I need to pay more/additional taxes, over those shown in the total cost breakdown?  Or maybe the manager is confused. 

"Taxes are not included in the price because airbnb does not collect taxes on behalf of the owners. So if your okay with the additional taxes then we are good to go. Or, you could go to the vrbo website and search property #XXX. Vrbo collects all the taxes in advance, which makes it easier on everyone."

AFAIK, the payment details state "total cost", which included the service fee, cleaning fee, AND taxes. So why is the manager telling me that I have to pay more taxes? 

I did see the same listing on vrbo. Since the total cost (fees, taxes, etc.)  was higher, I reserved through AirBNB. 

Is this property manager trying to get me to pay more than I should? Or suggesting that I use vrbo because the total I pay to the owner is more? 

One more thing. I first made another booking on AirBNB, and the manager replied, saying that the price shown was "too cheap", so adjusted the price higher by more than $3,000. I didn't want to deal with these people, who seem like cheats (bait and switch).  Is this type of behavior normal for AirBNB hosts? 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Ronald583 Even if the tax is not collected by Airbnb the host should include it in the price and then remit it themselves to the tax authority. I would contact Airbnb and ask them to sort it out

[Ronald583]

Thanks for the idea. If need be I will conact AirBNB. To be fair, I questioned the manager , as to why "additional". Paying taxes as originally calculated is understandable, but to be charged "additional taxes" on top seems odd to me. I am waiting for a response from the manager. Maybe she is confused. 

[Pat271 · Accepted solution]

Some jurisdictions collect and remit state taxes, but not city or local taxes.

Here is the page that shows all of the taxes that Airbnb remits for all of the different countries, provinces, states, etc. around the world:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2509

The host is responsible for remitting all of the taxes that Airbnb doesn’t remit.

Some hosts don’t know that if they turn on Professional Hosting Tools, they will get a new field in the setup where they can add additional tax info. After adding the tax percentage in the field, the taxes will be calculated for each booking, itemized for the guests, and included in the total before the guests  book. I suspect your host doesn’t know about this setting.

As to your point about hosts declining the booking for being “too cheap”, I would say that it isn’t normal practice. I have eaten the difference on the rare occasions when I have forgotten to set prices far into the future. The window for booking is usually a moving target, like 6 months out, 1 year out, etc., so it’s easy to forget to do this as time goes by and new dates open up. However, I always encourage hosts who have come here with this problem to act in good faith and honor the price they have advertised.

[Ronald583]

Thank you for the thorough explanation. That could be the case. Unfortunately, the link you provided about taxes in the USA does not list Hawaii, where the condo is located. That is odd. I will see what happens. And unfortunately, the first host didn't want to honor the booking. And should have stayed on top of the rate if they felt it was too low.  (I now noticed, after looking at AirBNB again, that the rate is now a lot lower, almost like before and still available. So, guests have not materialized as the host had hoped. That happens.   

[Pat271]

@Ronald583 

One of my 2 listings is in Maui. Airbnb does not remit taxes for Hawaii currently; that’s why you are not seeing it on the list. The host needs to add an entry in the Airbnb listing as described above for all of the accommodations taxes. Then the taxes will be passed to the host, and the host can remit them to the government.

FYI, the state and local accommodations taxes for Maui is 17.4166%. The calculation is on all charges - room, maid, linen, etc. The taxes are a little more or less on the other islands.