Airbnb To Start Charging Hotel Taxes In A Handful Of Cities
When Regitze Visby, a tourist visiting San Francisco from Denmark, searched for accommodations for her trip and saw she could stay at one of the famed "painted ladies" on Alamo Square through Airbnb, she took it.
At $135 a night, "it was a good deal," she says.
But does she know if she's paying a transient occupancy tax or a hotel tax? "I have no idea," she says.
Visby would know if she were staying in a hotel. It's 14 percent per room. Places like Airbnb's that are like hotels usually don't bother with it, even though they should.
Property manager Emily Benkert — whose short-term rental business, Guesthop, has grown from five to 50 listings since October — says while she is aware of the hotel room tax, she's not planning to pay it until she has to.
"I personally have decided to wait until the city was actually enforcing it, and Airbnb was collecting it," she says.
More From NPR
All Tech Considered
What's Mine Is Yours (For A Price) In The Sharing Economy