[jdavis703]

Hotels are heavily taxed because tourists and business travellers can't vote. In many cases cities like London and NYC are non-fungible goods, so if you want to go there you just have to pay the taxes. If they ever get high enough that hotels can't book rooms, the businesses should lobby the government to lower them.

[jellicle]

Hotel occupancy rates in NYC are 90%, compared to 65% elsewhere in the USA, so if we were to try to draw a causal conclusion: high hotel tax rates cause high occupancy.

[DanBC]

London hotels don't pay extra taxes. The taxes that have been proposed - £1 per night - seem modest.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united...

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/07/london-touri...

This is, as the local authority says, partly to clean and police and etc areas that are very popular with tourists.

[Symbiote]

There are no special hotel taxes in London. Hotels pay the same taxes as most other businesses.

[logicallee]

could you add in your analysis of airbnb or how it relates to what you've written - you've left it entirely out of your paragraph and I can't draw an immediate conclusion.

(Though maybe you were adding information about hotel taxation without any thoughts about airbnb or how it relates.)

[stale2002]

It is related to AirBnB because there is an argument that the tax is unfair to consumers to begin with.

It is designed to screw over foreigners.

[AJ007]

Tourists use a cities resources that the residents(former, current, and future) paid for. Would it be better they paid an income tax and received voting rights?

[rayiner]

Visitors use a ton of resources--they should pay for them. E.g. think about all the money that goes into security for Times Square.

[jeffdavis]

Most cities seem to love tourism, to the point that it's considered an industry and has its own advertising.

Tourists pay sales tax and indirectly pay other taxes through businesses that cater to tourists.

[digitaltrees]

You cant set sales tax at different rates for tourists, so you have to make up for this difference elsewhere if it is determined the sales tax contribution from tourism does not fully compensate for the costs.

[stale2002]

The tourists are a net benefit for cities. If anything, they should pay LESS taxes, not more.

[logicallee]

I really am interested in jdavis703's view.

I read jdavis703's comment very carefully and I don't agree that this is the argument that poster was making!

They wrote

>so if you want to go there you just have to pay the taxes. If they ever get high enough that hotels can't book rooms, the businesses should lobby the government to lower them.

That doesn't have any indignation (unlike your comment). So it's certainly not precisely what was meant. I don't want to put words in jdavis703's mouth, I want to hear how they say this relates to airbnb or what the policy change should be.

I read their comment as being basically acceptant of high taxes (" If they ever get high enough that hotels can't book rooms, the businesses should lobby the government to lower them.") -- but it does't go on to say "For the same reasons, airbnb should also be taxed at a very high rate, and should also lobby to lower said very high rates only if they can't fill rooms anymore." (not a quote)

In fact it could say, "high hotel taxes are good for the locals, who are the ones who make these decisions." (not a quote) It could be read that they think airbnb should also have the same high rates. (But perhaps the correct reading is the opposite, that both hotels and airbnb should not have any high taxes.)

Anyway I'd like to hear it from them :) I like their analysis in descriptive terms and I'd like to hear from them how it applies to airbnb or what should be done to both hotels and airbnb, in their opinion.