How do I manage tourist tax?

This guide explains how to manage tourist tax in Smoobu, including how it is calculated, collected, and applied to your bookings. It also covers the different setup options available to accommodate varying local regulations.

There are two important distinctions on whether this setting is found in Smoobu or not:

1. Tourist tax for bookings made on portals like Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo etc. 
2. Tourist tax for bookings via your direct website

1. Tourist tax for portal bookings

Booking portals such as Airbnb and Booking.com, have settings in their respective portals for tourist tax. This coupled with the fact Smoobu does not handle payments between you (the host) and booking portals means and Smoobu has no influence on the tourist tax. In addition, booking portals manage and collect the tourist tax is different ways. Below is some additional specific information having to with Airbnb and Booking.com:

Airbnb's collection and payment of tourist tax.

Understanding VAT and local taxes on Booking.com

We recommend that you direct all questions on this topic to the respective portal.

2. Tourist tax for bookings via the Smoobu website or the Booking Engine

The regulations governing the payment of tourist taxes vary depending on the city, region, or country where your rental property is located. Because there is no universal standard, the rules can differ significantly from one destination to another.

In some municipalities, a fixed tourist tax is applied per person per night. In other areas, the amount may vary depending on factors such as the type of accommodation, the time of year, or even additional services offered to guests. This creates a wide range of possible pricing structures.

On average, tourist taxes typically range from 1 to 5 dollars per person per night and are often paid directly to the host. However, in some cases, the tax may be calculated as a fixed percentage added on top of the nightly rate rather than a set fee per guest.

Hosts also differ in how they choose to collect these taxes. Some prefer to request payment at check-in, while others find it more convenient to include the charge during the booking confirmation process. Both approaches are common and depend largely on operational preference.

Because tourist tax rules and collection methods vary so widely across the world, Smoobu provides tools designed to support the most common scenarios, helping hosts manage these requirements more efficiently.

To set up a tourist tax at the time of booking:

1) Click Configuration > Booking Engine 

2) Scroll down and click plus next to Additional Items

3) Enter a name (i.e. Tourist Tax), select which accommodations it is for, a value either in percent or a monetary amount, how it is calculated, whether it is optional or required and a quantity. 

Here is an example how it would like for 10% tourist tax per night:

Tips:

• The name displayed under the "Name" section of additional items will be what the guest sees at the time of booking via the your Smoobu Website or the Smoobu Booking Engine
• You can create an invoice in Smoobu showing the collection of the nightly rate and tourist tax to either send to the guest or print and provide to the guest when they check in 
• If you only charge for adults and not children, you can:

  • Set the tourist tax as optional and ask guests on your website to add it manually based on the number of adults.

  • Set the tourist tax as mandatory, and ask your guests to enter only the number of adults, while providing the number of children in the “message” section. This way, you know the total number of guests and the tourist tax is added automatically.