I have read various stories of travelers on an (otherwise free) award stay still being charged a “hotel city tax” on checkout. Â I have seen reports of the hotel city tax mostly in Europe: Rome, Amsterdam, Paris and other cities. Â Generally, the reports have been that it is charged most (but not all!) of the time, even on Points, Points + Cash, or Free night certificates, and the reports I have seen said that very few people have had any luck arguing with the front desk at checkout about the hotel city tax, though there were some reports of getting refunded after the fact from the hotel / chain.
I thought that I would share my experiences from my recent trip to Europe:
Nice hotel city tax
When I say Nice hotel city tax, I don’t mean that it was a “nice” hotel city tax, but instead a hotel city tax in Nice, France 🙂
We used our free hotel night from the Hyatt credit card to stay at the Hyatt Regency Nice Palais de la Méditerranée
The hotel was nice, though it didn’t give breakfast (for non-elites), but the location was GREAT – when taking this picture, I was standing right on the boardwalk right on the Mediterranean.
Our reservation was a free award night, and had a balance of $0.  But when we went to check out, the agent told me that €3 was due, due to the hotel city tax for 2 people.  I’ve learned that generally speaking the person that you talk to has no leeway to not charge you the hotel city tax, so I paid it, and complained to Hyatt later.  So far Hyatt has rebuffed my suggestions, though I’d say we are still “in negotiations” 🙂
Rome hotel city tax – Radisson Blu
When we went to Rome the next day, we checked in to the Radisson Blu in Rome.  We didn’t have a super experience at the hotel (hotel review coming), but one nice benefit is that when we went to check out, there was no hotel city tax charged.  I had heard that it was €7 / person / day, so since we stayed 2 nights, I was prepping to fight a €28 charge for the hotel city tax, but when we checked out, there was no charge.
I don’t know if that was due to the fact that we paid 50% extra points (66,000 vs. 44,000) to get a “Premium Award” (which also came with breakfast)
If you look at the Rate details when you book online (for both a Premium Award as well as a Standard Award), it says
(emphasis mine). Â Does that mean that the hotel city tax is EXCLUDED from the rate (you should expect to pay it), or if you book this rate, then you are EXCLUDED from having to pay it? Â If I had to guess, I’d say the former, but again, I was not charged the hotel city tax
Rome Fiumicino hotel city tax – Comfort Hotel Fiumicino
After 2 nights at the Radisson Blu, our 3rd and final night in Rome we stayed at the Comfort Hotel Fiumicino, closer to Rome’s Fiumicino airport. Â Again, this was an award stay (I used 8,000 Choice points which I had transferred from Chase via Amtrak)
(SEE ALSO: Why you want to transfer Amtrak points to Choice Hotels)
But when I went to check out, I was charged €4 (2 Euros / person) as a hotel city tax.  I tried to say that it was an award night and I shouldn’t have to pay, but (probably in part due to a language barrier), that went nowhere, and again, I paid it and then complained to Choice.
The other day, I did get a note back from the General Manager
Regarding your complaint about the city tax I would like to let you know that I’m personally sending you the 4Â euros via priority mail.
Please write me back your exact address so that I can proceed.
To me, it’s not so much about the 4 Euros but more the principle of the thing
I think one of the things that myself and other travelers find so frustrating is the lack of any consistency applied. Â All the other taxes are (typically) excluded on an award night, so why is the hotel city tax any different? Â If so, why is it charged sometimes and not others?
What about you? Have you paid a hotel city tax on any hotel award stays? Do you feel it’s a legitimate tax, or are individual hotels trying to take advantage of the situation?
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To me it should be like sales tax. If you didn’t buy anything there shouldn’t be a tax. I also have run into minor taxes like this in Europe. Usually a very small amount like 3 euro. I don’t remember but it seems like the Intercontinental Rome may have charged me something like this awhile back.
Most of the time an award night is truly free, but I’ve run across the occasional hotel where you had to pay a trivial amount like your 4 euro anecdote. I usually question it when presented with a bill, but I don’t get into an extended argument. Like you said, they generally have no authority to remove a tax. I’ve heard reasons like “it’s an occupancy tax that each person must pay according to local laws and has nothing to do with the room rate”. Personally speaking, my time is more valuable than spending several minutes writing complaint letters or making phone calls for a couple of bucks. On the other hand, if the total tax was $100 then I probably would be demanding more complete details from the hotel chain’s customer relations on why the tax is being applied on “free” nights.
Yeah I totally get the argument that it’s not worth your time to argue over a few Euros. I have a weird relationship with money where I feel the need to do silly things like that :-). I also feel like it’s the “principle of the thing” where somehow if enough people complain about those we’ll either get hotels to stop charging them, or get them adequately disclosed on the reservations (even though in all likelihood that’s a total pipe dream)
So far as I understand, if it is a percentage then, in most cases, the hotel does not have to pay anything on an award stay (I have seen reports that this may not be true in all cases in India), however, when there is a fixed dollar amount, in most cases, I think the hotels have to pay it whether you pay them or not. They have to decide whether they are going to eat it themselves or pass it along to you.
Maybe it is just me, but I think that the offer to personally send you your 4 Euros is meant to passively aggressively belittle you. If it was me, I wouldn’t view it as good service, but I do not share your relationship with small amounts of money, so would never complain about a 4 Euro charge
Okay what happened to my smiley face at the end of that comment? Read it like there is a smiley face at the end, otherwise it just looks like I’m a jerk!
If they think they can passive aggressively belittle me out of 4 Euros, they obviously don’t know who they’re dealing with!!! 😀
Great post — I too take note when unexpected charges show up on the final bill. (especially BAD in Vegas too…. ) Would be curious to learn if this issue also varies across hotel brands.
Related issue, even with domestic US travel, have recently noticed the differences when paying various points and cash rates — and then some stays get tax added on at check out (on the cash portion) Maybe you’re written about this before.
With Hyatt, yes, tax will be on the cash portion of the P&C rate. (if you can get it — and jeers to Hyatt for leaving their p&c system such a time-draining, awful pain to use)
With Wyndham “go fast” points and cash rates, yes, tax on the cash portion.
With IHG, a points & cash stay incurs NO sales taxes whatsoever. (As I understand it with them, the stay is paid fully in points, then you’re in effect buying back a portion of the points)
Guess I got so spoiled by the IHG no-tax system, I flinched when others charge it. Wonder though if others have been taxes on reward stays with IHG internationally.
Yeah – I think that tax should be (and generally is) charged on the cash portion of a Cash + Points booking. With IHG, as you pointed out, Cash + Points isn’t REALLY Cash + Points; instead, you’re buying points at a discounted rate (0.7 cpp I believe) and then the stay is a full points stay.
That’s why it doesn’t count towards elite stay requirements nor earn any points, as opposed to Cash + Points stays at other brands (Hyatt, Starwood, etc)
While one man’s tax “break” is another man’s “loophole”, I can’t help but feel that points-stays being tax-exempt is a “loophole”. We are essentially talking about one of the following cases (overly-simplified scenarios to stress my point):
1) A hotel-chain offers a buy-one-night, get-one-free promotion. You buy one night in Paris and redeem a free night in London. Why would Paris deserve 100% of the tax-revenue and London 0%?
2) A hotel selling “free night” certificates for $300, that you redeem for a $300 room. If the taxman came to the hotel and management said no room-taxes were due because they were selling certificates instead of rooms, they would probably go to jail.
I love dodging taxes as much as the next guy, but we need to pick our battles.
I guess I understand what you’re saying, but my sticking point is that it’s not adequately disclosed. If I have to pay taxes on something, then it NEEDS to be on the reservation. On a regular (paid) stay, the tax amount is disclosed beforehand. You can’t give me a reservation that says $0 and then try to charge me something later.
I had the same charges on my hotel bills in Italy and Germany. These taxes were never adequately disclosed up front, but charged at the very last minutes or added to the bill later. I protested, but no luck.
Also I suspect (am I morbid?) that this is a way to compensate for the ‘free’ WIFI
Something to watch out for are optional taxes. Case in point: Niagara Falls, Ontario. Many places nearby charge a 3% “Destination Marketing Fees” or “Tourist Infrastructure Fees” and most tourists pay it, not knowing these are completely optional. Hotels, restaurants, attractions, even cheesy souvenir shops charge this.
If you want gangster, these fees go straight to the hotel/restaurant/etc. which is giving you the bill. In theory they are supposed to spend it towards marketing, but there is no oversight nor penalty for the merchant for not doing so.
Wow – that is a TOTAL scam!
I think these relatively new taxes are “tourism taxes” levied by the cities (or country) — they don’t go to the hotels. In the case of that Radisson Blu stay in Rome, I’d say it WAS clearly disclosed. Traveling in Italy, I have been asked to pay 1.5 euros per night many cities, whether staying on points or paying for the rooms. Recently (August) in Berlin, I was asked whether it was a business stay or a leisure stay, and was not charged the tax because I was there on business. I don’t really understand the method for determining these charges, but I don’t think they are a scam, or used to make up for free wi-fi or anything like that, nor are they anything up to the hotel’s discretion. (And I think that offer to send the 4 euros back is not passive-aggressive, but simply an gesture to make a customer happy, about a small-but-obviously-very-important issue to the customer.)
They extract via such thievery my cash after a pre-paid stay and I load up on whatever I can cart off in my luggage to a ratio of 3:1 in my favor — typically a whole big bunch of toiletry items but also whatever else I can get that won’t be counted later.
I am doing my part to discourage these sorts of tricks.