Guide · Pricing & tax

Showing tourist tax correctly in a booking: how to avoid costly mistakes

Updated 9 September 2026 · Approx. 9 min read

Tourist tax (also called city tax, visitor's tax or spa tax, in German Ortstaxe or Kurtaxe) is a small amount with great potential for error: many booking tools simply apply the accommodation VAT rate to all price components, and suddenly the tourist tax appears in the quote with 10 % VAT on top. That is not just untidy, it can mean real trouble in an audit and in your bookkeeping. Here is how to do it properly.

Briefly explained: what is tourist tax?

Tourist tax, city tax, visitor's tax, tourism levy. The names differ by country and municipality, the principle is the same: the guest pays a contribution per person and night to the municipality or tourism board. As the host you merely collect it and pass it on. Typical characteristics:

• An amount per person and night (e.g. €1.50 to €5, varying strongly by region)
• Children are frequently exempt: the age limit is set by the municipality (often 14 or 15 years). That is a separate question from your own child rates for the accommodation, which follow your price list, not the municipality
• The rate changes occasionally, usually at the turn of the year or the start of a season

The decisive point: tourist tax is not accommodation revenue

For tax purposes tourist tax is usually treated as a pass-through item: you collect it in the name of the municipality and pass it on one to one. That is why the accommodation VAT rate (10 % in Austria, 7 % in Germany) is usually not applied to it. If your booking tool shows the tourist tax with that rate anyway, your quote, booking confirmation and ultimately your invoice do not add up, and the breakdown carries a tax amount that the usual treatment as a pass-through item does not provide for.

What a clean breakdown looks like

Example: 4 nights, 2 adults and 1 child (aged 10), €140 per night, final cleaning €90, tourist tax €3 per adult and night (children under 15 exempt), an Austrian setting with 10 % on accommodation:

The guest sees at a glance what they are paying for, the child is exempt automatically, and the tax is shown separately per line item. This exact breakdown should appear identically in the booking step, in the confirmation email and on the invoice.

The same thinking applies to every item that is not payment for the accommodation, but the conclusion is not always the same one. A refundable security deposit is usually shown neither in the total price nor in the tax base, because the guest gets it back after departure. A down payment, by contrast, is not a line item at all: it is the part of the total that falls due earlier. What matters there is that the tourist tax does not turn up twice, once in the down payment and again in the balance. How you word deposit and down payment in your own terms is worth having checked once by a lawyer.

Typical mistakes in practice

1. One tax rate for everything: the tool only knows one global rate. The tourist tax appears with 10 % or 7 %.
2. No age limit: children are counted, the guest pays too much. Awkward when someone notices.
3. Tourist tax rolled into the nightly rate: convenient but opaque, and the accommodation VAT is charged on the tax as well.
4. Quote and invoice differ: the booking tool shows different amounts than the later invoice from your bookkeeping.

Checklist for your booking tool

• Can I set the VAT rate per line item (accommodation, cleaning, pets, tourist tax …)?
• Can I configure the tourist tax per person and night with an age limit for children?
• Is the breakdown shown identically and transparently in the booking step and in the confirmation?
• Is the tax shown summed per rate (e.g. “includes 10 %: €59.09, 0 %: €0.00”)?

If your current tool fails on more than one of these points, workarounds in a spreadsheet will not fix it for long. It is worth comparing booking systems once and choosing one that lets you enter the rate per line item.

Tourist tax and Smoobu: where the line item shows up in the booking

The amount is fixed the moment the guest has chosen the dates and the number of people. That is why the tax belongs in the booking flow as its own line item, not only on the invoice afterwards. BineBoost sits exactly there: a booking flow that runs on your existing account through Smoobu's official API. Your calendar, your portal connections and your guest communication stay where they are today, BineBoost only sits in front of them. That a booking created this way lands directly in the Smoobu calendar is what we measure in our own operation, as of September 2026. Without an active Smoobu account BineBoost does not work at all, it is not a replacement for it.

In the booking flow you enter the tourist tax as its own line item with its own rate, with bands by age and with an exemption for business travellers. The guest sees the tax separately from the nightly rate before paying, and the same breakdown appears in the confirmation.

One point is worth knowing if you charge children differently: under Smoobu's own help article on the booking system, in German, a host wrote on 9 August 2026 that price groups for different age groups cannot be set there (retrieved 9 September 2026). That is one user's view, not product documentation, and whether it applies to your account is quickest to check in your own settings. If you want to ask for age-dependent rates and an age-dependent tax in the same step, you can put a layer in front that asks for the age. How far such a booking flow can be adapted to your design and your own rules is covered in the guide on customising the Smoobu booking engine.

Frequently asked questions

Is tourist tax subject to VAT?

As a rule no: it is treated as a pass-through item and is therefore usually shown without the reduced accommodation VAT rate. You can check that on a confirmation you have already sent. If the summary at the bottom names one single rate for the whole booking, the tourist tax has been drawn into the base; a correct breakdown lists one figure per rate and leaves the tax in the 0 % line. Whether the same treatment applies to your letting depends on the country and the municipality, so confirm it once with your tax adviser.

Are children exempt from city tax?

In most municipalities children are exempt up to a certain age, and that age limit is set locally. Because it is a local rule, look it up for your own municipality rather than copying the limit from the next town. Your booking tool should let you enter the tax per person and night together with an age limit, so exempt children are simply not counted.

Does tourist tax apply to a vacation rental as well?

As a rule yes: most tourism regions levy it on holiday rentals and private rooms just as they do on hotels. Who has to register, from which night the tax is due and how often you report it is set by the municipality or the tourism board. Ask there once and keep the answer in writing, because as the host you are the one who collects the tax and passes it on.

Can I just include tourist tax in the nightly rate?

It is convenient but not advisable: the guest cannot see what they are paying for, and the accommodation VAT rate ends up on the tax as well. Show it as its own line item with its own rate instead. That keeps the booking step, the confirmation email and the invoice consistent.

What happens when the tourist tax rate changes?

Rates are set by the municipality and are usually adjusted at the turn of the year or at the start of a season. Treat the amount in your booking tool as a figure you check once a year and change it in one place before the first booking of the new period comes in. Do not copy a rate from a neighbouring town: even within one valley the amounts and the exemptions differ.

Note: this article is for general information and does not replace tax or legal advice. Rates and exemptions differ by municipality and can change.