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City Taxes on Award Stays (Discussion from Pointbreak Thread)

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Old Sep 7, 2013, 10:10 am
  #1  
rtb
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City Taxes on Award Stays (Discussion from Pointbreak Thread)

Just checked out of the HIX Union City. Had a 3 night stay for point breaks. I was charged "occupancy tax" which was $22 a day. What is this? I've never been charged occupancy tax on a point breaks room.

Also, last week I stayed across the street at the Crowne Plaza on point breaks - no "occupancy tax".
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Old Sep 7, 2013, 10:42 am
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Originally Posted by rtb
Just checked out of the HIX Union City. Had a 3 night stay for point breaks. I was charged "occupancy tax" which was $22 a day. What is this? I've never been charged occupancy tax on a point breaks room.

Also, last week I stayed across the street at the Crowne Plaza on point breaks - no "occupancy tax".
$22 a day! Oh hellnaw.
Have been charged tax on stay. Was charged like 3 Euro the other day. But rare and never that much. BS.
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Old Sep 7, 2013, 11:46 am
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Originally Posted by rtb
Just checked out of the HIX Union City. Had a 3 night stay for point breaks. I was charged "occupancy tax" which was $22 a day. What is this? I've never been charged occupancy tax on a point breaks room.
It sounds like a mistake. Perhaps you were billed what IHG should have been billed.
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Old Sep 8, 2013, 3:09 pm
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Originally Posted by travelisfree
$22 a day! Oh hellnaw.
Have been charged tax on stay. Was charged like 3 Euro the other day. But rare and never that much. BS.
I have paid a few euro on stays before, but always wondered whether the rules of the program don't meant that I should refuse and IHG should cover it.
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Old Sep 9, 2013, 5:07 am
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Originally Posted by rtb
Just checked out of the HIX Union City. Had a 3 night stay for point breaks. I was charged "occupancy tax" which was $22 a day. What is this? I've never been charged occupancy tax on a point breaks room.

Also, last week I stayed across the street at the Crowne Plaza on point breaks - no "occupancy tax".
Some hotels have to pay a city tax on occupancy, whatever room rate is (or is not!) charged. The thnking is it defrays the expenses for public facilities the visitor enjoys, but would otherwise not contribute to: clean streets, safe streets, public lavatories and transport, I guess

I think most hotels try to pas it on, even on otherwise free stays.

Not sure what Union City has to offer, but $22 seems excessive....
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Old Sep 9, 2013, 7:03 am
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Originally Posted by IAN-UK
I think most hotels try to pas it on, even on otherwise free stays.
Not in my experience at all. Never had to pay anything on award stays, be it IHG or Marriott.
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Old Sep 9, 2013, 3:55 pm
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Originally Posted by elva
Not in my experience at all. Never had to pay anything on award stays, be it IHG or Marriott.
Paid the city taxes on ALL programs' hotels in Rome - IHG's, Marriott's and Hilton's.

Paid the city taxes in Italy whenever it is applicable, on all IHG properties we ever stayed at with points.
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Old Sep 10, 2013, 10:32 pm
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Originally Posted by Happy
Paid the city taxes on ALL programs' hotels in Rome - IHG's, Marriott's and Hilton's.

Paid the city taxes in Italy whenever it is applicable, on all IHG properties we ever stayed at with points.
If I understand the rules correctly you don't pay the taxes in places where taxed expressed as % of fare (which is actually most of the places in the world). However if the taxes are expressed in fixed currency values (and thus payable by the hotel to the government even on non-revenue stays) it makes perfect sense for the hotel to pass over these taxes to the award stay guest.

I have never stayed on an award stay in Rome, but on my paid stay I can confirm that the tax was expressed in fixed currency (EUR2 if I recall correctly).
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Old Sep 11, 2013, 10:06 am
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Originally Posted by LongviewTX
I have never stayed on an award stay in Rome, but on my paid stay I can confirm that the tax was expressed in fixed currency (EUR2 if I recall correctly).
And I can confirm that, on both my points and BRG stays in Rome I was charged the per person occupancy tax. As I was getting a 500-euro room for free (BRG at IC), I didn't mind that much...
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Old Sep 11, 2013, 3:53 pm
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Originally Posted by elva
Not in my experience at all. Never had to pay anything on award stays, be it IHG or Marriott.
Your experience is limited.
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Old Sep 11, 2013, 6:18 pm
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Originally Posted by IAN-UK
Your experience is limited.
In most parts of the world it is completely free. Even in Europe, I don't remember paying in UK , Germany or Spain.
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Old Sep 11, 2013, 11:20 pm
  #12  
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I have moved the questions about the taxes on a pointbreak (or in general award) stay to this thread.

FLYGVA
co-moderator IHG Forum
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Old Sep 12, 2013, 6:20 am
  #13  
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Originally Posted by bbmatt
In most parts of the world it is completely free. Even in Europe, I don't remember paying in UK , Germany or Spain.
The point being addressed is that in those (blessedly few) places where there is city or state tax based on occupancy (rather than calculated as a perecentage of the room rate) then the hotel will recover that tax on a revenue stay, and may try to do so on an otherwise "free" stay.

My understanding is that PC ruled that the hotel should absorb the tax, not pass it on to the client, as "free" should mean, well, "free".

That's a laudable position, but its inevitable that bean counters will try to get you to pay. I was billed for Brussels City Tax, but the hotel agreed to remove the amount after a mini conference behind the desk.
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Old Sep 12, 2013, 8:05 am
  #14  
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It always (legally) depends whether the tax is a liabilty of the hotel for having you as a guest or whether it is a liability of you, the guest for staying in the city limits.
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Old Sep 12, 2013, 8:09 am
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I had to pay like 1.5 euros the other month on a reward stay at Indigo Barcelona.
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