The town hall of Lisbon is in talks with various online rental platforms homes for tourism so that they also begin to charge the tourist tax. The idea of the local authority is to cover all entities that provide listings for houses and apartments for vacation rental for the collection is not limited to hotels and local accommodation establishments. At the same time, these sites are seen as a “great gateway” in terms of revenue, since there are many tourists who use this kind of platforms to choose your accommodation.
These negotiations involve entities such as Airbnb and HomeAway. For now, Airbnb – site that allows users to rent all or part of your home, providing a search and booking platform between the person who provides the accommodation and the traveler looking to stay – ensured that it is “always prepared to talk and cooperate with the authorities in everything that surrounds his activity and not just on the tourist rate. “
“We are still in talks in Lisbon. But in other cities, such payments are made by guests within the Airbnb platform, the fee is collected by Airbnb on behalf of the hosts and then delivers it to the authorities, “he said the company is headquartered in San Francisco.
More than a million This rate, which came into force earlier this year, has allowed the camera to raise EUR 1.1 million and covers a first phase, hotels and local accommodation establishments . “At this time, the city already has submitted EUR 1.1 million. Already all hotels (196) registered on the platform and more about 2100 local accommodations, “said the responsible for the portfolio of Finance, John Paul Scott.
The local authority’s goals are simple: to achieve by the end of the year almost EUR 16 million and this amount will go to a tourist fund set up to finance investments in the capital. And to achieve these values the collection by these tourist rental platforms will be important.
The council approved the municipal tourist tax (TTM), which shall be paid by all visitors, including Lisbon, with more than 13 years that sleep in the city. The amount charged is a euro per night, regardless of the type of accommodation that is. This means that the value is either a five-star hotel, three or local housing unit.
What is certain is that this rate on overnight stays there in several European cities, in different modalities. However, in addition to overnight stays, the fee will be charged this year in arrivals by air and sea to Lisbon, but the municipality has not yet announced how will it be made this charge.
Remember that the ANA – Airports of Portugal, was responsible for applying this tourist tax last year. Only arrivals by air to Lisbon resulted in the entry of EUR 3.8 million in the camera safes. A value which stood within the revenue forecast as at the signing of the protocol between the ANA and the local authority in March, it was estimated that the surrender rate between 3.6 and 4.4 million euros.
However, the company ruled out this responsibility during this year and ensured that it would be up to the municipality to find a “workaround”. “The ANA was never taxable these rates. The taxable these rates was the passenger “and that ANA did was to” be made available to support this cost during the year 2015, not to create a nuisance problem for passengers, “he said at the end of the year, company president Jorge Ponce de Leon.
Measure away from the consensus The truth is that not everyone agrees with the implementation of this rate, i guarantee the various stakeholders in the sector. According to the Association of Hotels, Restaurants and Similar Portugal (AHRESP), this rate is stifling the tourism sector that has been growing in recent years. The association also says that there is a risk of this measure could open doors to the parallel economy in the small hotel units, promoting unfair competition.
“The Lisbon City Council decided to apply the tourist tax, introducing a series of administrative costs and legal liabilities that the housing sector companies can not afford, affronting thus a vital sector for the economic recovery and cities in particular Lisbon, where tourism has been boosting the emergence of businesses that in the creation of jobs and a greater dynamic in the city’s economy, “says AHRESP.
Also in the opinion of the Association of Hotels of Portugal (AHP), “a fee is always a fee and is always harmful because it has an additional cost,” said his deputy, Luis Alves Sousa.
According to the official, the most penalized by this tax are to be hotels, “because it was not possible to make the price adjustment at the beginning of the year to have been implemented this charge.”
Still, Luis Alves Sousa believes that the hotel units are not being affected by this “tax”. “Tourists began to be told last year and, moreover, are already used to paying these kinds of rates in other cities.
A view shared by John Cotrim Figueiredo, at the time president of Turismo de Portugal, stating that, with regard to that practiced rate is a relatively small value, “would not have an impact on demand nor would translate in damage to tourism. “
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