Yes, hotels charge more than one tax

[figgyx]

Last night on my audit shift a husband and wife came to the desk to pay cash for their night's stay. The rate was 105.00 (plus tax) When I asked for 116.55 the wife flipped out and told me that it was 105. I told her the tax rate was 11 percent and she went off on me some more.

She could not understand that hotels charge a state sales tax and usually a county tax. She swore up and down she has never paid that much before at other hotels. Funny thing is I have worked hotels for 27 years and all of them have charged more than just state sales tax.

And then I dared to ask her if she wanted a receipt (some people don't) and she muttered under her breathe "stupid question."

Her husband in the meantime was telling her to leave it alone the entire time.

[eltf177]

There must be some fun times at home...

[Rosco the Iroc]

That's not bad for hotel taxes. I've seen some crazy taxs added on.

[earl colby pottinger]

Taxes

I remember renting a room in downtown Toronto, and having three different taxes added to the bill.

[katzklaw]

state tax... county/city tax... lodging tax....

yeah... someone was being unreasonable there, and it wasn't you

[Mr Hero]

I always quote room rates as $X plus tax. Never fails that some SC assumes I'm talking about the total charge.

[Minflick]

I don't think hotel taxes are as awful as phone taxes, though...

[TheHats]

Hotels get absolutely zero say in how they add the taxes to the bill, too. There are so many weird laws around luxury taxes and lodging taxes and the like.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

I'm just thankful that my computer program at work lets me super quick get the tax added on there so when a client asks me "Oh and how much will that be?" (If they want to pick up food/meds for their little fluffer nugget) I can tell them including the tax.

A lot of people send in their husbands/children with a pre-written check so I learned to do that super quick. @_@;;

[notalwaysright]

Hotel tax can be big, and I've seen it noted on various travel sites, and hotel booking sites will have it all listed really clearly. It's not like it's new or something. Funny how a grown woman is thrown by this, when I remember learning about it when I was 18 years old going to anime conventions in Seattle which has a very high hotel tax. My friends and I got it all figured out, and zero tantrums occurred.

The receipts at my work often confuse people. Instead of printing the total tax rate which is like 8.7%, it has two lines, one for the state tax of 6.5%, and another for the city tax of 2.2%. So people are like "you charged me too much in tax!" or "you charged me tax twice!" Most are fine once I explain it, but some have gone away still thinking we charged them wrong. I don't know why it's not combined like at pretty much all other stores.

[bainsidhe]

Some SCs simply lose their mind over taxes. I haven't decided which SCs I dislike more, the ones who complain loudly about having to pay tax, or the ones who try to negotiate the bill so they don't have to pay tax.

[Shyla]

Politicians love hotel taxes. They can get revenue and still claim no new taxes. Taxes on out of towners don't count, right?

[Racket_Man]

Hotels get absolutely zero say in how they add the taxes to the bill, too. There are so many weird laws around luxury taxes and lodging taxes and the like.

Amen to that. My immediate area had a small tax (local football team and stadium tax = .05%) on everything for about 10 or 15 years. It finally went away like 18 months ago. all retail places within like 20 miles had to charge this tax.

[Smapti]

I bet explaining resort fees to her would be an utter delight.

[BPFH]

Politicians love hotel taxes. They can get revenue and still claim no new taxes. Taxes on out of towners don't count, right?

Of course they don't. Ann Arbor was going to try to do that with nonresident income taxes a number of years back, until the Iron Bar of Reality hit them: a nonresident city income tax rate in Michigan can't be any higher than half the resident city income tax rate.

I suspect they just fell back on hotel taxes. After all, when 100,000+ people squeeze into the city on 8 fall weekends, you're going to make a lot of money that way...