I opened at the beginning of last summer. I disclosed our local 12% tax early in my listing, but since folks book without reading the entire listing, my message to them when they book says
"This is in my listing, but I want to make sure that you’ve seen it:
The City and Borough of Juneau tax law requires the collection of a 5% sales tax and a 7% bed tax (total 12%) on all charges and fees from all guests staying in accommodations for 29 consecutive days or less.
Unfortunately, our city has not reached an agreement for tax collection with AirBnB, so AirBnB does not collect this tax. City code does not allow us to include the tax in our room rates.
This tax will be collected separately at check-in. I accept cash or credit cards.
The tax on your room charge and fees is $XX.XX."
I have had no problem collecting the tax when I am in the house at check-in. It’s been a bit more of a problem when they use self check-in when I’m not here, since many guests are here to enjoy our beautiful outdoors, and with long Alaskan summer days it can be quite late when they return. I usually catch up with them the next morning.
But even though the City supposedly doesn’t allow including the tax in our rentals, I’m going to start including it in the rental price starting this week (they rarely audit sales tax except when they go after a business for non-payment). I’ll have to raise the rent 12% but I’d rather do that than have to send extra emails and fuss with the collection.