Collecting Airbnb Occupancy Tax Strategies

21

Lynn:

I am still trying to understand how you are implementing your solution- as I want to do the same thing.

“disclose in listing that once it’s booked you will collect as a special request”

Are you putting this up front in your listing? Are you putting it as an Automatic reply to Instant bookers? And then, how do you actually collect as a Special Request?

Any tips are appreciated.

22

I don’t have to collect until July so this is my plan after asking folks. how they do it.

  1. I will make a mention high up in my listing.
  2. Add into my message that folks get before they book.
  3. When I send them the message after they book I will mention it again and let them know how much.
  4. Then I will request money (you can find this link in many places on the reservation).
    a) Click on send or request money
    b) Select Request Money
    c) Select Request Reason - Other trip related issues
    At this point, if the guest hasn’t paid in full, a red bar on top of the page will show up saying:
    Validation failed: This reservation is not fully paid
    If you get this message you have to wait until they pay their reservation in full which will be about 1 week before they are to arrive.
    d) If they have paid in full, then you will get additional screens with amount, reason, et.
    I plan to let the guests know that key codes won’t be send until paid.
    I then plan to have a separate bank account to transfer this specific tax and keep a separate ledger and pay to the state per their deadlines.
23

Here in Texas, AirBnB collects and remits the tax for us. However, since we use other listing services (and occasionally rent to guests on the fly), we pay the taxes for those rentals. Texas collects the tax quarterly; we have a higher rate on those other services to cover the cost. One service notes that a tax is being collected, and they add it to the rate, but we are still responsible for pulling those out, tracking them, and paying at the end of the quarter. What is interesting to note, is that AirBnB is paying the tax on their behalf, not ours. So we have our own account with the state taxing authority.

24

Lynn -

Thanks for your detailed response. Very useful!

How might this get propagated more widely for the benefit of other Massachusetts hosts?

Akim