Airbnb hoteliers demand clarification on VAT and occupancy fees

Representatives of the short-term rental sector, as well as the hotel sector, support the government’s recently announced measures to introduce VAT and accommodation charges.

However, in their opinion, some questions regarding specific measures are still not clarified, for example, whether the accommodation fee that renters will pay will be charged per person, per day or per booking, which, oddly enough, quite difficult to track as short term rentals usually do not have doormen.

The measures provide for the imposition of a 13% VAT on short-term rental owners who rent out three or more properties, as well as the collection of accommodation fees from clients of hotels, rooms for rent, etc.

For their part, hoteliers are raising the question of establishing temporary restrictions on the use of accommodation fees, since, in their opinion, not all seasons of the year are the same for the tourism industry. It is expected that these issues will be clarified during the dialogue that will take place between the competent government authorities and representatives of the sector, the newspaper reports ethnos.gr.

“We were waiting for action”

In particular, as the President of the Panhellenic Association of Property Managers (consisting of owners of short-term rental properties) Andreas Hiou told ethnos.gr, the industry was expecting the introduction of measures, since, after all, our country was the only one in the European Union where there was no VAT on AirBnB.

“The measures are moving in a positive direction. We expected such a development of events, since there was also a European directive. These measures will strengthen the finances of the state, bring order to the region, and also stop the pressure of hoteliers on the state in relation to our industry, since nothing else can be done. Now in There is virtually no tax evasion in our industry, and I hope that similar measures will be applied in other professional sectors, which will effectively combat tax evasion,” – Hiu emphasized.

According to him, it is also positive that the measures will apply to those who rent out three or more properties, as a result of which owners with a sufficient level of income will really suffer.

“Currently, there are 168,819 properties offered for short-term rental in the country. Of these, approximately 27,000 properties are owned by 5,200 individuals, and the remaining approximately 141,000 – 102,000 individuals. Three or more properties offered for short-term rentals are owned by approximately 7,500 individuals, the vast majority of whom, however, have already set up companies and are therefore already subject to taxes. This means that in practice there is no big difference. Accommodation fees, for which we are awaiting clarification as to whether they will be charged per person, per booking or per day, may also be charged through the AirBnB platform and charged directly to the government.”added Hiu.

Hoteliers: we have been asking for this for 5-6 years

Representatives of the hotel sector also agree with these measures, and the president of their pan-Hellenic federation, Grigoris Tassios, told ethnos.gr that this is the implementation of their own requests, which they have been expressing for five to six years. He also noted that hoteliers will participate in the dialogue that will follow on this issue and will ask for temporary restrictions on the implementation of measures in some areas.

“Since 2016, we have been saying that the occupancy tax should either be abolished or made compensatory so that local authorities can continue to implement projects. We agree with the occupancy tax. It helps create some kind of relief, but there is no proportionality in it “Not all regions are the same, not all months are the same. But the fact that a new class is emerging is a fact,” Tassios emphasized.

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