An occupancy tax — okay. But a tourism-promotion fee? A convention-center tax? An auditorium tax?
With more and more ‘special assessments’ showing up on your attendees’ hotel bills, it’s time to understand what they are, what they pay for —
and why CVBs can’t live without them. By Corrie Dosh
Illustrated by Ryan Snook J
amal Aaron Hageb, senior meeting manager for the Washington, D.C.–based American Bar Association (ABA), negotiated a $149 room rate for a December convention he is planning in San Juan, Puerto Rico. So how is it that when the convention concludes, attendees could end up pay- ing more than $179 a night? Blame it on taxes and fees piled on top of the agreed-upon rate, a practice that makes Hageb feel “nickel and dimed.” “[The hotel] hit me with all these hidden assessment fees,”
Hageb said. “If you don’t look at the fine print, you put your- self and your institution at risk for financial liability.” It’s not just occupancy and sales taxes that give industry
professionals like Hageb a headache. The proliferation of “special assessments” — local bed taxes that range from 1 to 5 percent or more of the room charge — has some planners wondering why their attendees’ hotel bills are looking more and more like an itemized bill for digital cable. CVB executives have an answer: Special assessments,
they say, are a necessary evil to fund convention centers, websites, airport welcome booths, signage, and all the “free” services you expect when bringing a convention to a city.
“Some [special assessments] are called tourism-promotion fees, others are called a convention-center tax or audito- rium tax. Almost every city has them,” said Karen Staples,