How to set up tourist tax (city tax) in HotelBee

Most European municipalities charge a tourist or city tax: a small per-person, per-night fee paid by guests on top of the room rate, collected by the hotel and remitted to the municipality monthly or quarterly. In HotelBee, city tax is registered as a service — not as a tax. Taxes in HotelBee are reserved for VAT only. This article walks through creating the city tax service and adding it to reservations.

Why a service, not a tax

Tax records in HotelBee are reserved for VAT — they're percentage-based and feed directly into fiscalization (Albania, EU VAT). City tax is a per-person-per-night charge that the hotel collects on behalf of the municipality, not a sales tax, so it's modeled as a service line item. Use service code CITY_TAX when creating the service so reports and integrations recognize it.

Creating the city tax service

1. Go to POS → Products (or PMS → Services depending on your version) and create a new service.
2. Service code: CITY_TAX. This is the recognized code — reports, exports, and integrations key off it. Display name can be "Tourist Tax" or "City Tax — High Season"; it prints on the invoice line.
3. Price = the per-person-per-night amount (e.g. €1.50). Unit = "person × night" or similar — this is just a label.
4. VAT: set to 0% (or a dedicated VAT-exempt category if your jurisdiction requires). City tax is a remittance to the municipality, not a sale, so it's typically out-of-scope for VAT.
5. ignoreStock: true. City tax doesn't deplete inventory.
6. Save.

Adding it to a reservation

1. At check-in (or any time during the stay), open the reservation's invoice or services tab.
2. Add the CITY_TAX service as a line item.
3. Set quantity = total taxable person-nights. For 2 adults staying 3 nights: quantity 6. For 2 adults + 1 exempt child: quantity 6 (not 9).
4. Save. The line appears on the invoice as e.g. "Tourist Tax × 6 = €9.00".

Modeling exemptions and tiers

• Children under N: exclude from quantity. The receptionist subtracts them when entering qty — record the rule in your SOPs.
• Max-nights cap: if your municipality caps at e.g. 7 nights, never enter qty > 7 × adults. Document the cap in the product description.
• Different tiers (hotel star rating, season): create one service per tier — all sharing the CITY_TAX service code. "Tourist Tax — 4-star — High Season" at €2.00, "Tourist Tax — 4-star — Low Season" at €1.00. Pick the right one at check-in.
• Business / corporate exemptions: many municipalities exempt business stays (with proof). Note the exemption on the reservation; don't add the product.
• Resident exemptions: same — flag the reservation and skip the product.

Reporting and remittance

At month-end, run a sales report filtered to service code CITY_TAX to get total person-nights × rate collected. That's your remittance figure. Store it alongside guest counts (the municipality usually wants both: number of guests and amount collected). HotelBee's standard sales-by-service report covers this — filter to CITY_TAX, set the date range, export.

Automating it

If your property has high reservation volume and consistent tourist tax rules, you can semi-automate: bake the "add tourist tax" step into the receptionist's check-in checklist, set the product quantity to default to nights × adults via a guest-count default. Full automation (auto-create the line on reservation create) requires a script — talk to support if you want it built. For most properties, manual at check-in is reliable enough and lets the receptionist apply judgment on exemptions.