Hotel Taxes Under Fire

Hotels Up in Arms Over Tax Increase

Nowhere is the hotel tax controversy raging quite as hot as it is in Clayton, Richmond Heights and St. Peters, three Missouri towns outside St. Louis that have put hotel tax increase propositions on the November ballot. If the tax increases pass, the hotels plan to sue.

According to reports in the St. Louis Business Journal, attorney David Bohm is preparing two lawsuits, one in St. Charles County and one in St. Louis County, to be filed on behalf of the owners of the Seven Gables Inn and Ritz-Carlton in Clayton, the Cheshire Inn in Richmond Heights...

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Hotel Taxes Under Fire

Proposed hotel tax increases are generating election controversy

By Katie Morell

Cash-strapped cities around the country have proposals for hotel tax increases on the November ballot, sparking hot debates and causing meeting planners and hoteliers to watch the elections extra closely this year.

Among cities in the midst of a hotel tax increase controversy is San Francisco, where Proposition J, backed by union groups, would raise hotel taxes from the current 14 percent to 16 percent for a period of three years. Money from the increase, which would go into effect Jan. 1, would go into the city's general fund—not directly to the visitor industry.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who, along with the San Francisco CVB opposes the measure, has placed another proposition (Proposition K) on the ballot that, if passed, would nullify any hotel tax increase.

The San Francisco CVB recently released a statement saying the city could miss out on upwards of $150 million in lost businesses if Proposition J passes.

According to Joe D'Alessandro, president and CEO of the bureau, a number of top convention customers are "already on the borderline of not returning to San Francisco" because of taxes and other costs.

"There is tremendous loyalty to our destination by these clients and many of them have met here for more than four decades, but business is business," D'Alessandro says. "An increase in hotel tax is a significant factor in the...

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