Guide ยท Edinburgh visitor levy
Airbnb and the Edinburgh visitor levy: what it collects and what you still owe
Airbnb doesn't pay the levy for you. You file the return and pay the council, even when Airbnb collected the levy from your guest. When I filed my first return, Airbnb hadn't collected the levy at all on my older bookings, but I still owed it.
Airbnb doesn't pay the council
Airbnb says there are "no systems in place" for it to pay the levy on your behalf. You're the liable person: you file a return every 3 months on visitorlevy.scot and pay what's due.
Why older bookings caught me out
Airbnb's own levy tool only covers bookings made from 24 July 2026. For bookings made between 1 October 2025 and 23 July 2026, Airbnb told hosts to build the levy into their nightly price. I hadn't, so nothing was collected from those guests, and the levy came out of my earnings.
Airbnb says the 5% applies to everything you charge the guest, such as the nightly price and the cleaning fee, and only to the first 5 nights of a stay. Check your listing's tax settings match.
Four problems to check, whichever platform you use
I hit some of these on Booking.com and some on Airbnb, but any of them can happen on either. Check all four.
| Problem | What it costs | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Levy charged on every night. The levy only applies to the first 5 nights in a row of each booking, but a platform set to charge a percentage may charge it on every night. | Guests on stays of 6 nights or more overpay. | Check long stays: compare the levy charged with 5% of the first 5 nights, and refund the difference. I'm refunding my own guests. |
| Cleaning fee left out. A cleaning fee every guest must pay counts towards the levy. | You collect too little and pay the difference yourself. | Set the levy to be charged on the nightly price and the cleaning fee. Why it counts. |
| Older bookings not collected. Stays from 24 July 2026 booked from 1 October 2025 are liable, even if your platform wasn't collecting the levy when the guest booked. | You owe the levy out of what the guest paid. | Go through bookings made before you set up the levy and include them all on your return. |
| A VAT line you don't need. Some settings add 20% VAT even if you're not registered. | Confusing reports and the wrong price shown to guests. | If you're not VAT registered, switch it off. Everything the guest paid, apart from the levy, is your revenue. |
Which figure goes on your return
- Go to Menu, then Earnings, and download your transaction history as a spreadsheet (CSV) for the quarter.
- Use Gross earnings (nights plus cleaning fee). Don't use "Amount" or "Paid out": that's after Airbnb's fee, and you report what the guest paid.
- Put each stay in the month the guest checked out. Which month a stay goes in.
- For stays of 6 nights or more, open the reservation, click the total, and copy the nightly prices from the Guest paid side. How to work out the 6th night onwards.
Can't find the download? Open each completed reservation, click the total, and read the Guest paid side. It lists each night and the cleaning fee.
If your guests pay Airbnb a service fee (split fee)
Most hosts now pay a single host-only fee of about 15.5%, and guests pay no service fee. If that's you, use Gross earnings as above.
On Airbnb's older split-fee setup, guests also pay Airbnb a service fee of roughly 14% to 16.5%. Whether the levy applies to that fee isn't settled:
- For including it: the council's guidance says commission an online agent charges the guest "should be included as part of the levy calculation if it applies to the accommodation portion of the sale".
- For leaving it out: Airbnb's terms describe the fee as a charge for using the platform, and Airbnb's tax tool can't add taxes to its service fees at all.
Neither the council nor Airbnb has said which applies. Until they do, the cautious approach is to include the guest service fee (without VAT) in your revenue, or ask the council at [email protected] and keep their reply. Either way, note how you worked it out. The difference is small: about 0.7% of the booking.
If you're VAT registered
Airbnb says the 5% is worked out on the accommodation cost before VAT, and the levy then attracts VAT itself. If that's you, check with your accountant.
Not sure what you owe on older bookings?
The free guide walks you through the whole return. In a 60-minute session, we do your return together and set up your Airbnb tax settings so it collects the levy from guests from now on.
Sources: Airbnb Help Centre, Edinburgh Visitor Levy FAQs, service fees and adding taxes; City of Edinburgh Council, Visitor Levy Scheme guidance (Version 2.1, September 2026); my own Airbnb account. This is general help with the process, not tax advice.