Guide ยท Edinburgh visitor levy
Booking.com and the Edinburgh visitor levy: the settings that cost hosts money
Booking.com collects the levy as "city tax", but you're the one who owes the council, so any mistake in what it collects is yours to fix. When I filed my first return, it was charging long-stay guests too much and leaving my cleaning fee out. Here are the problems to check and the figure to put on your return.
Who pays the council
You do. When Booking.com collects the levy from a guest, it passes it to you, and you pay it to the council on your quarterly return. There's no arrangement for Booking.com to pay the council directly, so any mistake in what it collects is yours to fix.
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. |
The Booking.com settings I chose
In the extranet, these are usually under Property, then VAT/tax/charges. Menu names change, so look for your city tax.
| Setting | What I chose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| City tax rate | 5% | The Edinburgh rate. |
| Included or excluded | Excluded | Guests pay the levy on top, so it doesn't come out of your price. |
| What it's charged on | Room price plus property charges | So the cleaning fee is covered. |
| VAT | Off | Only if you're not VAT registered. |
On my account, none of these settings applied the 5-night cap, so long stays still need a refund.
Which figure goes on your return
- Download your reservations filtered by check-out date for the quarter.
- The Price column is your revenue: what the guest paid, including the cleaning fee and without the levy.
- Don't deduct Booking.com's commission. You report what the guest paid.
- For stays of 6 nights or more, open each reservation for the nightly prices. How to work out the 6th night onwards.
Want your settings checked?
The free guide walks you through the whole return. In a 60-minute session, we do your return together and fix these settings, so next quarter is right from the start.
Sources: City of Edinburgh Council, Visitor Levy Scheme guidance (Version 2.1, September 2026), on online travel agents and the 5-night cap; my own Booking.com account. This is general help with the process, not tax advice.