'The last thing we want to hear' - Mayo Hoteliers push back against hotel bed tax

Mayo hoteliers have raised the alarm over the potential introduction of a hotel bed tax in Ireland, warning that such a move would be the last thing a sector already battling mounting costs could afford.

The issue was raised at a recent meeting of the Mayo County Council Economic and Enterprise Development SPC, where Westport Woods Hotel's Michael Lennon joined proceedings online to voice the concerns of the wider hospitality industry.

Lennon told the meeting he had come straight from a gathering of Dublin hoteliers, who are deeply worried about plans by Fingal County Council and other Dublin local authorities to introduce a bed tax for hotels in the capital. He appealed to Mayo councillors to ensure the county does not follow suit.

"We need support that a bed tax wouldn't come into County Mayo," he said. "I've been asked by one of the main hoteliers, Joe Corcoran, to mention that today we've got auto-enrolment, minimum wage increases — it's never-ending. So the last thing we want to hear is another tax coming in."

The proposed Dublin hotel bed tax would see a levy of €2 per bed per night being charged, which could raise over €17 million annually for Dublin City Council. 

Ireland is somewhat of an outlier to its European neighbours in not having this tax, as it is charged in 21 out of 27 EU member states. 

The concerns come at a time of acute financial pressure across the hospitality sector, with hoteliers pointing to a relentless stream of new costs including auto-enrolment pension contributions, rising energy bills, higher insurance premiums, and successive minimum wage increases.

To illustrate the scale of the hospitality industry in Mayo, Head of Tourism at the Council, Michael McDermott, outlined that the county has 9,500 beds available across hotels and B&Bs. 

The issue prompted a candid reaction from Councillor Michael Loftus, who told the meeting that he and Councillor Chris Maxwell had experienced the impact of hotel taxes first-hand during a recent St Patrick's Day visit to New York, where the pair were charged $240 in hotel tax upon checkout. "We couldn't get over that," Cllr Loftus said. "It sort of woke us up to what the charges in hotels are like in New York."

Looking ahead to the Irish situation, Cllr Loftus acknowledged that a bed tax may be hard to avoid in the longer term. "It is a tax that I'm afraid will come in at some stage," he said — a prospect that will unsettle hoteliers across the county.

At the same meeting, the newly minted Mayo County Council Director of Services for Tourism, Tom Gilligan, expressed his concern at the number of hotels currently up for sale and said that “we need to look at that and address that."

It is a growing list that includes Hotel Newport and The Downhill Inn Hotel, which both came on the market in the last couple of weeks. 

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme