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Friday, January 29th, 2016  |  USD: Buy 531.29 / Sell 543.92
20 years

Vacation rentals will have to pay equal taxes and fees as hotels

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condominiums, condos, condo

August 5th, 2013 (InsideCostaRica.com) Private homes and condominiums that are rented as vacation homes will have to begin paying the same taxes and fees as are imposed on hotels.

 

The measure will be imposed by the Costa Rica Tourism Institute (ICT) as a palliative measure against the downward trend in hotel occupation, which hotel operators blame on vacation rentals.

 

According to the director of the Costa Rican Chamber of Hotels (CCH), Flora Ayub, the regulation is ready and only requires the signature of President Laura Chinchilla to be published in the official Gazette, meaning the measure should come into effect in the coming months.

 

Ayub said vacation rentals constitute unfair competition because they operate at a lower cost and are not forced to pay the same taxes and fees as hotels.

 

Additionally, hotels are forced to pay for electricity at the “industrial rate,” which is significantly higher than on private residences used as vacation rentals.

 

In addition, vacation rentals are not required to carry a health permit, meaning should a grievance or complaint arise; it is difficult for customers to recover damages.

 

“We are not opposed to the [vacation rental business], what we want is that the rules are the same, that they have the same obligations as us,” Ayub said.

 

 

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  • CR Guest

    CR is a socialist democracy after all and a main theme of socialism is “Equal Misery for All.” Ms. Ayub’s ending statement sums it up nicely in her plea for “fairness.”

    Why not just put out a product that I’m willing to pay more for? I also question how this will be enforced if it becomes law.

  • Benthecat

    Fair and equal treatment is not a concept conservative Christians believe in. Most for me, scraps for you, Jesus saves!

    • CR Guest

      Huh … what is this comment in response to? Where did you come up with this BS? It’s not even relevant to the article.

      • georgechapogas

        for ben, that qualifies as lucid.

  • DaveT

    Private home rentals are down as well. Let’s be more honest here, tourism in general will continue to drop in Costa Rica until they get serious about crime. With social media as it is now, the word is out more and more that the crime, especially against tourist is so out of control. It is also well known around the world now that Costa Rica doesn’t even control the criminals if they are caught. As is the case in most countries today, the government’s answer is to just continue raising taxes. Costa Rica is killing the goose that laid the golden egg and they don’t have a clue they are doing it. The ignorant politicians think they can just keep digging into the pockets of the foreigners and they are just going to continue letting them. Many people are leaving Costa Rica and the ignorant politicians are going to be left holding their hand out saying, “but where’s the money, we don’t really like you foreigners but bring the money back”.

  • PublicEnemy2u

    Buy low, sale high …. sorry, that won’t be happening now.
    Boy do I feel like I just stayed at a Holiday Inn Express or what.
    At least this will keep investors from buying land where large hotels have plans for every drop of available clean water and investors are treated like cash cows.

    • Gene Warneke

      Dave T- great posting.
      PublicEnemy2u- right on.

  • Patrick Smyth

    So they are going to monitor this how?

    • winkdarren

      They won’t do this very effectively. This is just one of them laws that pisses honest people off. You’ve got to wonder what happens to the houses that are lived in by their own for part of the year and rented the other part.

  • SirVivor

    Sounds like another diversion from the real underlying problems. Tourism is down for many other reasons far outweighing competition with vacation rentals. Costa Rica is no longer a good travel value for the average income tourist. Because of much higher vacationing costs here, Costa Rica is now having to compete in a more upscale tourism market they are not equipped for.

  • James Dyde

    As someone who works in tourism in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama, I can say that the prime reason that hotel occupation is in a downward trend in CR is because most hotels are just too darn expensive here for what you get. Costa Rica is no way an affordable destination anymore, especially compared with its immediate neighbors north and south. Take a four star option, for example, Plaza Colon in the colonial city of Granada, Nicaragua – that place starts at $99 plus taxes a night. Expensive for Nicaragua, sure, but a comparable hotel in CR would come in at the $250-$300 plus taxes a night range. That’s just one example out of many. Other countries in the region are starting, tentatively, to get their acts together in terms in terms of tourist marketing, and Costa Rica just doesn’t offer that unique an experience anymore, especially when you get it elsewhere for the same high-end quality for less. Blaming the rental home business is the typical head-in-the-sand approach I’ve come to expect down here.

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