Lay My Hat

Homeaway informs me that the taxe de séjour will be deducted at the rate of 4.4%.
This is incorrect, as I am registered as a location en meublé.
The rate should be a flat rate per adult per night (approx. 1%).
I am going to have to request homeaway to respect French law!

"Vous devez adresser une réclamation auprès du prestataire qui commercialise vos nuitées pour lui demander de se mettre en conformité avec la loi. En cas d’erreur ou d’omission dans la collecte de taxe de séjour pour votre compte, il pourra être sanctionné. Nous vous recommandons d’alerter votre gestionnaire de la taxe de séjour en lui communiquant tous supports pour l’informer de la situation."

Has anyone else had this problem?

Yes, they are overcharging my guests on the taxe de séjour. I have tried to explain to them the way it works in France. They just say the tax is determined by the government, who have instructed HA to collect 5.5% tax on bookings.

In fact HA is not collecting tax for my house at 5.5%, they are collecting 1.65 euros per adult per night, which is the rate for a classement of 4 stars. I am trying to get them to charge at the 3-star rate of 1.10 euros. So far without any success. Although interestingly VRBO, which is part of HA, where I also advertise, have asked me to send the classement certificate.

They say that if they overcharge guests, those guests will be refunded, but what the mechanism is for this is unknown, and it would obviously be easier to charge the right amount in the first place.

I have told HA they are committing financial fraud and await their next communication.

If you advertise on HA, go to your ad and put in some dates to get a quote, and you can see what taxe de séjour they are applying in the extras.

Overcharging mine too. They should be paying a maximum of 2.30 per night. I've sent HA the table of charges, but they are still not charging the correct amount.

Having inquired of my local authority regarding the collection of the Taxe de Sejour directly by HA etc I received the following reply.

"Comme vous le savez, les plateformes intermédiaires de paiement (type Airbnb, HomeAway...etc) sont dans l'obligation à partir du 1er janvier 2019 de collecter la taxe de séjour pour leur clientèle et de la reverser aux collectivités gestionnaires. La collecte sera opérée en tenant compte des informations renseignées préalablement par les collectivités dans le logiciel OCSITAN"

So if HA etc are actually using this OCSITAN software to calculate the amount of Taxe de Sejour for individual properties then its the software that is at fault or rather the amount entered by the responsible authority for your particular area.

Go figure ?

But there is no way to tell Homeaway what your star rating is, they are just assuming everyone is 4 stars. They are ripping off renters on a vast scale.

paolo wrote:But there is no way to tell Homeaway what your star rating is, they are just assuming everyone is 4 stars. They are ripping off renters on a vast scale.

That would appear to be a fault of the software and its GIGO approach (Garbage in; Garbage out)

Not condoning what HA and others are doing, far from it, but their business model is far removed from T de S collection as demanded by the French government. There need to be changes driven by the French government to amend the software, but I think they could have other priorities currently.

Abritel are not charging our guests enough - should be 1,50 per night whereas they (as are AirBnB) are charging only 1 pp pn but our neighbouring canton are charging even less - go figure! It is certainly not a percentage calculation anyhow!