Melissa Layton grew up with the traditional narratives that you must get a “proper job” to have a nice life and home – or you could instead follow your dreams and end up penniless and homeless.
After questioning these narratives, Melissa gave up a career in law and now runs her own wellness business.
However, her business and lifestyle is made possible by the fact she boosts her income by AirBnB letting her two-bedroom London flat to allow her to cover her mortgage and expenses for the periods she is not working.
The 34-year-old says she fears the nightly tax imposed on AirBnB-style visits and hotel stays announced in the Budget will unfairly hit people like her who are simply trying to offset their costs through side hustles and trying to be entrepreneurial.
Mayors in England have been given new powers to charge holiday guests for staying overnight. There could be a fixed fee, such as £1 per night, or a tariff based on the percentage of booking cost. Weekend getaways, lengthy staycations and overnight trips away will all fall under the tourist tax net.
“I am not a landlord with multiple properties and I don’t see myself as someone who works in the tourism industry,” Melissa told The i Paper. “Using AirBnB to let out my flat is just a way for me to offset my costs when I go away.
“It does feel like people like me are being unfairly penalised by being caught under the broad brush of tourism. Like a lot of tax policy, it doesn’t hit everyone in a way that is fair.
Melissa Layton covers her mortgage and expenses by letting her flat through AirBnB when she is away. She feels a tourist tax will penalise people like her“It is unfairly penalising those trying to earn a bit of extra money by hitting them needlessly.
“This uniform approach to policy tends to hit the people who have the least money hardest.”
Under the tourist tax plans, subject to consultation, England’s regional mayors will soon have the power to introduce a levy on overnight stays in AirBnBs, hotels, guesthouses and holiday lets, Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed.
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Areas with directly elected mayors can choose to add an overnight stay charge. Fees would be managed locally and spent on improving public transport, funding culture and events, and upgrading visitor services.
Officials say it will bring English cities in line with global tourist hubs like Paris, Milan and New York, many of which already have overnight levies to fund growth.
But, Melissa says treating those with one small AirBnB sideline is very different to those doing it professionally to make a living and those with multiple properties.
Melissa, whose wellbeing business Numinity runs corporate workshops, retreats, online courses and events, explained: “When I travel, I often go away for weeks at a time so I AirBnB my flat while I am gone. Even when I go for shorter stays, I just unblock those days on my AirBnB calendar and if I have someone stay for the weekend, it helps offset some of my costs.
Melissa is concerned a tourist tax may put off visitors and affect her income“I do it for a mixture of covering when I am away for business and pleasure. When I am away doing training and not earning any money, it definitely helps being able to let out my flat with AirBnB. I probably let it out around two months of the year in total.”
Melissa is concerned a tourist tax may put visitors off booking stays – and if this happens, it will have a knock-on effect on her business and lifestyle.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a backlash against this as a concept as it is one of those things that hasn’t been thought through properly and the implications have not been considered for people who are not doing this as a profession, but more as a side hustle to earn extra money to support their work and lifestyle.
“It seems the Government is doing what they can to close any loopholes and force people back into a nine-to-five job.
“But that is not what I want and AirBnB allows me to run my business by providing an income for the times I am away.
“It allows me to live in one of the most expensive places in the country and have a nice quality of life without having to stay in that super rigid corporate work environment.
“If I didn’t do this, it would affect my business and lifestyle as I would have no income coming in when I went away.
“I am hoping the tourist tax won’t put people off, but if it does, my income might be hit.”
Hotel owner: ‘It’s not bad if it only applies to short stays’
By Kyriakos Patrakos
One hotel owner told The i Paper he would back the idea of a visitor’s tax – as long as it was only applied to short stays.
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea as long as there was a cap on it,” said Ian Livingstone, owner of the Thornhill Hotel in Teignmouth, Devon.
“We have some guests that come for six weeks at a time, so they’re paying large amounts for the accommodation. If they were to pay five per cent on top of that, that would impact their decision on whether to come.
“If that tax was imposed on them for every night they stayed, that would be a huge negative for us. That would take away from our business.
Hotel owner Ian Livingstone said he would be in favour of a tourist tax, as long as it was capped“If there was something like a two to three night cap, that would be acceptable to guests.”
Commenting on the prospect of the tourist tax revenue being used to improve the local visitors economy, he said: “If any tax revenues went to the local council from this and were used locally to improve amenities, I would be in favour of it, as long as there was a cap on it, so it wouldn’t be a huge burden for guests.”
David Weston, chair of the Bed & Breakfast Association, told The i Paper: “We’ve always been completely opposed to additional taxes – tourist taxes – partly because the UK is already a complete outlier in terms of taxing tourism.
“We’ve got just about the highest VAT out of our competitors, we’ve got airport tax, which is very, very high, we’ve got alcohol taxes, visa taxes, and all those kind of costs.”
Weston explained that “tourism is extremely price sensitive”, meaning “changes in prices, even a pound or two, cause people to change their booking behaviour”.
Turning to the tourist tax proposal, he said: “It would just be damaging. It would be inflationary. It would damage very small businesses and large ones, and it would be anti-growth. It is just a very, very bad move.”
“We’re a service sector, so it’s very job-intensive, which is good for employment. We bring in foreign exchange income to the country. That’s vital. But it can all be killed by too much tax.”
Asked about the tax revenue being reinvested into the local visitor economy, potentially boosting tourism, Weston said: “I would totally discount that, because I think it’s all just going to go into the black hole of local government finance, substituting for existing council spending, which is supposed to be statutory anyway.
“If that were the case, there would be no enhancement to tourism, just the dead weight of additional cost.”
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