UK visitors to San Francisco will pay almost £205 in tax on average for their accommodation – the highest in the world – according to research.
This is followed by Los Angeles (£168) and Washington DC (£133), with Reykjavik being the most expensive in Europe, with an average accommodation tax bill of £68.64 per trip.
The research by search engine Kayak.co.uk also studied departure tax or visitor taxes – one-off levies for visiting the country.
It found Mexico to be most expensive, charging £50/$65 to all visitors upon departure, including children, followed by the Philippines (£35) – a combination of Philippine Travel Tax and Airport Terminal Tax – and Singapore (£26.64).
The research follows news that Rome has the highest fixed hotel room tourist tax in Europe at €4-7 per night, and Venice is planning to charge visitors up to €10 a day – in addition to Italy’s existing tourist tax.
For its study, Kayak.co.uk compiled daily tourist tax costs for its most popular destinations and multiplied them by the average length of stay.
US destinations topped the table, while the total amounts in Europe tend to be smaller because of the shorter average stays – but they can still add significant costs, warns Kayak.co.uk.
Rome’s tax adds £10.32 to the average trip to Italy’s capital.
However, the search engine highlighted destinations that don’t levy tourist taxes on accommodation, such as Israel, the Canary Islands, Denmark and Cyprus.
John-Lee Saez, managing director for Kayak Europe, said: “Some Brits will be familiar with the idea of paying a tourist tax on their accommodation when on holiday, but many will be surprised to know that they could be paying such a hefty sum in one trip for this.
“However, there are several destinations, already popular with Brits, such as the Canary Islands and Cyprus where you can avoid a tourist tax altogether, which could really help those on a budget get more out of their money.
“At Kayak, the prices we display include tax where possible, so our users don’t get caught out with extra costs they may not be expecting.
“The main advice to travellers is to check the tax or departure costs for your holiday in order not to get caught out.”
Pictured: San Francisco (Shutterstock).