Increase VAT on hotel rooms up to 8%.

Hoteliers in Spain are having increasingly difficult months, as the European recession continues to blight their business. Many would-be visitors to the Costa’s are staying away, leaving a large percentage of hotel rooms empty, even during the peak July, August period this year.If that were not enough, the government has just announced that it will increase VAT on hotel rooms up to 8%. This increase will almost certainly have to be passed on to hotel guests this presumably, could lead to a further decline in room occupancy.
José Carlos Escribano who is the current president of the Costa del Sol Association of Hoteliers says, that this is a huge blow to the already slim profit line experienced by the region’s hotel industry.He also stated that the government had blatantly taken the opposite stance to what the hotel industry had requested, which was a decrease in hotel VAT, rather than an increase, in order to assist with bringing in more, much-needed, tourists.