Yes, you will pay a hotel or local tax, but it’s not something you should worry too much about.
- Usually works out to something less than 3% of the room rate
- The tax is typically already included in prices, so rarely something you need to think about
- See also: Accommodation in Vienna
The Ortstaxe tourist tax
This Ortstaxe is a local tourist tax used to help finance the Vienna tourist board. Those ads and videos don’t write themselves.
The city of Vienna requires hotels, B&Bs, and anyone offering any kind of temporary accommodation to charge you this Ortstaxe. Even if it’s just a tent or private apartment.
Only a few exceptions apply. For example, if you’re:
- A child attending school in Vienna
- Studying at a Viennese university
- Staying longer than three months
The rate at the time of writing is 3.2% of the accommodation cost (after taking off sales tax, the cost of breakfast and an 11% Ortstaxe-free amount).
To give you an idea of how much that works out to…if a hotel charges €100 per room per night (including sales tax but without breakfast), they’d hand over €2.52 of that in local tax.
The relatively small amount is one reason not to worry too much about the tax.
Another is that local law requires that the Ortstaxe cost and status is made clear in displayed prices, so you should always know where you stand.
In general, quoted prices you see on accommodation websites, for example, already include this tax. So you’re unlikely to get a surprise later.
In German, the designation “inkl. Ortstaxe” after a price indicates the tax is included in the price. In English, “incl. local tax” is the common translation used.
One thing to note, though, is that this local tax is regional, not national; different rules may apply outside of Vienna.
Last time I checked, for example, the province of Tirol charged a fixed sum per person and night that varies according to which region and season you’re in.