In some cases, it is not sufficient to display the total cost amount for a posting, but certain tax amounts must be displayed separately by law. Some cities even levy special taxes on certain services (e.g. 5% overnight tax in New York).
For this reason we offer the possibility to charge individual tax rates based on the respective service booked.
Creating an individual tax rate
- Navigate to the homepage of your MICE booking machine and click on the "Taxes and fees" button within the inventory & rates explanation text.
- If you have not yet created a tax rule, click on the yellow button "Create tax". However, if you have already created one or more tax rules, the yellow button is hidden. Instead, click on the "Create new tax" tab in the middle page navigation (green arrow).
- Define the type of tax you want to levy. Currently, you are only able to create a percentage tax rule. We are already working on a second option, the collection of a fixed amount per capita (e.g. tourist tax), which will be available shortly. Therefore, click on the "Percentage Tax" button.
- You now have the option of defining the service on which the tax is to be levied. Choose at least one of the following services (you can also select several services at the same time):
a) Lodging Revenue
b) Meeting Room Revenue
c) Food & Beverage Revenue
d) Equipment Revenue - Now define the period in which the individual tax is to be levied. Choose either...
a) "always applies" or
b) "Tax has a specific duration"
The latter could occur if a tax is linked to a statutory calendar period (e.g.'summer tax'). In this case, define the exact period in which the tax is to be levied.
- The penultimate step is now the definition of the percentage tax amount (1% - 100%).
- Finally, give the created individual tax a name so that it can be clearly assigned within the tool. The name of the tax is displayed to your customer in the day summary of the cost table before checkout and in the booking confirmation.
All tax rules created are listed in the overview and grouped according to active and inactive status. The status can be changed very easily by clicking on the "Activation / Deactivation button".
Representation in the cost overview
Once a tax rule has been created and activated as described above, it is immediately applied to transactions and quotes from your MICE booking engine. The following example shows how an activated rule affects the cost overview on the hotel detail page of your booking engine.
Set tax rule:
"10% individual taxation on meeting room bookings".
(therefore not affected by the tax: F&B, equipment and lodging services).
Effect on the cost overview:
Under the tab "Taxes" a 10% value of the room rent is displayed. This tax amount is added to the total amount of all services.
In the event that no individual tax is levied, the tax amount is simply shown as "Inclusive" in the cost overview.
Special case: Taxes on lodging services
As already mentioned, you have the possibility to collect individual taxes on sales from overnight stays, meeting rooms, catering and equipment. While taxes for the latter services are created directly in the MICE extranet and added to the total amount as explained above, it is a little different with taxes on lodging services.
In principle, the prices for overnight stays are not defined in your MICE Extranet, but directly in Expedia's Partner Central and transferred to your booking engine via an internal interface.
If you now store an individual tax on accommodation services in your MICE Extranet, this tax amount is not added to the total amount, but offset against it, and the offsetting amount is displayed as the tax amount. The final total amount does not increase, but remains constant.
Set tax rule:
"10% individual taxation on overnight stays"
(therefore not affected by the tax: catering, technical and meeting room services).
Effect on the cost overview:
The cost of lodging is reduced by 10% and the difference is listed under "Taxes". The final total amount remains constant.
Advice: To actually add an additional tax amount to your overnight stays, it is not sufficient to create an individual tax for overnight stays in the MICE Extranet. You must also adjust your rate for the corresponding room category in Expedia's Partner Central.