Background
With effect from 1st July 2024 under the guise of a visitors levy (‘tourist tax’), BCP Council has forced in a new Accommodation Business Improvement District (ABID) tax on some Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole hotels. With this the selected hotels have been asked to fund the new ABID tax they will be directly liable for, by increasing their overnight prices by charging an extra £2 + VAT per room / night.
Following a lack of consultation and engagement about the scheme by the BID proposers, and a poorly run ballot by BCP Council, the ABID ballot result was announced on 14th May 2024. The ABID proposal won by 1 vote, with only 16 of 75 hotels supporting the motion, this is hardly support for the scheme which will be forced on the other 59 other hotels if the ballot result stands. Let’s also remember that the Council had 1 vote, and without that vote the scheme would not have passed at ballot, so the Council has effectively carried the ballot and is forcing implementation against the will of the true majority of hotels.
Guided by their BID Consultant Mo Aswat, the BID proposers seem to have deliberately set out for a low turnout ballot as their best chance of a win to force in this new tax on both hoteliers and consumers. In the lead up to and through the ballot period they failed to engage with voters for fear of NO votes, ensured ballot papers were not sent to decision makers, and it’s amazing how many hotels did not even receive any ballot paperwork! If BCP is to do this scheme it must be done properly, following an in depth consultation with all accommodation providers, and a well run ballot process by the Council.
Putting aside the pro’s and con’s of a tourist tax using the BID structure and a poor consultation & ballot process, what hoteliers are very aggrieved at is that not all accommodation providers are being asked to charge consumers the visitors charge. They are very much of the opinion that it should be all accommodation providers or none upon which the burden lies, and from the consumer point of view, why should only some overnight visitors be charged for staying in the BCP area? The Council are aware of this unfairness, but have decided to ignore it because they have their eyes on the cash prize of £2.5 million a year they will collect to make up their destination management budget!
If you are a BCP hotelier unhappy with how you’ve been treated by the ABID proposers & the Council, or a consumer unhappy to be charged the BCP tourist tax, please let us and/or BCP Council know.
Latest Press
28th June 2024. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole ‘tourist tax’ to be delayed. Under pressure by the hotels, the ABID company does a U-turn and says it will pause implementation of the tourist tax scheme due to start 1st July 2024, until the appeal decision is announced (likely to take 3-4 months, so Sep/Oct 2024).
28th June 2024. ABID delays BCP tourist tax in response to hotels' appeal.
27th June 2024. Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Hoteliers Rally Against The Introduction Of A Tourist Tax. This is a good article explaining the view of the hotels that submitted the appeal against the ABID ballot result.
26th June 2024. Bournemouth hoteliers to appeal against tourist tax. Despite an appeal to the Government, the ABID company insists the BCP tourist tax scheme will start 1st July 2024.
Here are some of the many concerns about the ABID scheme.
- Where is the consultation and evidence that imposing a tourist tax via an Accommodation BID is the best option available and will work for the BCP area?
- If you pay into a BID already you will still have to pay that, and pay this new one, and having a new big BID overlaid on the other 4 BIDs will lead to duplication of effort, wasting money.
- Over 60% of BCP hotels will NOT take part in this tourist tax scheme, why? Why aren't all accommodation businesses taking part, surely everyone should pay proportionally into the pot, big and small? Wouldn't it make sense to include all hotels, Airbnb’s, caravan & chalet parks etc, and then maybe charge less or raise more funds collectively?
- Smaller accommodation premises with an RV under £40k, guest houses and Airbnb's etc will gain an unfair advantage by advertising that they don't charge the tourist tax. Why not implement a scheme where ALL BCP accommodation providers charge?
- There is no legal basis upon which to charge visitors, it is chargeable on a voluntary basis as a supplementary charge by each hotel. So there's nothing to make every hotel in the new BID charge customers.
- The hotels will be at a financial loss implementing the scheme given staff costs to administrate it and card fees for the extra overnight supplements being charged.
- There's misinformation being published already, and consumers will be misled that the charge is an official tax, when it's not. It's a scheme whereby hotels are being forced to raise their prices by the Council in order to recoup their BID tax charges collected by the Council.
- The BID levy structure is unlikely to take into consideration actual occupancy. This means hotels may not recoup enough in visitor charges to cover it, or may make a profit under false pretences which would be fraud.
- A BID is not required for hotels to group together and charge an overnight supplement as a visitors charge, it can be done now without a BID. What a BID does is force the hotels that don't want to be part of the scheme to be in it, if a majority vote for it.
- Why should only 75 businesses be liable for the BCP destination management budget, whilst hundreds of other business will benefit, is this really fair?
- This BID proposal has been rushed without proper voter due diligence, engagement and consultation.
- The BID Consultants Mosaic Partnership have a dreadful track record in helping force in BIDs without true majority awareness and support of businesses. Just google about Mosaic's disastrous projects with Yorkshire Coast DBID and Gibraltar BID, they can't be trusted.
- The money will go to a private company with no public accountability or transparency.
- The levy calculation reporting and appeal rules are cumbersome and not clear.
- The Council still do not who will be liable because there is a lack of definition of exactly who will be liable.
- Why should some consumers be asked to pay and not others?
There’s a lot to consider isn’t there?
Click image to download the ABID Business Plan.
Click image to go to the ABID website
This image of the ABID website is from AFTER the ballot, they really didn’t care about engaging with and keeping voters informed.
This is the campaign webpage for those against the BCP Accommodation Business Improvement District (ABID) scheme.
We are grateful to those behind the Against BID website, for their expert guidance and also hosting this page.
We will be continually updating this page, so please check back regularly!