As of 01 January 2025, online booking platforms that facilitate short-term accommodation services (such as Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo) are required to charge, collect, and remit a new Short Stay Levy (SSL) tax as follows:
- Accommodations in the Victoria region only
- On reservations 28 days or less
- 7.5% charged on the total booking payout
Where to add the SSL tax
Since channels collect taxes, you only need to set up the SSL tax in Guesty for direct bookings. See full details about setting up taxes.
Vrbo limitations (Full sync only)
If you are on the Vrbo limited sync connection, this information is not relevant. See more information here about sync types and how to know which one you are on.
For users on full sync who are responsible for collecting taxes: Vrbo has advised that they will remit the new SSL tax on bookings at properties managed by Integrated partners, such as Guesty, until further notice.
This conflicts with Guesty syncing taxes automatically with channels. The SSL created in Guesty will be added to Vrbo reservations. To avoid a double charge, you can zero out the amount in the guest folio. See steps below.
Create SSL on the listing level
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Listings.
- Click the relevant listing.
- In the left menu, click Pricing & Policies and select Tax configuration from the dropdown menu.
- Click New tax.
- Set up the basic tax settings:
- Tax type: Select Goods and services tax.
- Name: Enter an identifying name, e.g. "Short Stay Levy".
- Invoice items to tax: Check the select all box.
- Tax amount: Select %, and enter "7.5" as the amount.
- Per: Select stay.
- Click Set additional conditions for this tax.
- Select Length of stay.
- For "Reservations up to _ nights", enter 28.
- Click Continue.
- If your account is connected to Airbnb, select No, do not sync to Airbnb.
- Keep "Deduct this tax from the accommodation fee for Airbnb reservations" toggled OFF.
- Click Continue.
- Back on the "Tax configuration" page, at the top-right click Save tax configuration.
Adjust SSL in a reservation's guest folio
A line item cannot be deleted once it's been added in a reservation. However, you can make an adjustment in the guest folio to zero out the amount. Follow this process in the situations explained above for Vrbo full sync connection, and any other reservation where SSL is not required.
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Reservations.
- Select the relevant reservation.
- In the banner at the top, click Balance due.
- In the guest folio breakdown, click Adjust line item.
- Fill out the information in the pop-up:
- Select the SSL line item to adjust.
- Enter a description / reason for the adjustment.
- Enter the SSL amount as a negative number to adjust the total to zero.
- Click Adjust.
- If the item is adjusted before check-in, the "realization date" will be check-in
- If it is adjusted after check-in, the "realization date" will be the date the change was made
Note:
If you have any questions or configuration concerns, please contact us at team.anz@guesty.com.
