Important:
Taxes are not applied retroactively. Once created or edited, they will only be applied to newly created reservations.
Set up taxes in Guesty, such as VAT or local tax, to automatically add them to the total of your direct reservations and to sync them with reservations made via the following channels:
- The Guesty booking website
- Vrbo, if you have a full sync connection type
Taxes in Guesty do NOT sync with:
- Airbnb
- Booking.com linked listings
- Vrbo, if you have a limited sync connection type
Note:
For properties in Brazil, in line with local regulations, two new taxes will be applied to property invoices starting February 2026:
CBS (Contribution on Goods and Services): 0.9% federal tax.
IBS (Goods and Services Tax): 0.1% states and municipality tax.
For properties in Mexico, Booking.com is required to withhold VAT and income tax for reservations paid via Payments by Booking.com with a check-out date on or after 1 February 2026. The withholding amounts depend on your Registro Federal de Contribuyentes (RFC) status:
- Business RFC: 8% VAT and 2.5% income tax.
- Individual RFC: 8% VAT and 4% income tax.
- No RFC provided: 16% VAT and 20% income tax.
These withholdings are in addition to commission fees. Booking.com pays these to the Tax Administration Service (SAT) and sends a monthly withholding tax certificate (CFDI) to connected properties.
Vrbo notes and limitations: Full sync
Vrbo collects and remits taxes in all U.S. states. However, because you are integrated with third-party software (Guesty), you are the merchant of record and collect the payments. In these cases, Vrbo only collects the service fee.
Once taxes are set up in Guesty they are synced to Vrbo as follows:
- Any configuration for flat taxes
- Only "Per night" and "Per stay" for percentage taxes
If you create tax type "city tax" in Guesty, "city tax" is synced to Vrbo. However, in Vrbo the guest will only see "taxes", not a breakdown of specific tax types. The guest folio breakdown in Guesty reflects the specific taxes after a reservation is made.
Tax conditions
Apply the following tax conditions for Vrbo reservations:
- Fixed amount per guest with the condition of between dates
- Fixed amount per guest with the condition of Length of Stay (LOS)
- Fixed amount per stay with the condition of between dates
- Fixed amount stay with the condition of LOS
- Percentage per stay with the condition of LOS
You are allowed a maximum of 15 tax rules. Each tax counts as one rule, and each condition counts as three rules. For example: A "City tax" of $5 per stay for less than 30 days (LOS) equals four rules total.
The following table shows which Guesty tax types sync with Vrbo. Taxes that do not sync are marked with an ✗.
| Tax type | Vrbo |
|---|---|
| City tax | Tax |
| Goods and services tax | Tax |
| Local tax | Tax |
| Tourism tax | Tax |
| VAT | Tax |
| Other tax | ✗ |
| State tax | Tax |
| County tax | Tax |
| Occupancy tax | Tax |
| Transient occupancy tax | Tax |
| Home sharing tax | Tax |
| Harmonized sales tax | ✗ |
| Minimum alternate tax | ✗ |
Create a tax for a specific listing
Step by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Listings.
- Click the relevant listing.
- In the left-side menu, click Pricing & policies and select Pricing.
- Scroll down to the "Tax" section and click Edit.
- Enter the basic tax settings:
- "Tax type": Select the most relevant type.
- "Tax": Choose a percentage or fixed-amount tax, and enter the amount.
- "Per": Decide if the tax is per night or per guest, for example.
- If you set up a percentage tax, choose how to calculate it under "Which invoice items to tax". Decide if the calculation should be based on:
- The accommodation fare only
- A mix of the accommodation fare and specific additional fees
-
"Tax conditions" are optional for direct reservations and Vrbo. If you want to automatically adjust the tax amount or prevent certain direct reservations from paying taxes, click Set additional conditions for this tax and choose the condition. If you do not set any conditions, the basic tax will apply to all reservations.
Available tax conditionsMost of the conditions are only available for fixed-amount taxes.
- By night: Tax differently based on the order of the nights in the reservation. For example, for nights 1 through 4 the tax is $8, and $4 for nights 5 until the end of the reservation.
- Date range: Tax differently based on the time of year. For example, between May and October the tax is $10, and between November and April the tax is $5.
- Night & Date: Combine the previous conditions to tax differently based on the order of nights during a specific time of year. For example, for nights 1 through 4 the tax is $10, and $5 for nights 5 until the end of the reservation—but only between May and October.
- Length of stay: Reservations longer than a certain number of nights will not pay taxes.
If the condition you set up does not cover the entire reservation, the part that is not covered will get the basic tax. For example, if you set a "By night" condition for nights 1-4, nights 5–8 on an 8-night reservation will receive the basic percentage or amount you entered.
- To see a breakdown of Airbnb taxes in Guesty, toggle on Deduct tax from the accommodation fare for Airbnb reservations. The tax is added to the invoice as a positive and negative amount, ensuring the accommodation fare does not increase.
Edit a tax
To edit an existing tax, follow the steps above to reach the listing's tax section. Click on the relevant tax, then update and Save the settings.
Delete a tax
To edit an existing tax, follow the steps above to reach the listing's tax section. Click on the relevant tax then click Delete tax. In the pop-up, click Remove.