Bahamas hotel taxes and fees, explained

VAT is 10% and it applies across the country, to the room rate rather than per person. Around Nassau, Paradise Island and Cable Beach, one or more area levies sit on top: a promotion board levy covering Nassau and Paradise Island, and at some properties a further downtown or resort-association levy. Because the VAT is charged on the levies too, the pieces compound and the government side of a bill in those areas comes to roughly 21%.

We give you the total rather than a breakdown on purpose. Properties in these areas itemise the same charges differently, splitting them into two lines or three and describing them as VAT-inclusive or not, so any single hotel's decomposition is that hotel's accounting rather than a national rule. The 21% total is the reliable number. Out on the other islands there is generally no promotion board levy, so expect closer to the bare 10%, and a stay of 45 continuous days or more is exempt from the VAT altogether.

On top of the government charges most of the larger properties add a resort fee, covering things like Wi-Fi, loungers, pool access and activities. It is not a tax, it is set by each hotel, and it is normally mandatory rather than optional. There is no national figure to quote: at the big Nassau and Paradise Island resorts it is substantial, and it is sometimes levied as a percentage of the rate rather than a flat nightly amount, which is unusual and makes it scale with how much you are already paying.

The practical consequence is that the same advertised rate can settle very differently at two hotels a mile apart. Read the fees section of your own booking before you compare prices, and ask what the all-in nightly total comes to.

This is the line most likely to surprise you, and it is worth understanding the mechanism rather than any single number. A few of the large resorts add a mandatory daily gratuity that is charged per person per night, typically for guests aged 12 and over, rather than per room. Everything else on your bill scales with the room. This scales with how many people are in it.

To make that concrete with a published example: Atlantis on Paradise Island sets out mandatory daily gratuities in its own guest information that run from roughly 14 US dollars per person per night at its entry-level towers to considerably more at its premium ones, alongside a separate nightly resort fee. Those are that resort's published rates and nobody else's, and they are not a Bahamas norm: plenty of properties charge no per-person gratuity at all. We cite them because the structure is what matters. If you are travelling as a family of four, a per-person charge is the one line on a Bahamas bill capable of quietly doubling.

Here is the genuine good news, and it runs the opposite way to most of the Caribbean. As a non-resident visitor you can reclaim the 10% VAT on goods you buy to take home, through the Global Blue tax-free scheme, and at affiliated shops the refund is commonly given immediately at the till rather than chased at the airport. Look for Global Blue signage on Bay Street and around the Nassau resorts, bring photo identification proving you are not a resident, and note that food, alcohol, tobacco and medicines are excluded.

The boundary is the same one that applies everywhere: the refund covers goods you export, not the room you slept in. None of the 21% on your hotel bill is reclaimable. For how to pay, the dollar peg and where cash still matters, see the Bahamas money guide.

Common questions

Quick answers.

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