The UK's tourist tax, and where it actually applies.

Edinburgh became the first UK city with a city-wide visitor levy on 24 July 2026, under the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024. It is 5% of the cost of the paid overnight accommodation, before VAT, capped at the first five consecutive nights of a stay. So five nights at 200 pounds a night before VAT carries a levy of 50 pounds, and a ten-night stay at the same rate carries the same 50 pounds, because the cap stops the meter.

It is charged on the accommodation only, so meals, drinks, parking and transport sit outside it, and because it attaches to the room rather than to each guest, children do not add to it. It covers the entire City of Edinburgh Council area and every kind of paid stay: hotels, B&Bs, guest houses, hostels, self-catering and short-term lets, aparthotels, campsite and caravan pitches, even a boat or vehicle that mostly stays in one place. Everyone pays, including UK and Scottish residents and business travelers. For the wider picture see the UK money guide.

There is one nuance worth knowing if you booked a long way ahead. The levy applies to stays from 24 July 2026 only where the booking was made on or after 1 October 2025. A stay that falls after the start date but was booked and paid for, in part or in full, before 1 October 2025, is not subject to it at all. That exemption holds however late the stay itself falls, so a genuinely early booking escapes the charge.

The exemptions are unusual in that they turn on housing rather than age. Because the Act only taxes paid overnight stays away from a person's home, people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, living in seriously substandard housing, experiencing domestic abuse, or who are asylum seekers or refugees, are not liable. Charities running accommodation wholly or mainly for charitable purposes can apply for a discretionary site exemption. There is no general child or age exemption, because the charge falls on the room rather than the person.

Glasgow has approved a 5% levy starting 25 January 2027, and unlike Edinburgh's it applies for the whole length of the stay rather than a capped five nights. Aberdeen is dated for 1 April 2027 with a higher figure reported, and Stirling for mid-2027 at a lower one. Highland Council has delayed its own scheme. The Scottish Government has separately introduced a bill that would let councils charge a flat nightly amount instead of a percentage, so the shape of these schemes may still change before they begin.

Wales passed its own legislation in 2025, letting each council adopt a levy from April 2027 at 1.30 pounds per person per night, or 75 pence for campsites, hostels and dormitories, with under-18s exempt in that lower band and stays longer than 31 nights excluded. No Welsh council has implemented it yet. Read every date on this page as a future date: none of these is a charge you will pay in 2026, and a page telling you otherwise is describing a plan as though it were a bill.

England has no statutory tourist tax, and that includes London, where the rate you are quoted already contains 20% VAT and nothing further lands at checkout. The government has consulted on giving English mayors the power to create an overnight levy, but nothing is in force, so for an English trip in 2026 there is nothing to budget.

The confusion comes from Manchester and Liverpool, which do add a small nightly charge: roughly 1 pound per room per night in Manchester and about 2 pounds in Liverpool. This is not a government tax. It is levied by an accommodation business improvement district, a business-led body that charges participating city-centre hotels, which then pass it on to guests. Press coverage regularly calls these England's first tourist tax. They are a different animal: no council or parliament sets them, and they apply only at participating properties.

Common questions

Quick answers.

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