AnonymousSource: City of Santa Barbara
The City of Santa Barbara collected approximately $1.14 million in transient occupancy taxes (TOT) for February 2019, which is 0.8% below February of last year.
The City has collected approximately $12.84 million in TOT revenues through the first eight months of this fiscal year, which runs from July 1 through June 30. The City’s adopted TOT budget is $19,605,700.
The Transient Occupancy Tax table can be viewed here.
Every month that I see this report the first thing I think is that they must be killing it at the off-ramps to be able to pay this tax.
My idea is the Occupancy Tax is down because the city didn’t have mandatory evacuations in Montecito, forcing everyone into a hotel. Look how much they bragged about how it was up in January & February… the months they have evacuations, despite minimal rain many of those days.
Perhaps because last year there were so many from Monte ito staying in hotels because of the fire that the usual slow season revenues were up?
In the beginning it was called a bed tax and used to shake down motel owners.
Our downtown isn’t attractive for a stroll/shopping anymore. If you stay at an expensive place where you can enjoy the pool, restaurants & spa services, or just drive to a golf course and dinner somewhere very upscale, SB is still attractive. Many former tourists can’t afford or aren’t interested in that kind of vacation.