Tourist tax (Kurtaxe)

Tourist tax — Kurtaxe in German-speaking regions, taxe de séjour in French — is a small charge levied per overnight guest, set and collected locally to fund tourism infrastructure and services. The accommodation acts as collector: it adds the correct amount to each guest’s bill, often varying by guest age, season or membership exemptions, and periodically remits the total to the municipality or region with a report of nights stayed. Rates and rules differ from place to place, which makes accurate calculation and record-keeping the hard part. For campgrounds the burden is significant, because guest numbers are high, stays vary in length, and children and certain visitors are frequently exempt or discounted. Software that captures guest counts at booking or check-in can calculate the tax automatically and produce the periodic declaration, removing what is otherwise an error-prone manual count at the end of every period.