Booking.com Initial Rates Now Exclude VAT

City tax in places like Italy, where it commonly must be paid directly to the hotel in cash,

I have never paid in cash the city tax or been asked. But, then again, I don't think I have stayed in real small hotels in Italy. Most of them have been fairly decent sized hotels and I always pay by CC. Interesting about Booking.com excluding VAT.

For its listings in the U.S., Booking.com also omits the TOT, or hotel tax, until you finally click “reserve.” Then the tax is added to the price and it often is an additional fifteen to twenty percent more than the initial price shown.

Caveat emptor!

Just as heads up: this is country specific. In Germany they show prices incl. VAT (mandatory by law for B2C businesses).

This must be a US website thing only. In the EU it’s illegal for businesses to exclude mandatory taxes like VAT and city tax from the advertised rate.

Edited to add; I just checked and I indeed do see rates including all taxes.

Prices on UK site also include charges and taxes

It's definitely a US IP issue, probably because that is just how you are used to paying for most things, rightly or wrongly.

From the UK if I go to book a hotel in the USA the headline price is the same when I go to reserve- that is it includes all taxes and charges.
It very specifically says it does.
I've checked this before, and have just checked again with a specific hotel in Idaho I am looking at. In that particular case, because it is a reserve, pay at property price (stated in £) it even tells me (and locks me into the price I will/would pay in US$) at the property in many months time.
That is very, very useful to then check against the property's own website. Full compliance with UK law.

The Resort City Inn, Coeur d'Alene for anyone who wants to check from a US IP address. This isn't an isolated place- it happens if I try to book in places as far apart as upper New York State or the Olympic Peninsula- the price quoted initially is the entire price.
I don't use the app, but yes I do get 'mobile only prices' sometimes when looking at the website on my tablet.

In this particular case it gives me a moral dilemma as the booking.com price is a bit (not much) less than booking with the property direct, then out of that the property pays x (whatever figure x is) % to booking.com- so they lose out significantly.

EDIT, if you want use a US phone in Europe to make the other side think you are in the US, do remember to turn off your WiFi. So I had to redo this. Its true, the US website leaves out the taxes until you select a room, but the end result prices are the same.

My phone with the US IP address fools the Drivers License Department in Texas, my licensing office in Texas, my Bank in the US, so I presume it fools Booking.com too.

With my Laptop with Hungarian IP address I looked up the Continental Hotel in Budapest and it was US$242 with taxes and fees, cancelable, pre-payment required and an option for US$272 including taxes and fees, cancelable, pay at the property.

Then on my Hungarian phone using their webstie I got US$272 including taxes and fees, cancelable, pay at the property.

Then my phone with my with the US IP address using their website I got US$222 EXCLUDING TAXES and FEES, cancelable, pay at the property. But the firnal price was the same as with the Hungarian IP.

While some methods of booking I did get offered to pay in advance for a discount, all of the options provided the same cost for the same terms. BUT THE US WEBSITE DID EXCLUDE TAXES AND FEES.

One suggestion I would make is to change the price from USD to what ever the local is. I would suspect that you would save a few dollars letting your credit card do the conversion.

MY SINCERE APOLOGIES. SEE EDIT TWO POSTS UP.

Some of the larger hotel chains have an option on their apps, and possibly their websites, to include all taxes and fees in the prices shown. It can be done from anywhere. This way there is no surpirse when you click "book."

But Frank, even on Booking.com there are no surprises when you pick the room they show you the price. When you get to the payment screent they stick the total price in large print right in your face. I saw where Expedia got sued for not getting the taxes right, that might have a little to do with Booking.com. Why take risk you dont have to. Or it could be 100% marketing because some people are not smart enogh to read the cost when they pick the room or review a bill before they pay it. Nothing is hidden. For most of us that can read and reason, it just makes Booking.com less conveneint to use.

My understanding of the reason some smaller places in Italy require cash for the city tax is that the third party vendor they use for processing credit cards doesn't collect the city tax for them and they themselves aren't set up to process credit cards.

I have noticed that it seems to vary by country and maybe within countries on which taxes and fees show up where and when on Booking.com, sometimes making it difficult to compare with booking direct with the hotel or host. The worst cases I have encountered are actually for places in the U.S. where there is a significant "resort fee" added that only pops up near the end of the transaction. I think the best protection, along with trying to read fine print, is to avoid anything not refundable if possible and they double check the confirmation while you can still cancel.