Edinburgh's Visitor Levy Is Now in Force

Edinburgh's 5% visitor levy on overnight stays took effect on Friday, 24 July 2026, making it the first city in Scotland to charge a tourist tax on paid accommodation.

The details

The levy applies under the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 and the Scheme for the Edinburgh Visitor Levy, approved by the City of Edinburgh Council in January 2025. It adds 5% to the cost of hotels, guest houses, bed and breakfasts, hostels, serviced apartments, campsites, and other paid overnight accommodation within the City of Edinburgh Council boundary. The charge is capped at the first five consecutive nights of a stay and applies at the same rate year round. Current rates and rules for the whole country are listed on the Trippz tourist tax page for Scotland.

It covers stays from 24 July 2026 onward but only where the booking was made and paid for, in full or in part, on or after 1 October 2025. Stays booked and paid before that date remain exempt. Certain guests are also exempt, including people without a permanent or safe home and recipients of specific disability related benefits. The council expects the levy to raise up to 50 million pounds a year, and in February it approved a first set of investment programmes worth more than 90 million pounds over three years, covering city operations, culture and heritage, and visitor management.

What Edinburgh hosts must do

Accommodation providers in the City of Edinburgh Council area are responsible for charging the levy on every liable booking, keeping accurate transaction records, and submitting quarterly returns to the national online visitor levy portal, along with payment of the levy collected. The council will carry out inspections to check compliance. Hosts who take bookings that straddle the 1 October 2025 cutoff need to track which reservations are exempt, since the rule applies per booking rather than by stay date alone. This responsibility stays with the host even when bookings come through platforms like Airbnb or Booking.com.

Where Trippz fits in

Trippz has tracked Edinburgh's visitor levy since the scheme was first announced, on top of the tourist tax rates Trippz already monitors across 70+ countries. Hosts operating in Edinburgh can use Trippz for Hosts today to collect the levy correctly and stay compliant, without setting anything up themselves.

See how Trippz handles tourist tax for hosts