Tourist tax rate Highland

Highland is the largest council area in the United Kingdom by land area, running from Fort William and Ben Nevis to the north coast and out to Skye. Inverness is the main base, with the North Coast 500, the Cairngorms and the west coast sea lochs drawing visitors across the region.

Is Highland introducing a tourist tax?

Not yet, and no decision has been made. The Highland Council agreed on 25 August 2026 to put a draft Visitor Levy scheme out to public consultation, which is a decision about asking the question rather than introducing the levy. The statutory 12 week consultation starts in early September 2026 and the findings return to Full Council in December 2026. If a scheme is agreed there, a statutory 18 month implementation period follows, which puts the earliest realistic start in mid 2028.

Highland's proposal breaks with every other Scottish scheme. Instead of a percentage of the accommodation price it uses a tiered fixed amount per room or area per night: £5 for hotels, guest houses, B&Bs, rooms in houses and short-term lets, and £2 for hostels, campsites and caravan parks. It would apply across the whole council area for nine months of the year, skipping December, January and February, and accommodation providers would keep 5% of what they collect towards administration. The council estimates around £9 million a year. The model follows a change to Scottish legislation, requested by Highland itself, after the tourism industry pushed back on a percentage based levy during earlier consultations.

Trippz: the authority on tourist tax

Tourist tax is set locally and rates change without warning. Trippz tracks every change and keeps the data current, which is why travel platforms and property software, including Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia, rely on Trippz to calculate tourist tax and register guests in every market they serve.

How Trippz stays current

Trippz checks tax rules jurisdiction by jurisdiction against official municipal and national sources. When a rate or rule changes, the update happens automatically rather than on a periodic review cycle. This is the same monitoring that travel platforms and software vendors depend on to stay accurate everywhere they operate.

One tax engine, every market

Send a location, get the applicable rate, instantly and correctly calculated. Travel platforms and property software embed this calculation directly into their own product, so every booking is taxed correctly without building or maintaining a rate engine in house. It is the same logic behind every rate on this page.

Explore Trippz for Platforms

Frequently asked questions about the use of Trippz

• How can platforms and software vendors use Trippz?

  Trippz provides tourist tax content and a ready made calculation engine through one API. Platforms and software vendors add accurate tax calculation to their product without maintaining a rate database in house. Guest registration and authority connections are available as a separate capability for those who need it.

• How does Trippz keep tourist tax rates current?

  Trippz checks the jurisdictions it covers against official sources and updates rates automatically when a city or country changes them.

  
  

• Which countries and cities does Trippz cover?

  Trippz maintains tourist tax data across a wide range of countries and cities. See the full overview in our tourist tax guides.

• Is Trippz's data and infrastructure secure?

  Yes. Trippz is SOC1 Type 2 and SOC2 Type 2 certified and GDPR compliant, so platforms and software vendors can embed tourist tax calculation without adding security or compliance risk of their own.

• Who uses Trippz for tourist tax?

  Trippz provides tourist tax data and calculation to travel platforms and property software across Europe, including Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia. The same infrastructure that powers stays booked through the biggest platforms in travel is available to any platform or software vendor through the API.