Hotel Occupancy Tax In NYC Waived In Time For Summer Tourists

NEW YORK CITY — Tourists coming back to a newly reopened New York City won't have to shell out as much on their hotels.

The city's 5.875 percent hotel room occupancy tax rate will be eliminated from June 1 to Aug. 31, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced.

With the tax waived, hotels can lower their room rates as tourists come back to New York City in the summer, he said.

"We’re ready for them,” de Blasio said in a statement. “By eliminating the hotel room occupancy tax for this summer, we’re accelerating our economic recovery, saving jobs and providing relief for one of our hardest-hit industries.”

De Blasio signed an executive order Wednesday waiving the tax.

Hotels were hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Iconic hotels shuttered as tourists and business travelers skipped trips. And roughly 257,000 hospitality workers lost their jobs, officials said.

The mayor's office, in a release, tied the occupancy tax holiday to a recently announced $30 million tourism campaign to jumpstart travel to the city.

“This executive order is welcome news for tens of thousands of hospitality workers and for New York City’s tourism industry, which has endured the worst economic impacts of the pandemic,” Rich Maroko, president of the Hotel Trades Council, said in a statement. “This tax relief serves as critical encouragement for hotels to re-open to guests from across the world."