Tourist Tax And Visitor Levy In Cardiff 2026: What Hotels Need To Know

How Cardiff's Visitor Levy Works

Cardiff Council will start charging a Visitor Levy on overnight stays from 1 April 2027, making it the first council in Wales to set a firm date under the country's new Visitor Levy Act. Every paying guest in qualifying accommodation is charged a flat amount per person, per night, rather than a percentage of the room price or a flat fee per room.

The legal basis is the Visitor Levy Act, passed by the Senedd and given Royal Assent in September 2025. The Act does not impose a levy itself. It gives every council in Wales the option to introduce one, on the condition that the council first consults residents, businesses and tourism organisations and sets up a Visitor Levy Partnership Forum to advise on how the money is spent. Cardiff is the first council to complete that process and confirm a start date, but it will not be alone for long. Gwynedd, Conwy and the Isle of Anglesey have all run their own consultations on a North Wales levy, with decisions expected after 24 September 2026.

The levy applies to paid overnight stays of 31 nights or fewer in hotels, guesthouses, bed and breakfasts, self-catering properties, short-term lets such as Airbnbs, hostels, campsites and temporary event accommodation. It is charged in addition to the room rate, not folded into it, and it is separate from VAT, which is applied to the total price a VAT-registered business charges, levy included.

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Tax Rates and Exemptions

Cardiff uses two flat rates rather than a single percentage, and the exemptions attach to specific rates rather than to the levy as a whole. That distinction trips up more hotels than any other part of the rules, so it is worth reading the notes column closely.

The under-18 exemption is the one most hotels get wrong. It only reduces the bill at the 75p shared-accommodation rate. A family booking a standard hotel room at the £1.30 rate pays for every person in that room, adults and children alike. Front desk and reservations staff who assume "kids are always free" from the campsite rules will under-charge every family booking in the hotel's own inventory.

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Collection and Remittance Through the Welsh Revenue Authority

Cardiff's levy is not collected by the council. It is collected by the Welsh Revenue Authority, the same national body that administers Wales's Land Transaction Tax and Landfill Disposals Tax, which then passes the revenue on to Cardiff Council. That is a genuinely different administrative model from a council or business improvement district collecting a charge directly, and it changes what a hotel actually has to do.

Every accommodation provider taking bookings for stays in Wales, not just in Cardiff, must register with the Welsh Revenue Authority once registration opens in autumn 2026, and must be registered by 31 March 2027 regardless of whether their own council has adopted a levy yet. Cardiff properties have an earlier practical deadline: because the levy applies to any qualifying stay from 1 April 2027, a hotel taking advance bookings for that date needs to be ready to account for the levy on new and amended bookings from 28 September 2026 onward, six months before the charge itself takes effect.

The levy is self-assessed. A provider calculates what it owes, and how often it files depends on the amount. If the projected levy for the year is £1,000 or less, the provider files and pays annually, by 31 May following the tax year. Above that threshold, filing is quarterly, due within 60 days of each quarter's end. Providers must keep records of guest numbers, nights stayed and any exemptions claimed for at least six years, since the Welsh Revenue Authority can request evidence well after a booking is closed. Refunds for guests who qualify for an exemption after the fact, such as those in emergency accommodation, are also handled through the Welsh Revenue Authority rather than at the front desk.

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Why Per-Person Pricing Matters for Cardiff Hotels

Cardiff's levy is charged per person, per night, not per room and not as a percentage of the rate. That is a different structure from a flat per-room charge, and it changes how the cost scales with occupancy. A single traveller in a room pays £1.30 a night. A family of four sharing one room at the same hotel pays £5.20 a night, four times as much, even though they occupy exactly one room and generate exactly one reservation.

For a hotel, that means the levy cannot be calculated from room-nights sold alone. It depends on how many guests are actually registered against each room, for each night of the stay, including any extra guests added after check-in or removed early. A booking system that only tracks "rooms sold" or applies a flat charge per reservation will under-collect on multi-guest rooms and over-collect on single occupancy, and either error becomes a discrepancy the hotel has to explain when it reconciles its own records against what it remitted to the Welsh Revenue Authority.

The same occupancy-level detail matters for the 32-night exemption and the under-18 rule. A stay needs to be tracked as one continuous booking to determine whether it crosses the 31-night line, and each guest's age needs to be known if the property has any shared or hostel-style rooms billed at the lower rate. Getting any of these wrong does not just cost the guest a few pounds. It means the figure a hotel reports to the Welsh Revenue Authority does not match what it actually charged, which is the kind of gap a national tax authority is set up to notice.

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Common Mistakes Hotels Make With Cardiff's Visitor Levy

1. Assuming children are always exempt: The under-18 exemption only applies at the 75p shared and campsite rate. Families in a standard hotel room are charged the full £1.30 per person, children included.
2. Registering too late: Registration with the Welsh Revenue Authority opens in autumn 2026, and providers must account for qualifying bookings from 28 September 2026, well before the levy itself starts on 1 April 2027. Waiting until spring 2027 to register means missing bookings that already need to be tracked.
3. Treating it as a room charge: Because the levy is per person, per night, a flat per-booking or per-room charge will misstate the amount owed on any room with more than one guest.
4. Assuming the council collects the money: Payments go to the Welsh Revenue Authority, not to Cardiff Council directly. Hotels that direct queries or payments to the council will find themselves dealing with the wrong body.
5. Losing track of the 31-night threshold: A booking of 32 nights or more is exempt in full, but only if the stay is tracked as one continuous booking. Splitting a long stay into shorter segments to manage it operationally can create confusion about which nights are actually exempt.
6. Not keeping enough records: The Welsh Revenue Authority can ask for evidence of guest counts, nights and exemptions claimed for up to six years after the stay, longer than many properties keep detailed reservation data by default.

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Where A PMS Fits

Cardiff's levy asks more of a reservation system than a flat per-room or per-percentage charge would. Because the amount owed depends on how many guests are actually registered against a room on any given night, not just whether the room sold, a property management system (PMS) needs occupancy data at the guest level, not just the reservation level, and it needs to keep that count accurate through mid-stay changes like an extra guest added after check-in or someone checking out early. The same guest-level detail decides whether the lower 75p rate and its under-18 exclusion applies, since that only works if each guest's age is actually captured against a shared or hostel-style room rather than assumed.

roommaster's tax configuration can calculate a levy per occupied guest per night rather than per room, apply the reduced rate and age exclusion only to the accommodation types Cardiff has designated for it, and track a continuous stay against the 32-night exemption threshold automatically. That same occupancy detail feeds directly into the reporting a hotel needs for its Welsh Revenue Authority filing, whether annual or quarterly, and into the six years of guest-count and exemption records the Authority can request, so a property is not reconstructing who stayed in which room, on which night, from raw booking history after the fact.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. When does Cardiff's Visitor Levy start?

The levy applies to overnight stays from 1 April 2027. Accommodation providers must be registered with the Welsh Revenue Authority and accounting for qualifying bookings from 28 September 2026, since bookings taken from that date can already be for stays after the levy takes effect.

2. How much is Cardiff's Visitor Levy?

Most accommodation, including hotels, B&Bs and self-catering lets, is charged at £1.30 per person, per night. Hostels, dormitories and campsite or tent pitches are charged at a reduced rate of 75p per person, per night.

3. Who collects Cardiff's Visitor Levy?

The Welsh Revenue Authority collects the levy, not Cardiff Council directly. The Authority is the same national body that administers Wales's other devolved taxes, and it passes the revenue on to Cardiff Council after collection.

4. Are children exempt from Cardiff's Visitor Levy?

Only at the 75p shared and campsite rate. Guests under 18 staying in a hostel, dormitory or campsite pitch are excluded from the calculation. A family staying in a standard hotel room at the £1.30 rate is charged for every guest, including children.

5. Do hotels need to register before the levy starts?

Yes. Every accommodation provider taking bookings for stays in Wales must register with the Welsh Revenue Authority once registration opens in autumn 2026, and must be registered by 31 March 2027, whether or not their own council has introduced a levy yet.

6. What happens if a guest stays more than 31 nights?

A single continuous booking of 32 nights or more is exempt from the levy in full. The exemption applies to the whole stay, not just the nights beyond the 31-night mark.

7. Is Cardiff the only Welsh city with a visitor levy?

Cardiff is the first Welsh council to commit to a start date, but it will not be the only one. Gwynedd, Conwy and the Isle of Anglesey have each consulted on their own visitor levy in North Wales, with decisions expected after 24 September 2026. Any Welsh council can introduce a levy from April 2027 onward once it completes its own consultation.

8. How is Cardiff's Visitor Levy different from Edinburgh's or Glasgow's?

Cardiff's levy is a flat amount per person, per night, set under Welsh legislation and collected nationally by the Welsh Revenue Authority. Scotland's visitor levies in Edinburgh and Glasgow are set under separate Scottish legislation, charged as a percentage of the accommodation price, and collected directly by the relevant council rather than through a national tax authority.