SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Hotel Bed Tax revenues are up for September. The city says, "lodging establishments collected and remitted $1.38 million in Transient Occupancy Tax during the month of September, which is 9.8% higher than September of last year. It is likely that the warm, clear weather contributed to last month's strong growth. Both occupancy and room rates were higher than last year.
The number of weekend days in a given month directly affects lodging revenues and the City's TOT. Santa Barbara sees a large number of weekend visitors to our city, a popular weekend getaway destination, with hotel occupancy higher on Fridays and Saturdays than on the weekdays. September 2012 had the same number of weekend days as last September and, therefore, the number of weekend days did not skew September's growth.
Over $5 million in TOT has been collected through September, marking the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2013. First quarter growth was 6.7%, slightly ahead of the 6.1% budgeted growth for fiscal year 2013.
The City's fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30 each year. At the end of the first quarter, it is too early to predict exactly how TOT will end the year. However, TOT is expected to meet or slightly exceed the budget by the end of the fiscal year. The fiscal year 2013 TOT budget is $14,489,200.
The Transient Occupancy Tax table can be viewed here:
www.santabarbaraca.gov/files/finance/transient-occupancy-tax.pdf
