In addition to the sharp rise in hotel rates in Paris, should business travellers be expecting a new blow in the near future? Under the terms of an agreement between the French government and Île-de-France Mobilités concerning the financing the Ile-de-France transport system Over the period 2024-2031, the ceiling on tourist tax in the Ile-de-France region is set to increase by 200 %. This project is on the agenda of the forthcoming 2024 Finance Act, which members of parliament will soon be considering. If the decision is confirmed, the amount paid back by hotels in the Paris region will be triple from 1er January 2024. In Paris, for example, the tax is set to rise from €1.25 per person per night in a two-star hotel to more than €3, while in luxury hotels it will reach €15 per person per day, compared with €5.75 at present.
The reason for this major leap forward is to meet the growing costs incurred by Île-de-France Mobilités in bringing the Grand Paris Express into service, extending lines and operating the network. In this context, the State will not be alone in helping the region, notably through a repayable zero interest rate advance of two billion euros and a 200 million euro subsidy to Île-de-France Mobilités. Businesses - through a 0.25 point increase in the maximum rates for mobility payments - but above all visitors, who take advantage of these transport services during their stays, will be used to carry out these vast and costly projects. Business travellers and their companies will therefore naturally be exposed to this additional cost, as Michel Dieleman, President of the Association Française du Travel Management (AFTM), points out: " Hotels in Paris are going to cost a lot more, which is not a good sign, especially as it only increases the cost of services that have already been reduced. already taken between 30% and 40%" .
While Transport Minister Clément Beaune was delighted with a " an historic, necessary and exemplary agreement" While Valérie Pécresse, President of the Ile-de-France region, sees it as a guarantee of " long-term financing of the Grand Paris Express "as well as the guarantee of moderation of the increase in the Navigo passHowever, accommodation professionals are not so enthusiastic - far from it. " With a 200% increase in tourist tax planned for 2024, Paris and the Ile-de-France region are already in the lead the gold medal for taxation !" This is the joint reaction of the Union des métiers et des industries de l'hôtellerie (UMIH) and the Groupement national des chaînes hôtelières (GNC).
These two unions are up in arms against this measure, which was taken without any consultation with representatives of the hotel and catering industry, with Jean Virgile Crance, President of the GNC, remarking " a very bad signal sent to all those planning to visit Paris and the Ile-de-France region in 2024" . Hoteliers in the Paris region fear that this will have an impact on the attractiveness of their establishments and the competitiveness of Paris as a destination. Especially as hoteliers are not on the same footing as their competitors in other major European cities.
At the same time, Paris would become the European capital having the highest tourist tax. In Rome, the fee is capped at 7 euros, in Brussels and Athens at a maximum of 4 euros, and in Madrid at 2 euros. As for Berlin, a percentage of the nightly rate applies, a proportional system that Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo is in favour of: " In the interests of fairness, I would ask that the tourist tax should correspond to a percentage of the nightly rate set at 5%, as in Berlin. This would make it possible to finance both transport and local authorities. For the City of Paris, this is a very important resource." .
Karim Malak, CEO of the EasyHotel business chain, explains that, historically, this tax has always been "... a major issue for the hotel industry". very complicated to manage. It is poorly taken into account by reservation systems, included by some sites and not by others. When it is requested at reception, customers do not always want to pay it..." . If he says understanding logic shift some of the burden of transport infrastructure onto tourists" He also points out that more tax is never good news: " this can have a significant impact on budget hotels" .
Higher bill for travel and seminars
While individual customers in top-of-the-range hotels should find it fairly easy to bear an increase of around twenty euros for a two- or three-night stay, families and business travellers on tight budgets may have to make trade-offs when Parisian hotels are already paying top dollar. Similarly, for companies, the cost of their trips and seminars to the Paris region is bound to rise.
" On a citycap calculated to the nearest euro, it changes everythingsays Margaux Grignard, Travel & Communication Category Manager at Thales and member of the GBTA France Executive Committee. We had not taken this possible growth of 200% into account when preparing our policy for 2024. This means that we will undoubtedly have to review our city cap. Similarly, this may have an impact on seminars, whose costs will be higher than they already areor they will shrink in size" .
" The average shopping basket in Paris today is 120 eurossays Ziad Minkara, CEO of CDS Groupe. So an extra €5 means an extra 3.75 %, on top of inflation of 4.9%." . " This represents an increase of 8.65%, which has an impact on company budgets for business travel." stresses this key player in corporate hotel reservations, for whom this increase from 3% to 5% will only benefit "the hotel industry". not to hoteliers, companies, GDSs or distributorsbut financing something other than the hotel industry" . " An increase of 50% is understandable, but this is suddenly a threefold increase.adds Ziad Minkara. It also means that, in the future, all towns and cities may wake up and want to compensate for their shortfall in council tax via the tourist tax." . We can already imagine hoteliers and businesses suggesting that he should not give them bad ideas...
