UK tourists in Prague and Hungary face strict new rules and having to pay a tourist tax per night. Holidaymakers jetting off from Britain to the European Union have been told to expect to fork out cash to stay in the popular stag do locations and cities.
In Prague, overnight guests have to pay £1.73 (€2.02) per person per night. The flat fee applies to the first 60 days. Travellers to the Hungarian capital have to pay an extra four per cent every night based on the price of their room.
Prague had one of the lowest tourist taxes in Europe at CZK 21, but this was raised at the beginning of 2022. Overnight guests now pay CZK 50 per person a night; it's a flat fee that's applied to the first 60 days in the city.
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In Budapest, by the law, local city tourism tax is 1000 HUF per person per night, for a maximum of 6 nights and 4 persons. That is 7 days and more are counted as mid-term stay and not short-term touristic stay, meaning the tourist tax has to be paid after 6 days only.
But travellers in the HUngarian capital have also been warned as scammers have created a fake website under the title “Budapest Capital’s local government tax payment gateway”, the Mayor’s Office told the Hungarian News Agency, MTI.
The Municipality of the capital has pointed out that it does not collect taxes from people booking accommodation in the capital. It was stressed that tourism tax is only collected from accommodation providers by the district municipality responsible for the place where the accommodation is rented, Travelo writes.
The chief notary of the capital has filed a complaint in the case on suspicion of fraud and has initiated police action to suspend the website operator, the statement said.
