Tourist tax in Bristol, Bath and Cardiff: where it stands and what a short-let owner has to do
A tourist tax in Bristol, Bath and Cardiff sounds like a charge on your guest. In reality the Welsh law, and the government's design for England, put the bill on whoever provides the accommodation, which for a short let is you. Cardiff's levy is decided and starts with stays from 1 April 2027. On 13 October 2026 Bristol and Bath had no levy, no rate and no start date.
Tourist tax, tourism tax and visitor tax are everyday names for the same thing. Welsh law calls it a visitor levy, and the proposal for England calls it an overnight visitor levy.
Cardiff tourist tax: the visitor levy is decided and starts on 1 April 2027
Cardiff's tourism tax stopped being a proposal in March 2026. Full Council approved it then, after a consultation in which 62% of almost 2,000 responses backed it. Penarth falls under Vale of Glamorgan Council, which isn't charging a levy.
The council didn't choose the rate. The Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Act 2025 fixes it at £1.30 for each guest, each night, at any age, in a self-catering let. A 75p rate covers only tent pitches and shared hostel rooms.
The guest doesn't owe the levy. You do. You file a return and pay the Welsh Revenue Authority, which collects for the council. You can absorb the cost, raise your price or add a levy fee, but the bill stays yours even if a guest refuses to pay. If you're VAT registered and pass it on, VAT is charged on everything the guest pays, levy included.
The date that matters has already passed. A booking taken on or after 28 September 2026 for a stay from 1 April 2027 carries the levy. A booking taken earlier doesn't, unless nights or guests are added or the dates are moved, and then only the new part is charged. A single booking of 32 nights or more isn't charged. Neither is a cancelled stay or a no-show, though each still has to be recorded.
The levy is self-assessed. If you owe £1,000 or less in a year you can file and pay once, by 31 May. Above that you file every three months, and about 770 guest nights at £1.30 cross the line. Each stay needs a record of its date, its guests and its nights, kept for six years after the return. The service side is on Airbnb management in Cardiff.
Newport: no tourist tax, and no council consulting on one
Each Welsh council decides for itself. On 13 October 2026 the Welsh Revenue Authority listed Cardiff as the only council charging and no council as consulting. Newport's council leader said in January 2025 that there were no plans for a levy. A council that changes its mind must consult, then publish a notice at least 12 months before the start unless the Authority agrees a shorter period. The start can only be 1 April or 1 October.
The Welsh register of visitor accommodation: open now, deadline 31 March 2027
Registration is a separate duty, and it applies with or without a levy. The register opened on 1 October 2026. Anyone taking bookings of 31 nights or less for overnight stays in Wales has to join it, in Newport as much as in Cardiff. It's free, and a property already taking bookings has until 31 March 2027.
The duty sits with the provider, meaning whoever owns or rents the property and offers it to guests. A management company can register for you, but the responsibility stays with you, and all your properties go in one registration. Part of the register is public, including each property's address. From 1 April 2027 the penalty for not registering is £100 a property. If it's still unregistered 30 days after the penalty notice, £10 a day follows for up to 30 days, then a further £1,000.
Licensing is a third scheme. It became law on 27 April 2026 and hasn't started, and it's covered with the 182 day test in short lets in Wales and the 182 day rule.
Bristol tourist tax: no levy today, and the council can't set one
England has no visitor levy law, so no council or mayor can charge one yet. On 10 September 2026 the government confirmed who gets the power: mayoral and foundation strategic authorities, not individual councils. For Bristol that's the West of England Combined Authority, which covers Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, and South Gloucestershire.
The design is settled in outline. The levy will be a percentage of the accommodation cost, not a flat fee. Each authority sets its own rate, and the government doesn't intend to cap it nationally. The accommodation provider will be liable and will declare it to the authority by self-assessment. Short lets are in scope. Only occasional, informal providers will fall under a minimum threshold, and its figure hasn't been set.
That isn't law yet. The government says it intends to legislate in this session of Parliament, and no visitor levy bill was in Parliament's list of bills on 13 October 2026. It expects local leaders to set out how they'd invest the money by March 2028. The West of England has set no rate and no start date, so we can't tell you what a Bristol stay would carry. Nobody can.
Wales gives you 12 months' notice by law. England won't have a fixed period, because the government dropped its proposed 12 month minimum. Local consultation stays compulsory, and businesses and residents in the West of England are due to be asked in the coming months. The city's service page is Airbnb management in Bristol.
Bath tourist tax proposal: one levy for the whole West of England
Bath and North East Somerset Council said in November 2025 that it had long called for a levy. The council still can't introduce one. The power goes to the combined authority, and the council says any scheme would be developed in consultation with the hospitality sector.
Two of the government's decisions settle the Bath question. An authority won't be able to charge the levy in only part of its area. It won't be able to vary the rate between its councils, by season or by type of accommodation either. So Bath can't have a tourist tax that Bristol doesn't. A West of England levy would be one rate across every council in the authority. No levy applies in Bath today, and what we do there is on Airbnb management in Bath.
The room charge Manchester already has
Manchester has added £1 a room, each night, to accommodation bills since April 2023, without any tourist tax law. The charge runs through an Accommodation Business Improvement District, where providers in a defined area pay a mandatory levy alongside business rates. Bristol and Bath have Business Improvement Districts too, but those bill businesses on rateable value. Neither council's page on them, read on 13 October 2026, shows an accommodation district or a charge on overnight stays.
What a short-let owner should do now
In Cardiff the work has already started, because bookings for April 2027 onwards are being taken now. The first decision is whether your price absorbs £1.30 a guest or shows it as a fee. A record of every stay comes next, then registration by 31 March 2027.
In Newport there's one job, the register, with the same deadline. In Bristol and Bath there's nothing to pay and nothing to file for a levy. England's own short let register is a separate scheme, expected in March 2027. The thing to watch is the West of England consultation, because that's where a rate would first appear.
What a levy costs you depends on what the property takes. The free income estimate shows the income figure for your property. This is the position on 13 October 2026, and it's information, not tax advice. The Welsh Revenue Authority or your council can confirm what applies to your property, and VAT is a question for your accountant.
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