Online hotelier Airbnb said that it will begin collecting San Francisco's 14 percent hotel tax from its customers beginning Oct. 1.
The online rental marketplace, which is achieving great success, will begin paying the tax levied on hotel stays in its hometown of San Francisco next month, according to reports.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that as much as $11 million could be raised when visitors who book rooms or entire housing units in San Francisco pay the tax. There is no word whether Airbnb, which is rumored to be worth as much as $10 billion, will offer to pay back taxes for the six years it has been in business.
Airbnb is still technically illegal in San Francisco. A push by Supervisor David Chiu to legalize the service -- and put requirements on how long a host must live in a unit in order to rent it out -- was debated Monday but a vote was delayed for two weeks.
Airbnb users booking rooms in San Francisco will now see a line item for "transient occupancy tax," the newspaper reported. It's not clear if that tax revenue will somehow return to Airbnb users in the form of services.
There are about 5,000 rooms or housing units listed on Airbnb in San Francisco every day, according to the newspaper. There are 34,000 hotel rooms in the city.
The city treasurer said in 2012 that Airbnb should pay hotel taxes; he did not comment to the Chron if Airbnb would be receiving a past-due bill.
