Bog tax is giving hotels the s**ts

TERRITORY hotels are flushing money down the toilet as they pay for rest rooms that aren’t being used.

Under commercial sewerage tariffs, businesses with between three and 24 toilets are paying a minimum of $2476 per year, while large hotels with more than 149 toilets are paying almost $66,000 or more. This is despite occupancy rates sitting around 70 per cent in the last year.

Accommodation Association of Australia chief executive Richard Munro said the high price was taking a toll on accommodation operators in the Territory.

“When you’ve got any levy that is based on a full occupancy hotel or motel, it’s not commensurate with the occupancy of the property itself,” he said. “We shouldn’t be charged the full number of rooms when we’ve only got a smaller percentage of rooms being used.”

Mr Munro said a couple of better options could be used to charge hoteliers more fairly.

“One way we’ve seen in the UK is it is done on water consumption because it is a good relationship to sewerage output,” he said.

“If it’s not using the water, they’re probably not using any sewerage either.”

He also suggested prices could be determined on average occupancy rates for hotels and motels on a yearly basis.

“When it’s done as a total, we always have to pay the maximum amount and that’s not fair,” he said.

A Darwin hotel owner said he was frustrated by the “arbitrary” high costs.

“When our revenue dies, either because of seasonality or a struggling market, our overheads keep on growing,” he said.

“Sooner or later, the camel can’t keep on carrying that load.”

A Treasury spokeswoman said the changes would not be considered as the “cost was associated with the fixed cost of sewerage”.