The Manchester hotel tax is a £1 per room, per night charge — officially the City Visitor Charge — added to bills at large hotels and serviced apartments in the city centre. With VAT, you pay £1.20 a night per occupied room. It launched on 1 April 2023 and, as of late 2025, is collected by 79 properties.1Manchester Accommodation BID. Contributors
What You’ll Pay
The charge is a flat £1 plus VAT per room, per night, applied for every night of your stay.2Manchester Accommodation BID. Home It appears as a separate line on your bill, distinct from the room rate, and you’ll usually see it at checkout or on a pre-departure folio.
The rate hasn’t moved since launch. It doesn’t change by season, and it isn’t calculated as a percentage of your room price, so a budget room and a suite are charged the same amount. For a three-night stay in one room, expect to pay an extra £3.60 including VAT.
Which Hotels Add It
The charge only applies to accommodation businesses inside the Manchester Accommodation BID zone that have a rateable value of £75,000 or more.1Manchester Accommodation BID. Contributors Rateable value is the Valuation Office Agency’s estimate of a property’s annual open-market rental value, and at that threshold the levy captures large hotels and serviced apartment blocks rather than small guesthouses or B&Bs.
The zone covers Manchester city centre and a small adjoining section of Salford.3UK Parliament. Tourist Taxes in the UK If your hotel sits in the centre or on the nearest Salford fringe, expect the charge. Hotels further out in Greater Manchester suburbs are not part of the scheme. The ABID’s website lists participating properties but does not publish a street-level boundary.
Airbnb and Short-Term Rentals
If you’ve booked an Airbnb or another short-term holiday let, the City Visitor Charge does not apply. The levy targets hotels and serviced aparthotels within the BID zone, and individual short-term rental properties fall outside it.
Do You Have to Pay It?
From a guest’s perspective, the charge is technically voluntary. Hotels are “urged” to collect it, and guests are asked rather than legally compelled to pay.4BBC. Manchester Tourists Should Pay ‘Proper’ City Tax, Mayor Andy Burnham Says In practice, most guests pay without question because the amount is small relative to the room rate.
The reason the request appears on your bill at all is that the underlying levy on the hotel itself is compulsory. Manchester’s scheme sits under Part 4 of the Local Government Act 2003, which lets a defined group of businesses vote to tax themselves to fund shared improvements.5Legislation.gov.uk. Local Government Act 2003 – Part 4 Participating hotels owe the money to the BID whether individual guests agree to the surcharge or not, which is why they pass it on.
Where the Money Goes
In its first year, the charge raised £2.8 million.6BBC. Manchester’s ‘Tourist Tax’ Raises 2.8m After First Year The ABID puts the revenue toward marketing campaigns aimed at overnight visitors, bids for large-scale events during quieter months, and street cleanliness and welcome improvements around hotels.2Manchester Accommodation BID. Home
How It Compares to Liverpool and Edinburgh
Manchester was the first English city to introduce a visitor levy of this kind, but it is no longer the only one. Liverpool launched a similar BID scheme the same year and, following a further ballot, increased its charge to £2 per occupied room per night from 1 June 2025.
Edinburgh is taking a different route. Scotland passed the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act, giving councils direct statutory power to charge visitors, and Edinburgh’s levy takes effect on 24 July 2026 at 5% of the pre-VAT accommodation cost, capped at the first five nights of any stay.7Forever Edinburgh. Visitor Levy for Edinburgh On a £150-per-night room, that works out to £7.50 a night, well above Manchester’s £1.20.
What May Change
Manchester’s current setup could be overtaken by national legislation. The government introduced the Overnight Visitor Levy Bill (England only) in the King’s Speech on 13 May 2026, creating a framework for mayors and other local leaders to introduce a compulsory levy on overnight stays and invest the proceeds locally.8Chartered Institute of Taxation. King’s Speech: Tourist Tax and Electricity Generator Levy on Government Agenda
Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has said he wants a “proper” compulsory charge that applies more broadly across Greater Manchester and targets visitors rather than local residents staying in city hotels.4BBC. Manchester Tourists Should Pay ‘Proper’ City Tax, Mayor Andy Burnham Says If the Bill passes, Manchester could shift from the flat £1 guest charge to a compulsory, percentage-based levy closer to Edinburgh’s model. The Bill was still in its early parliamentary stages as of mid-2026, and no rate or cap had been set for English authorities. If you’re booking a Manchester hotel for 2027 or later, it’s worth checking the bill at the time to see whether the new framework has replaced the current £1.20 line.