Del Mar increases hotel room tax by one percent

Del Mar’s hotel room tax will increase by 1 percent in the coming year, but visitors won’t notice an increase because the city is also eliminating a separate 1 percent “tourism improvement” fee it implemented in 2010.

The City Council voted unanimously on Monday to increase the hotel room tax from 11.5 percent to 12.5 percent. The changes were part of an effort to streamline the way the city collects and uses money to promote Del Mar as a tourism destination, officials said.

The estimated $205,000 a year in revenue gained by the tax hike will be used to pay for a contract with the Del Mar Village Association to promote the city’s hotels and downtown businesses.

Five years ago, the city created a Tourism Business Improvement District, which collected the separate 1 percent fee on hotel room stays and used it to promote tourism.

City officials said that model proved cumbersome and difficult to measure whether the money being spent was actually boosting tourism.

The Tourism Business Improvement District was due to sunset on Sept. 30 unless the council renewed it. Council members decided to let it expire and redirect the money to the Del Mar Village Association. Many downtown hotel owners were involved in both groups anyway.

“We still dedicate the same amount of money to the effort through the DMVA, who I think we all have a lot of respect for and does a good job,” Mayor Al Corti said.

The last time the city increased its hotel room tax, also known as a transient occupancy tax, was in 2008.

At the time, city voters approved Proposition H allowing the council to raise the tax from 10.5 percent up to 13 percent but raised it to 11.5 percent.