Council wins bed levy tussle after hotels agree to pay Sh6

The Mombasa council has won a major concession from hotels over a controversial bed levy.

The council and hotel owners have been locked in a court battle for the past three years over whether the hoteliers should pay Sh6 for a room each day.

The hoteliers had taken the council to court for failing to provide services such as garbage collection.

But on Wednesday, Town Clerk Tubmun Otieno (right) said the council had signed an agreement with the Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers (KAHC) Coast branch after they agreed on the new levy. The deal was signed last month.

According to the agreement, hotels will be paying Sh6 for each occupied room daily.

Mr Otieno noted that the hotels’ association also agreed to withdraw its case against the council at the Mombasa law courts.

One of the conditions, however, was that the council will be collecting garbage from hotels everyday.

“Whatever we collect from the hotels will boost our coffers since our annual budget has a deficit of Sh600 million. Our budget stands at Sh2 billion whereas we collect Sh1.4 billion of revenue a year,” said Mr Otieno.

KAHC Coast branch chairman Titus Kangangi said that 35 hotels within the municipality would be paying the levy on 50 per cent bed occupancy.

He said the association and the council agreed that the hotels pay the levy for nine months every year.