Most tourists do not pay hotel tax in Colombia. The tax in question is IVA, Colombia's value added tax, charged at 19% on hotel stays, and foreign visitors who don't live in the country are exempt from it on their accommodation. It's one of the questions we're asked most often before a booking, usually because a price on a booking site looked different from the one at check-in, so here is how it works, and what you'll actually pay with us.
Who pays the 19% IVA on hotel stays
Colombians and residents of Colombia pay it; visiting foreigners generally don't. Under article 481 of Colombia's tax code (the Estatuto Tributario), hotel services provided to non-resident foreigners count as an exported service, and exported services are exempt from IVA.
The line is residence, not nationality. A foreigner who lives in Colombia on a resident visa, or who holds a cédula de extranjería, is treated the same way as a Colombian and pays IVA. A Colombian citizen who lives abroad should ask the hotel directly how they'll be treated, because the answer turns on how they entered and what documents they hold.
What you need to show at check-in
You'll need your passport and proof that you entered Colombia as a visitor. That proof is the entry stamp or the electronic entry record from Migración Colombia. Hotels ask for both because they need them on file to justify not charging the tax, so keep your passport to hand when you arrive rather than packed at the bottom of a bag.
If you can't show them, a hotel is entitled to charge the 19%. That's not a penalty. It's simply the default rate.
Why the price on a booking site can change at check-in
Booking sites usually display a price before anyone has checked your residence. Depending on how the hotel has set things up, the 19% may be shown and then removed when you present a foreign passport, or left out and then added if you turn out to be resident. When you compare places, compare the final price with every charge included, and if you're writing to a hotel directly, ask whether the quote "incluye IVA" and whether the 19% applies to you.
Some hotels in Colombia also offer an optional hotel insurance, the seguro hotelero, charged per night. It's worth asking about any line on your bill you don't recognise.
What this means for your stay with us
If you're visiting from abroad, you pay no tax on your accommodation with us. That's the whole of it.
If you're a Colombian resident, we've already built IVA into our Colombian resident rate, so the figure you're quoted is the figure you pay for the room. There's no 19% waiting for you at the end.
The one charge we add for everyone is a resort fee of 20 USD per night. We'd rather explain it plainly than have you find it on the bill.
What our 20 USD resort fee pays for
It pays for the cost of running a house on an island with no public utilities. Hotels in Cartagena are connected to the city's power, water and waste systems. On Barú, we are not. We generate our own electricity, make our own water, process our own waste, and bring absolutely everything here ourselves: cleaning supplies, food, ice, and you.
Nothing at Casas Altas just happens. Behind the six rooms across our three houses sits the equivalent of a small town's infrastructure, and the resort fee lets us keep that cost separate from the room rate instead of hiding it inside it.
A quarter of the fee, 25%, goes directly to our Impact Fund. The fund supports nonprofit work that offsets the environmental effects of tourism here and contributes to local social development on the island.
A short checklist before you book in Colombia
- Check your status: visiting from abroad on an entry stamp means you're normally exempt; living in Colombia means you normally pay.
- Carry the documents: passport plus your Migración Colombia entry record or stamp.
- Compare final prices: open the price breakdown on any booking site before paying.
- Ask about other charges: resort fees, the seguro hotelero, transfers.
- Check with the source if your case is unusual: this is general information, not tax advice, and Colombia's tax authority, the DIAN, has the final word.
If you're still unsure how your own stay will be treated, write to us before you book and we'll tell you exactly what your quote includes.