San Diego making more taxing hotels, as fewer guests book rooms

At a time when the city is eager for tax revenue, the numbers look good when it comes to Transient Occupancy Taxes. Those are the taxes paid by hotel guests. The city collected about $319 million in hotel taxes last year – significantly more than it did in 2019, when it made approximately $250 million. In fact, over the past three years, annual totals eclipsed earnings from before the pandemic.

From the outside, one might assume the hospitality industry has fully bounced back. A deeper dive into the data by NBC 7 Investigates revealed those numbers disguise lingering problems for local hotels.

In fact, the San Diego County Lodging Association said San Diego’s hotels are on a “slippery slope.”

Data from the San Diego Tourism Authority reveals hotels have more empty rooms compared to pre-