A: The San Francisco Tourism Improvement District, if established, will be a city-mandated assessment of 1% - 1.5% of room revenue for all hotels within San Francisco city limits beginning Jan. 1, 2009. The city’s tourist hotels would be divided into two zones, based largely on geographic proximity to Moscone Center and proximity to the regional and city transportation infrastructure.

A proposed 1.5% assessment of gross revenue from tourist hotel rooms in Zone 1 would add $3 to the guest folio based on a room rate of $200. A proposed 1% assessment of gross revenue from tourist hotel rooms in Zone 2 would add $2 the guest folio based on a room rate of $200.

A: Among other things, the Tourism Improvement District is designed to ensure stable and adequate funding for the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau (SFCVB). This is critical to the SFCVB’s ability to provide its tourism customers with the services, programs and marketing support needed to ensure that visitors will continue to travel to San Francisco, benefiting both the city and travel producers.

The SFCVB and travel producers have a mutually beneficial relationship. Tour operators and travel agencies partner with the SFCVB to develop compelling travel products for their customers, and all travel producers benefit from SFCVB sales and marketing promotions to generate interest in San Francisco.

Without the establishment of the TID, the SFCVB faces major budget challenges in the near future which will likely lead to reduced services for travel producers and less marketing promotion nationally and in countries that San Francisco travel producers depend on for customers.

A: Zone 1 would include all hotels within San Francisco city limits on and east of Van Ness Avenue and on and north of 16th Street. This includes Union Square, Fisherman's Wharf, Yerba Buena and Civic Center. Zone 2 would include all hotels within San Francisco city limits west of Van Ness Avenue and South of 16th Street.

A: The proposed TID would have a duration of 15 years. However, beginning in year 6, the assessment will be reduced to 1.0% of gross revenue from tourist hotels in Zone 1 and 0.75% of gross revenue from tourist hotels in Zone 2.

A: San Francisco’s existing 14% hotel tax and its 1% - 1.5% proposed TID assessment (15% - 15.5% total) is comparable to total taxes, assessments and fees in cities like Chicago (15.39%) and Seattle (15.6%), and below cities such as Boston (17.45%), Vancouver (17%), San Antonio (16.75%), and Kansas City (15.73%).

A: No. In October, San Francisco hotels overwhelmingly returned a petition supporting the proposed TID. As of Oct. 20, 86.97% of the hotels, by weight, had returned a petition supporting the proposed TID and 0.36% returned a petition opposing the proposed TID (with the remainder not returning a petition). The remaining schedule for officially establishing the TID is as follows:

• No later than Nov. 1, ballots (along with the TID Management Plan) and notice of public hearing will be distributed by mail to hotel owners/operators from San Francisco’s Office of Elections.
• Hotel owners/operators will have 45 days to submit their votes by ballot to the City.
• A public hearing is scheduled for December 16, where ballots will be counted and the proposed District would be formed if approved by the Board of Supervisors
• If passed, the city-mandated TID assessments would be added to room folios beginning Jan. 1, 2009.

A: As hotel contracts can differ, there is no universal answer, although many contracts include language stating that customers are responsible for changes to taxes, assessments, fees and other encumbrances. Please consult with a representative of any hotels you may have contracts or guaranteed rates with to determine how the TID assessment will affect your organization.