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Edinburgh charges the visitor levy on the first five consecutive nights of a stay. Anything beyond that is not chargeable. The rule sounds simple, and for most bookings it is — the difficulty is in deciding what counts as one stay.
A straightforward long stay
Ten-night stay at £100 a night, net of VAT
- Nights booked
- 10
- Chargeable nights
- 5
- Chargeable accommodation
- £500
- Levy at 5%
- £25
The last five nights attract no levy at all.
Back-to-back bookings
Two separate bookings by different guests in the same unit are two separate stays, even if the second check-in is the same day as the first check-out. Each gets its own five-night cap. If the same guest books twice in a row to cover one continuous period, treat it as one stay and cap it once — otherwise you'd charge ten capped nights for what is in substance a single visit.
When the occupants change part-way through
The Council's guidance frames the cap around the continuous stay in the accommodation, not around each individual occupant. Where one booking runs continuously and some of the people staying change during it, that's still one stay with one cap. Where genuinely separate guests book separate stays in the same unit, each booking has its own cap.
This is an edge case the published guidance doesn't spell out exhaustively. Where a booking is genuinely ambiguous, record the reasoning you applied and check it with the council rather than guessing twice differently.
Stays that straddle the scheme start
Charging begins on 24 July 2026. A stay that starts before that date is pro-rated first: nights before 24 July aren't chargeable at all, and the five-night cap is then applied to the nights that remain. Applying the cap before the pro-rating gives the wrong answer.
Seven-night stay from 21 to 28 July 2026
- Nights before 24 July
- 3 — not chargeable
- Nights from 24 July
- 4
- Chargeable nights after the cap
- 4
Four remaining nights is under the cap, so all four are charged.
Checking your own figures
The free calculator applies the cap, the pro-rating and the VAT order for a single booking, so you can test an awkward stay in a few seconds. Adding a property lets you run a full quarter and see the cap applied booking by booking.
Official guidance
This page is a plain-English explanation of the Council's own published guidance, not a replacement for it. Always check your figures against the primary sources below.
Try it on your own numbers
Check a single booking with the free calculator, or create a free account and run a whole quarter. One property is free forever.
More guides
What happens if you calculate the Edinburgh Visitor Levy wrong
Penalties, interest and enforcement, set out factually — including what the Council's guidance leaves unconfirmed.
Edinburgh Visitor Levy quarterly filing checklist
Submission windows, payment dates, the availability declaration, and what to check before you file.
VAT and the Edinburgh Visitor Levy: the correct calculation order
The levy is worked out before VAT, then VAT applies to accommodation and levy together. Worked through.
Visitor Levy App helps you calculate, check and record your visitor levy. It does not file on your behalf. The property owner or operator remains legally responsible for the accuracy of the figures and for submitting the return on time. Always check the figures against your own records before you file.