You rent out or sublet accommodation for tourism purposes on a professional or non-professional basis in return for payment and without providing hotel services.
The following provisions apply to you:
Once you have registered with your municipality to be included in the rental register, your data will be passed on to Sierre Tourisme, which offers a helpful tool: the “Hostcard” platform. This platform provides you with access to a database which can be used to document your guests and create the electronic arrival reports required for the tourist and accommodation taxes. In addition, the platform also enables you to generate a guest card, which your guests are sure to appreciate greatly.
We would like to remind those who host guests in return for payment that compliance with these legal provisions is not only imperative but above all helps to boost the profile of the region as a whole and, consequently, the number of visitors to the accommodation in question.
You run accommodation on a professional or non-professional basis in return for payment and offering hotel services.
Example: You run a hotel, bed and breakfast, campsite, holiday accommodation, etc.
The following provisions apply to you:
When you contact your municipality to apply for an operating licence, your data will be passed on to Sierre Tourisme, which will contact you with the aim of finding the best solution for the collection of the tourist taxes, the guest documentation and the guest cards.
The collection of the tourist taxes is based on the 1996 Law on Tourism. Article 17 stipulates that a tourist tax is levied on guests spending the night within the area of activity of a recognised tourism promotion office. Article 19 Para. 2 stipulates that the municipal council sets the tax rate. The four member municipalities of the Sierre, Salgesch & Vicinities tourism promotion office set the tax rates in 2007. The same rates continue to apply in 2024.
In 2014, Article 17 Para. 2 was added to the Loi sur le tourisme (Law on Tourism). It stipulates that the tourist tax is levied on the basis of a regulation submitted for approval by the “assemblée primaire” (town meeting) or the General Council and the State Council. At the start of 2024, none of the four member municipalities of the Sierre, Salgesch & Vicinities tourism promotion office had such an approved regulation. Transitional provisions have now been put in place for the municipalities without a regulation. These are established in Article T1-1 of the Loi sur le tourisme (Law on Tourism), which stipulates that the structures, tourism organisations and their funding systems set up under the earlier provisions remain valid. The new provisions shall apply as soon as changes are made to the structures, tourism organisations or their funding systems.
Hotels, B&Bs, apartments, rooms
Campsites, group accommodations, leisure complexes
Children aged 6 to 16: Half rate
Children under the age of 6, residents of the municipality, members of the armed forces or civil defence on duty, family members (relatives of the grandparents and spouse), pupils and students of a school recognised by the State during the school year: Exempt from tourist and accommodation tax
Notes: People travelling for business are exempt only in rare and specific cases (weekly workers, foreign workers registered with the canton). In the grand majority of cases, they are subject to the tourist taxes.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Sierre Tourisme (info@sierretourisme.ch, +41 (0)27 455 85 35)
