The city bed tax rebounded from a loss of 26.9 percent for December 2017 to a gain of 22.1 percent in January 2018. These Temporary Occupancy Tax (TOT) statistics for the City of Santa Barbara are an apples-to-apples measure of monthly hotel occupancy against the same months in the previous year.
The 2017-18 fiscal year, which runs from July to June, had posted smaller totals in every month but October. The January 2018 total of $1.26 million still leaves the fiscal year 1.9 percent short of the previous year. Resident and emergency worker occupancy during the Thomas Fire and Debris Flow account for much of the increase, said Bob Samario, city Finance Director, as well as the opening of the Hotel Californian in the fall.