There’s been a lot of talk about bed tax lately, primarily because it is a good barometer of where the tourism market is. May’s numbers were up just under 25%, and if you remember, at the beginning of the season, I predicted (conservatively) that we would see an average of around $2 million per month for the May to August reporting period. We’ll discuss where we are with that in a few.
June 2012’s bed tax collection was $2,737,780.66, or an astounding 19.9% increase over June 2011.
A close look at the numbers.
- June 2012 – $2,737,780.66 – single point: $373,055.95 – 19.88% up over previous year
- June 2011 – $2,283,706.72 – single point: $407,766.53 – 21.2% up over previous year
- June 2010 – $1,884,269.21 – single point: $389,286.91 – -3.2% down from previous year
- June 2009 – $1,946,434.54 – single point: $376,853.84 – -4.5% down from previous year
- June 2008 – $1,223,299.60 – single point: $456,741.34 – 9.3% up over previous year
- June 2007 – $1,119,167.86 – single point: $547,556.13
When considering the percentage of the bed tax, and doing a little reverse engineering, industry wide in Bay County, $54,755,613.20 was generated in room-night revenue. That’s a lot of money spread around for one month.
The numbers from the previous months this year
- May 2012 – $1,408,512 – up 24.95% over previous year
- April 2012 – $1,270,835.84 – up 4.45% over previous year
- March 2012 – $1,769,821.69 – up 19.38% over previous year
Predictions for July
While June was a little bit of a slow start for us at Panama City Beach Luxury Properties at 83% occupancy average across all our properties, July we had an average occupancy of 97% across the board. Of course, looking at our average revenue per unit for July wouldn’t be fair, compared to July 2011 since we have a much higher concentration of higher-revenue properties this summer over last, but the number is fun anyways: $4290.17 per unit, which is 25% up over last year ($3424.91 average per unit).
Looking at the average percentage increases for the previous months (17.17%), and throwing in a little personal intuition, I think July will see a 23% increase in 2012 over 2011.
As far as our predicted average increase per month across the entire reporting season of May to August, right now we’re averaging $2,073,146.33, or .7% better than what I had predicted. Not too shabby, if I don’t say so myself. 🙂
PCBDaily 
Jason one thing to keep in mind for July 2012 versus June of 2012. It is my projection that the Bed Tax actually will be down for July because of one simple little fact. Considering most condo’s during peak Summer book Sat. to Sat. in June of 2012 we had 5 weeks of rentals, in July we only had 4 based upon the tax reporting period.
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In addition, in June of 2011 there was only 4 reporting weeks so that accounts for most of the almost 20% increase of 2012.
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With Bed Tax ‘Revenues’ at such high levels, way above the TDC’s expectations, isn’t it time for them to reduce the tax rate now? I don’t like to see tax collectors flush with cash. Creates too much ‘drunken sailor’ spending.
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I agree 100% Ryan, next thing you know with all this money floating around we will be reading about our TDC like our friends in Destin buying a $750K, Boat, and a couple of Harleys, no telling what else!
I think it is time to drop the % at least a point, maybe a point and a half.
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Actually, they just disolved the sunset on the fifth cent that was set to expire (I believe) in April. Unless the County Commission, together, changes their mind, 5% is set in stone.
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Please correct me if I am wrong but isn’t weather a big part of the outlook here? I know that June was wonderful weeks of fantastic weather….the gulf couldn’t have looked more pleasing. Thus making rental properties soar!
I will be interested to see what the figures are for July since the weather made a great change with lots of rainy days & storms. Will this have any affect on the figures?
Thanks,
Cathy/Tennessee
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Don’t think so Cathy, we were booked 100% both months but our bed tax in July was 20% below June’s. The bed tax key dates are from the 1st to the last of each month. By booking Sat to Sat if the last Sat falls into say Aug even though most of that week is in July it still falls to August because that is when we theoretically get paid. As I said in June of this year we had 5 Sat, July 4.
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