Q: What is the TID?
A: The San Francisco Tourism Improvement District was created in 2009 by San Francisco Travel, in partnership with the local hotel industry and city government. Its purpose is to ensure adequate funding for the ongoing promotion of San Francisco as a global visitor and meetings destination. By collecting a small assessment on hotel room revenue, San Francisco Travel is able to fund its worldwide efforts to keep our city competitive with leisure and business travelers alike.
70% of TID collections fund San Francisco Travel's global marketing and sales campaigns, as well as funding the staff who execute those campaigns. 22% of TID collections support the personnel and administrative activities that keep San Francisco Travel operational. 8% of TID collections are placed in reserve.
Q: What is the benefit of the TID?
A: The TID allows San Francisco Travel to continue its work independent of City budgets. Prior to the creation of the TID, San Francisco Travel had an average budget of $15 million. More than half of that funding came from the City. As such, our budget was never secure year to year, fluctuating with any reallocation or reduction in funding determined by the mayor and the Board of Supervisors.
After the establishment of the TID, San Francisco Travel's budget grew to $40 million, allowing us to greatly expand our sales and marketing efforts; to host major events and meetings that generate room nights and economic impact; and to remain competitive as a global destination.
Because of our greater capabilities with TID funding, San Francisco has seen its ADR, RevPAR, and room revenue climb to the top of U.S. markets for much of the past decade.
Q: Why did we renew the TID?
A: The TID is voted and agreed upon by the assessed accommodations and requires city legislation to be approved and renewed.
Renewing the TID was also essential to helping our city's tourism industry recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
If we want San Francisco to remain a competitive global destination, we needed to secure the TID's renewal. Without it, our funding—and the programs it supports—will be severely limited.
The TID was successfully renewed, with the new assessment structure beginning in January 2024 and it will last through 2039.
Q: Are there going to be changes to the TID?
A: As part of the completed renewal process, these are the changes to the TID as of January 1, 2024:
• Increasing the current assessment by 0.25%, to remain competitive in the market and offset costs for qualifying Moscone Center events.
• Including short-term rentals in TID collections.
• Allowing for the possibility of an increase in TID assessments (up to 1%) during unforeseen or critical needs upon approval by a high threshold of the TID Board.
• Modifying the TID Board to better reflect its constituency.
Q: What is the TID assessment rate now?
A: A 1% TID assessment increase was unanimously approved by the TID Board in August 2024 and went into effect November 1, 2024. The current TID assessment is 2.25% of room revenue for hotels in Zone 1 and 2.00% of room revenue for hotels in Zone 2.
Q: What does the approval process look like for a TID increase for unforeseen circumstances?
A: The TIDMC Board of Directors follows strict parameters for approval of increasing theTID to weather unforeseen circumstances. When the TIDMC Board increased the assessment by 1% in August 2024, they had a supermajority of the board, with a majority of hotel general managers, approve the increase. The TIDMC Board will review the increase decision annually (or more often if they deem the need) to determine if the increase is still necessary.
Q: How does San Francisco's hotel tax and TID assessment compare to taxes and assessments in other U.S. cities?
A: San Francisco’s total hotel tax, assessments and fees is 17.50%. It is comparable to total taxes, assessments and fees in cities such as Chicago (17.39%), and San Antonio (17.50%) and below cities such as New Orleans (18.20%), St. Louis (18.93%), and Honolulu (17.75%).
Q: Would you like to know more?
A: If you have questions about the TID, the renewal process, or simply want to know more about its benefit, you can reach out to any of the following San Francisco Travel team members:
• Cassandra Costello, Executive Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer - ccostello@sftravel.com
• Julia Rome, Director, Executive Board Management and Strategy - jrome@sftravel.com
• Brett Allor, Vice President, Market Strategy & Research - ballor@sftravel.com
