Pirate Hotels in the Mexican Caribbean Shun Taxes

At least some 2,500 rooms in houses and condos that lodge tourists all year round in Mexico´s Playa del Carmen are being accused of tax evasion and of seriously damaging the finances of licensed establishments that do comply with the 2 percent lodging tax levied on them, Jose Acevedo Peña, general manager of the Mayan Riviera Hotel Association, denounced this week.

For his part, Lenin Amero Betancourt, president of the Playa del Carmen Small Hotel Association, indicated those lodging houses and condos resort to the Internet and means of their own for advertisement, yet they benefit from the high-peak travel season because they pay no taxes at all.

“That´s why the Department of Economy and Public Credit must thoroughly revise these mom-and-pop businesses that provide tourists with services and evade taxes,” Mr. Betancourt noted.

These houses and condos –Mr. Betancourt went on to explain- operate as if they were hotels, do not belong to any hotel association, ward off taxes, are completely out of control and have no municipal licenses to offer this kind of service to tourists.