The City of Santa Barbara’s Transient Occupancy Taxes (TOT) totaled over $1.16 million for the month of November, but this marked a 4 percent decline compared to last November, when the city made more than $1.21 million in TOT revenues, according to a chart released by the city’s Treasury Manager Julie Nemes.
The data makes this month’s decline the “largest since November 2010,” Nemes stated in a city press release. In the same release, city officials attribute the loss to a “1.4-percent decline” in occupancy rates, the closure of the Sandman Inn, and the fact that November 2015 had one less weekend night than November 2014.
“November 2015 TOT revenues are building upon two consecutive years of double-digit growth in the month of November,” Nemes added. From November 2013 to November 2014, TOT revenues increased an impressive 15.8 percent from $895,132 to $1,036,437. So far this fiscal year, the city reports it has collected about nine million in TOT revenues.