Every Friday consumer reporter Lynda Steele dips into the CTV mailbag to answer viewer questions.
Hotel Taxes
After booking a hotel in Vancouver, Linda emailed CTV News to ask about hotel taxes. When researching where to stay she noticed that the Y.W.C.A. hotel charged 11.5 per cent tax, much less than other hotels. She wanted to know why.
The Y.W.C.A hotel told CTV News it is able to charge less tax because it is considered a charity. Not-for profit organizations do not need to collect GST.
Here’s how the taxes break down for other Vancouver hotels:
- Eight per cent – Provincial room tax
- Five per cent – GST
- Two per cent – additional room tax within Vancouver
- 1.5 per cent – Destination Marketing Fee (collected by most downtown hotels and administered by the Vancouver Hotel Destination Association)
Grand total: 16.5 per cent
Online TV
Steele on Your Side received a lot of viewer feedback on the recent story about people dumping their traditional cable packages to watch TV on their computers, a trend that appears to be most popular with young adults.
A viewer named Chelsea wrote us to say she's created a website that compiles 200 TV channels that are available on the web. It’s called Where U Virtually Visit All TV.
When you click on the icon of the channel you want to watch, a video player opens instantly. The site is free with no login or sign up necessary.
If you have a comment you’d like to share with us, please email steeleonyourside@ctv.ca.
