The cap is a ceiling on the number of leviable nights in a stay — not a discount. The first five nights are charged in full at 5%; everything beyond the fifth night of a single stay is levy-free. The subtlety is what counts as "a stay".
- Maximum leviable nights
- 5
- Applies per
- Single continuous stay
- First 5 nights
- Charged in full at 5%
- Nights 6 onward
- Not charged
- Resets
- On a new, separate stay
- Runs across the year?
- No — never
The basic rule
The Edinburgh visitor levy is payable for a maximum of five consecutive nights per stay. You charge the 5% levy on the accommodation cost for the first five nights of a stay, and you do not charge it on any night beyond the fifth. So on a single continuous booking:
| Length of a single stay | Nights the levy is charged on |
|---|---|
| 3 nights | All 3 nights |
| 5 nights | All 5 nights |
| 7 nights | First 5 only — nights 6 and 7 are not charged |
| 30 nights | First 5 only — the other 25 nights are not charged |
The part operators get wrong — when the cap resets
The cap applies to consecutive nights within a single stay. It does not run across the whole year, and it does not track a guest across separate visits. So the cap resets when a guest checks out and returns for a separate stay — each stay is assessed on its own.
You might assume that because the guest has now stayed six nights in total, only five are leviable. That's wrong. Because neither individual stay exceeded five consecutive nights, the levy applies to all six nights — the four from the first stay and the two from the second are each within their own cap.
Put plainly: the cap protects a long single stay. It does not protect a guest who visits repeatedly.
Why this matters for your return
Getting the cap wrong goes in both directions, and both are problems:
- No cap applied → you over-charge guests on long stays and over-declare to the Council, handing over levy you never needed to collect.
- Cap wrongly applied across separate stays → you under-charge and under-declare, which leaves you liable to the Council for the shortfall.
Across a full quarter with a mix of short breaks, week-long holidays and repeat guests, applying the cap correctly on every booking by hand is where errors accumulate.
How the cap interacts with the other rules
The cap is applied to the leviable accommodation cost — that is, after you've taken the 5% base before VAT and excluded extras such as meals, parking, drinks and transport. And it sits alongside the transitional rule: a stay booked and paid, in part or full, before 1 October 2025 is not leviable at all, cap or no cap. For the full picture of how the base is calculated, see the levy explained.
Letting the calculation handle it
The five-night cap, the reset on separate stays, and the interaction with the rate base are exactly the kind of rules that are easy to describe and hard to apply consistently across hundreds of bookings.
Apply the cap correctly on every booking
LevyReady applies the five-night cap automatically to every booking in your export, handles separate stays correctly, and flags anything that doesn't reconcile — producing a checked, Council-ready return with a self-check that blocks a wrong figure. It all runs in your browser; your booking data is never uploaded.
Run your first audit free →Questions
How does the Edinburgh visitor levy 5-night cap work?
The levy is charged on the first five consecutive nights of a stay. Nights beyond the fifth in a single stay are not charged.
Does the Edinburgh visitor levy cap reset?
Yes. The cap applies to consecutive nights within a single stay. If a guest checks out and returns for a separate stay, each stay is assessed separately.
If a guest stays 4 nights then returns for 2 nights, how many are charged?
All six. Because neither stay exceeded five consecutive nights, the levy applies to each stay in full.
Is the levy charged on a 30-night stay?
Only on the first five nights. The remaining nights of a single continuous stay are not charged.
This guide is general information, not tax or legal advice, and figures reflect the City of Edinburgh Council scheme as published (confirm current details on the Council's portal). LevyReady does not file returns on your behalf — the operator remains legally responsible for the accuracy of all submissions.