For the City of St. Gallen, the guest tax per person per night is CHF 4.50 for hotels, hotel-like accommodation and health spas, and CHF 3.50 for youth hostels, holiday apartments, rooms, apartments, group accommodation and camping. The Mobility Ticket St.Gallen-Bodensee is included in the guest tax; it provides free public transport from arrival through departure in OSTWIND zones 210, 211 and 231. Separate annual flat rates also exist for holiday homes/apartments (CHF 15 per bed per year, maximum CHF 200), caravans/mobile homes and similar (CHF 100 per year), and boats with berths (CHF 60 per year).
Exempt: children and young people under 16; persons staying free of charge in the private household of a resident or weekly resident; business travellers and students staying for at least three weeks; persons performing public-law duties (for example military service); and patients in hospitals, sanatoriums or similar institutions.
Short-term and Airbnb-style accommodation is subject to the applicable guest tax when the municipality has a valid guest-tax regulation. Since 14 July 2025, Airbnb automatically collects and remits the guest tax for bookings in participating St. Gallen canton municipalities, including the applicable municipal rate; hosts in those cases do not collect it again. Accommodation providers using the registration system should select the AIRBNB option to prevent double charging.