What the monthly job involves
Whichever route you take, the Department of Tourism (DoT) needs the same thing from you every month: a return listing each stay that checked out, and payment of 13% of the room charge, received by the 28th of the following month. In practice that means:
- Collect every stay that ended in the month - Airbnb, VRBO and direct bookings.
- For each one, note the dates, nights, reservation number, guests, lead guest name, total bill and nightly room rate.
- Mark Caymanian and resident guests as exempt and keep their proof.
- Work out the tax: nights × nightly rate × 13%, per stay.
- Fill in the DoT form, sign it, and email it with your booking receipts to Accounts Receivable.
- Pay DoT so the money arrives by the deadline - the working day before when the 28th is a weekend or public holiday.
- File a nil return for any month with no check-outs.
The column-by-column guide to the DoT form walks through step 5 in detail.
Doing it yourself
Filing yourself costs nothing but time. Most hosts who do it keep a spreadsheet of stays, copy the figures from Airbnb into DoT's Excel form, and save a PDF of each reservation as backup. Once the routine is set, a quiet month with two or three stays takes perhaps half an hour; a busy one with back-to-back bookings takes longer, mostly spent copying numbers from one screen to another.
DIY works well when:
- you have one property and a modest number of stays;
- you live in Cayman, so local banking and the deadline are easy to manage;
- you already have a reliable monthly habit and a reminder that never fails.
The weak points are not the arithmetic. They are the steps that depend on you remembering something every single month, including the months when nothing happened.
Where DIY returns go wrong
The same handful of errors comes up again and again. None is difficult in itself; they happen because the figures Airbnb shows you are not the figures DoT asks for.
- Taxing the wrong amount. The 13% applies to the room charge (nights × nightly rate), not to the guest's total bill and not to your payout. Cleaning fees go in the total bill column, but not into the taxed amount.
- Deducting Airbnb's fees. Your payout is after Airbnb's host fee; the tax is worked out before it. DoT says costs such as cleaning, utilities and agent fees do not reduce the tax.
- Using the wrong month. A stay belongs to the month the guest checks out, so a booking from 29 October to 3 November goes on the November return.
- Tax-inclusive prices. If your nightly price already includes the 13%, the room rate on the form is the price divided by 1.13. The guide to charging the tax to guests shows the sums.
- Forgetting exempt guests' proof. A Caymanian or resident guest pays no tax only with the right ID on file - see the resident exemption guide.
- Skipping a nil return. An empty month still needs a return. The nil return guide explains what to send.
- Missing a moved deadline. When the 28th falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline moves earlier, not later. Christmas regularly pulls the November deadline forward. The deadlines calendar lists each date.
Leaving it to a manager or accountant
A full-service Cayman property manager will usually prepare and pay the return as part of running the rental, and some accountants offer it as a monthly service. Managers normally charge a percentage of booking revenue for the whole job - guest messaging, cleaning, maintenance and the tax among it - so tax filing alone is rarely the reason to hire one.
If you already have a manager, ask three questions: is the DoT return included, who signs it, and will you get a copy each month? The licence and the tax are in your name, so a late or wrong return is still your problem, and so is the surcharge.
Using Hosts.ky
Hosts.ky sits between the two: you stay in charge and still send the return and the payment yourself, but the copying, sums and reminders are done for you. What it does:
- Connects to your Airbnb calendar and checks it every three hours, so new stays appear on their own. VRBO and direct bookings are added by hand.
- Imports your Airbnb earnings file to fill in guest names, confirmation numbers and nightly rates.
- Puts each stay in its check-out month, applies 13% to the room charge only, and leaves exempt guests at zero.
- Produces the DoT form as Excel or a signed PDF - including nil returns for empty months.
- Supports monthly or two-monthly filing, and emails you before each file-by date, adjusted for weekends and holidays.
What it does not do:
- It does not file with DoT or pay on your behalf - you email the return and pay from your own bank.
- It does not replace your licence, inspections or bookkeeping.
It costs US$14.99 a month or US$149 a year for one property (US$24.99 or US$249 for two), and your first return is free with no card needed.
Side by side
| Do it yourself | Property manager | Hosts.ky | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Part of a percentage of revenue | From US$14.99/month or US$149/year |
| Your time each month | 30 minutes or more | Checking their copy | A few minutes to check, sign and send |
| Finding the stays | You copy them from Airbnb | Manager | Synced from your Airbnb calendar |
| Tax sums and check-out month | You | Manager | Automatic |
| Deadline reminders | Your own calendar | Manager | Email before each file-by date |
| Sending and paying DoT | You | Usually the manager | You |
| Who is responsible to DoT | You | You | You |
What a mistake costs
A return or payment that misses the deadline gets an automatic 20% surcharge on that month's tax, and DoT cannot waive it. An incomplete return that is not put right by the 28th is treated the same way. The tax guide covers the rules.
To put that in numbers: a month with US$4,000 of room charges carries US$520 of tax. Paying a day late adds US$104 - about seven months of Hosts.ky for one property. Under-reporting by taxing the payout instead of the room charge is the opposite risk: the figures will not match the booking receipts you send with the return.
Which one fits you
- Do it yourself if you have one property, few stays, live on island and have never missed a deadline. Bookmark the form guide and the deadlines calendar.
- Use a property manager if you want the whole rental run for you - not just the tax.
- Use Hosts.ky if you run the rental yourself but want the return built from your bookings, the sums checked and a reminder you cannot ignore - especially if you live abroad or have a busy calendar.
The easiest way to decide is to try it on a real month: connect your Airbnb calendar, check the stays and download your first return free. If it matches what you would have filed by hand, you have your answer.