Airbnb tourism tax in Malaysia is RM10 per night, paid only by foreign guests. For bookings paid through Airbnb, and through Agoda or Booking.com when the platform takes the money, the platform collects and pays it to Customs, so the owner does nothing. It falls back on the owner when the guest pays the owner directly.
That is the short answer. The longer one matters because most owners in Johor Bahru get guests from several places at once: Airbnb, Agoda, Booking.com, repeat guests on WhatsApp, a friend of a friend from Singapore. The rule is the same RM10, but who has to collect it changes with how the money moves. We manage 100-plus homestay units in Johor Bahru and Desaru, and this is how we would explain it to an owner who has just seen "Tourism Tax" on a payout file and wants to know if it is their money.
Most pages on the first page of Google are either 2017–2018 news stories from before the platforms started collecting, or software blogs written for hotels. Very few look at it from the side of a condo owner with one or two units. That is the angle here.
What is the tourism tax and how much is it?
Malaysia's Tourism Tax Act 2017 charges a flat tax on foreign tourists who stay in paid accommodation. The rate is RM10 per room per night, whatever the room costs. A RM120 studio and a RM600 penthouse pay the same RM10.
Two details matter for homestays:
- It is charged per unit as listed, not per bedroom you happen to have. Airbnb's help page says "RM10 per listing per night". Agoda's partner FAQ gives the example of a three-bedroom unit: listed as one property, the tax applies once; listed as three separate rooms, it applies to each room.
- It is charged per night, not per guest. Four Singaporean friends sharing one two-bedroom unit for two nights pay RM20 in total, not RM80.
Who has to pay it, and who is exempt?
Only foreigners pay. Malaysian citizens (MyKad holders) and permanent residents (MyPR holders) are exempt.
The catch is proof. On Airbnb, the exemption only works if the Malaysian guest has submitted a Malaysian government ID on their Airbnb account before booking. A Malaysian who books first and adds the ID afterwards is charged, and has to ask Airbnb for a refund through its contact form. That is between the guest and Airbnb, not the owner, but it is the reason a local guest sometimes messages to ask why there is a tax on their receipt.
Agoda's FAQ adds another case: if the person who books is Malaysian but the guest who actually stays is a foreigner, the tax applies to the foreign guest.
Who collects it on Airbnb, Agoda and Booking.com?
Since 1 January 2023, Customs has required digital platform service providers (DPSPs) that sell accommodation in Malaysia to register and collect the tax themselves. Customs amended those platform regulations again with effect from 1 September 2026 (on how platforms file returns), so the platform-collection system is still running.
| How the booking is paid | Who collects the RM10 | What the owner does |
|---|---|---|
| Airbnb (all bookings) | Airbnb, shown as occupancy tax on the guest receipt | Nothing. Airbnb says hosts must not collect it again |
| Agoda, "Pay to Agoda" | Agoda, with proof of payment in the confirmation | Nothing, as long as the guest has that proof |
| Agoda, "Pay at property" | The property, at check-in | Collect it and pay it to Customs |
| Booking.com, paid online through Booking | Booking.com | Nothing extra; it shows as a "Tourism tax" column in the payout file |
| Direct booking (WhatsApp, bank transfer, cash) | Nobody but the operator | The operator's responsibility, see below |
Airbnb's help page is blunt: "Do not collect Tourism Tax for bookings made from 1 January 2023 onwards on Airbnb." If you added a tax line to your Airbnb settings years ago, remove it, or foreign guests are charged twice.
Does the RM10 count as my income?
No. It is the government's money passing through. It is not room revenue, and it should not inflate your gross.
This is something to check on any management statement, including ours. In the Booking.com payout file the tourism tax sits in its own column, and only on the rows where Booking collected it. When our system reads that file it takes the tax out before working out the booking's gross, so the owner's gross is the room money only, and no management percentage is charged on the tax. On Airbnb the tax never reaches the host payout at all.
If a statement you receive shows a higher gross than the room price you agreed, ask whether tax is sitting inside it. Our guide on checking a homestay management statement has the other six checks.
What about the homestay exemption?
Malaysia's rules exempt some small operators, such as homestays under the Ministry of Tourism's programme and operators with four rooms or fewer. But Agoda's FAQ states the exemption "does not apply when the reservation is made through a DPSP's platform". In plain terms: a one-unit owner on Airbnb or Agoda is still inside the system, because the platform collects on every foreign booking.
The exemption matters for the other kind of booking.
When does the tax fall back on the owner?
When the guest pays you, or your operator, directly and no platform is in the middle. That covers:
- Agoda "Pay at property" bookings
- repeat guests who book by WhatsApp and pay by bank transfer
- walk-ins and cash bookings
- bookings on an owner's or operator's own website
For these, the law looks at the operator of the accommodation. A Customs officer quoted by Sinar Harian said anyone who runs accommodation for tourists as a business should register through the MyTTx portal, and an officer quoted in 2017 said rooms across several homestay houses are added together when counting. Whether you personally must register depends on how many rooms you operate, how they are counted, and whether you take direct foreign bookings at all. That is a question for Customs or a tax adviser, not a blog.
What is safe to say: if you take direct bookings from foreign guests, find out before you take the money who is registered and who will collect the RM10. If a management company handles your direct bookings, ask them in writing, and ask us the same question if we manage your unit.
Does the tax make foreign guests book less?
On a normal Johor Bahru booking it is small. Take an example, not a quote: a Singaporean couple books two nights at RM250 a night. The room costs RM500; the tourism tax adds RM20, about 4%. Airbnb's own service fee is a larger number than that.
Where it shows up is in price comparisons. A foreign guest sees the total including tax, a Malaysian guest with ID on file does not. If you compare your price with a similar unit while logged in as a Malaysian, you are seeing a slightly lower number than your Singaporean guests see. Our guide on how much to charge per night explains why to compare total prices, not the nightly rate.
Is tourism tax the same as service tax or income tax?
No. They are three different taxes:
| Tax | Who pays | When it matters to a homestay owner |
|---|---|---|
| Tourism tax | Foreign guest, RM10 per night | Collected by the platform on platform bookings |
| Service tax (8%) | Charged by registered accommodation operators | Only once taxable accommodation revenue passes RM500,000 in 12 months (PwC 2026/2027 tax booklet); a typical one- or two-unit owner is far below |
| Income tax | The owner | On your profit from the unit, every year. See homestay income tax in Malaysia |
The service tax threshold is about the operator's total accommodation revenue, which is one reason some owners ask whether to register a business. Our guide on whether you need SSM for a homestay covers that.
What should an owner actually do?
- Check your Airbnb tax settings. If any tourism tax line is set up, remove it.
- Check Agoda's payment model for your listing. If any bookings are "Pay at property", you or your operator must collect the RM10 from foreign guests at check-in.
- Read your statement. Tourism tax should not be in your gross, and no commission should be charged on it.
- Decide about direct bookings. If foreign guests pay you directly, find out from Customs or a tax adviser whether you need to register on MyTTx before you accept the next one.
- Keep records. Keep payout files that show the tax column; they are the proof that the platform collected it, not you.
If you list on several platforms, our comparison of Airbnb vs Booking.com vs Agoda for hosts shows how fees and payouts differ beyond the tax.
The short version
For most Johor Bahru owners who only use Airbnb and pay-online platforms, tourism tax is already handled: the foreign guest pays RM10 a night, the platform passes it to Customs, and it should never appear as your income. The work starts when money comes to you directly. If you would rather have someone else keep all of this straight, including the statement, you can tell us about your unit.
This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. Tourism tax rules and exemptions change; check with the Royal Malaysian Customs Department (MyTTx) or a tax adviser for your own situation.