Playa del Carmen Hotels Agree on New Property Tax Deal

Playa del Carmen, Mexico — The hotel sector of the Riviera Maya has reached an agreement with the Playa del Carmen municipal government, moving beyond the originally proposed increases of over one thousand percent to property tax rates. The agreement will instead construct a new, more moderate proposal that will assign a new property value to nearly 400 lodging centers.

Toni Chaves, president of the Riviera Maya Hotel Association, detailed that this will allow for renegotiation and avoid any legal injunctions, while also permitting the municipality to collect revenue. He stated that a viable proposal would be to achieve an increase in accordance with inflation.

"Yes, that is behind us because it cannot proceed. What we wanted was to have a dialogue, because we do not want to seek legal injunctions. It is not good for them, and it is not good for us, and they were going to lose the injunction. Things must be done through dialogue because we understand that municipalities also need to collect, but not only from the hotel sector," said Chaves.

The hotel sector representative insisted that their only aim is a coherent update, noting it is an undeniable fact that Playa del Carmen's property tax rates have not been updated for over 10 years. However, he stated this should not mean the hotel sector is held responsible or that a narrative is created casting the business owner as the "bad guy."

He announced they will hold a meeting with the municipal treasurer this same week to advance the new proposal. The hotel sector has already put on the table that they accept an increase proportional to the rise in inflation, considering only 2024 and the year-to-date for 2025.

"Our proposal is an increase based on the National Consumer Price Index (IPC), which is what the law says, because you cannot increase it by 500 or 2,000 percent; no company can withstand that," he said.

This situation derives from an announcement made by the Playa del Carmen municipal government at the end of July, which involved an update to the property tax tables. This update set off alarms in the hotel and business sectors, as they claimed it would generate increases of between two thousand and five thousand percent in the property tax for some areas of the municipality, primarily affecting the hotel industry.