Carbon County’s Hotel Tax for 2021 is surpassing its projections.

On Thursday, county Treasurer Ron Sheehan, who is retiring from the post after 20 years on Dec. 30, provided the county with an update on the first three quarters of hotel tax collections in Carbon County. All hotel rooms and rental homes booked on vacation sites like Airbnb and VRBO have a fee that is collected and used to promote tourism in the community.

As of the end of the third quarter, Sheehan said Carbon County has collected $1,546,905.50. This total surpasses all of the hotel tax collected in any year since the tax was enacted.

Sheehan said that of that $1.5 million, the county has retained $61,976.21 in administration fees and $204,690.55 as part of the agreement with Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, which is then put in the parks and recreation budget to maintain Mauch Chunk Lake Park. Carbon County negotiated an agreement that it will receive 20 percent of the first $500,000 collected and 10 percent after that.

The remaining $1,280,338.74 goes to PMVB, which then in turn uses it to promote the county tourism industry.

Sheehan noted that this is turning out to be a banner year, and has already surpassed 2020, which brought in $1,327,993.71 in hotel tax.

The hotel tax has steadily increased over the years, from less than $500,000 collected to closing in on $2 million this year.

Sheehan added that he has been notified that another third-party rental company, Evolve, will be registering like Airbnb and VRBO, and will now also be collecting hotel tax on rooms and houses rented in the county. This will also increase the total collections moving forward given that these types of rental sites remit over $100,000 to the county each.

Carbon County has been collecting the hotel tax since the state implemented the tax in 2007 and renegotiated its agreement with PMVB in 2018 after PMVB chose to renegotiate its contracts with the four counties it serves.

At the time, Carbon County held out through negotiations and eventually agreed to the current terms, with the addition of charging PMVB for space in the old Mauch Chunk train station.