Banff’s hotel assessments are up 70 per cent over the past five years.
While hotel values plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic, Frank Watson, the Town of Banff’s assessor for the past 20 years, said the hotel income assessment for the 2025 taxation year is $407.5 million, up about 25 per cent from last year.
He said the hotels are assessed on an income-based approach, using a three-year weighted average of 50 per cent of 2024 income, 30 per cent of 2023 income and 20 per cent of 2022 income.
“Right now, we are capitalizing on the post-COVID years, which is why the hotels have seen an increase. The lesser income during COVID years is now not included as part of the assessment,” Watson said.
“There was a bit of growth, which is mainly the hotels that were finished – the Moxy, the Canoe and the Otter.”
The assessment is based on the value of all properties in Banff as of July 1, 2024.
The median assessed value for hotels in 2024 was $6 million, compared to $27 million for this year, whereas the average hotel assessment 10 years ago was $15.5 million and now it’s $48.5 million.
Watson, however, said the assessment for the Banff Springs Hotel skews the average.
“The Springs brings the average up whereas the median is probably more representative of the actual hotel values,” he said.
Coun. Barb Pelham Barb was curious if other communities were seeing hotel assessments increasing, including in the other four municipalities where Watson is contracted to do property assessments.
“When I look at hotels that are 70 per cent above 2019 values, I am curious if you have seen that kind of growth in any other sector in any other community, or if that’s an anomaly,” she said.
Watson said the simple answer is “no”.
“Banff is a special place, and I don’t think Canmore sees this type of increase in their hotels and mainly because in Canmore there’s a different type, there’s the hotel condominium that you can buy, there’s more doors in Canmore than there are in Banff, “ he said.
“What I have noticed is that the daily rates in Banff have increased and occupancy rates have stabilized over the last couple of years.”
Coun. Hugh Pettigrew wanted to know how Watson verified the hotel income was correct for the property evaluations, and Watson said it is a self-reporting system.
“The assessors have to rely on the person who is reporting that to be reporting accurately,” Watson said.
“I don’t have any authority to look at their income tax so it is a self-reporting system.”
In Banff, there are about 3,700 hotel rooms spread amongst the 30 hotels and hostels. Ten owners own one hotel, three owners own two hotels, one owner owns three hotels and one owner owns 11 hotels.
“The hotel ownership is very closely held,” said Watson.
Banff’s overall property assessments increased 12 per cent to $4.5 billion for the 2025 tax year.
Breaking that down, residential property assessments climbed 7.3 per cent to $2.424 billion, while non-residential assessments increased by 18.1 per cent to $2.079 billion.
Non-residential properties include hotels, retail, restaurants, office space, industrial and linear.
Starting last week, more than 2,425 property assessment notices were mailed to residents and businesses.
The mail-out starts the assessment review period, providing time for property owners to review their assessments, call the Town of Banff to discuss, or even appeal the value, by April 21, 2025.
