Can USA citizens avoid hotel taxes?
 

A group of us will be primarily in Chile and Argentina next month. I read a post about keeping your "custom's slip". Then show when paying hotel charges. We enter SA in Santiago.

Questions:
1. Anybody have experience or knowledge?
2. However, don't remember a "custom's slip". Normally, they just waive you through customs. In other words, what is meant by a custom's slip?

Thanks!

Since you also tagged the post "Brazil":
There is no such thing in Brazil.

We do have the gringo tax though. :-D

It is not a custom's slip. It is the copy of the small card or paper you filled in for immigration when you arrived. You surrender it when you leave the country. It is usually referred to as a tourist card.

As far as Chile is concerned, some hotels offer rooms without sales tax for foreign (not just USA) tourists. It is not obligatory and not all offer it.

Argentina will have its own rules and I don't know them, sorry.

There is this language on booking.com web site:

The price is subject to 21% VAT. Foreign guests who pay with a foreign credit card, debit card, or bank transfer are exempt from this tax when presenting a foreign passport or ID along with a supporting document handed by the national migration authorities, if applicable.

So yes, it appears that all foreigners can avoid the VAT on hotel rooms in Argentina. Just don't pay cash.

At the hotel I used in Valparaiso last year there was no tax if I paid by credit card.

Yes, foreign credit card.