At El Zafiro, and I suspected, the 24% "tax" is actually a 9% room tax plus a 15% service charge - pretty hefty add-ons. I asked why the room tax was 9%, citing the web site that ruralcarrier provided above, that states "A 5% room tax (logeergastenbelasting) is levied from non-resident guests of hotels and other guesthouses, including rentals of vacation villa's and condos". No response or explanation, and I probably won't get one.

And BTW, I was told that the rental price that we were quoted online for 4 weeks at El Zafiro in January 2017 was wrong, and that the actual rate would be thousands higher. What a way to run a rental operation - good for them if they can get away with it, but needless to say we'll be staying elsewhere.