Dunedin bed and breakfast operators disenchanted with new rating assessments which came into effect yesterday will hold a legal seminar next week in a bid to challenge the changes.
The seminar has been organised by a group of more than half a dozen B&B operators.
"Everybody we know in the industry is up in arms about it," Fletcher Lodge owner Keith Rozecki-Pollard said yesterday.
"We are actively seeking to get all the B&Bs together and forming a united front.
Our main concern is that the city council are beginning to pick on a good part of Dunedin ratepayers - people who are spending millions on the local economy and doing so because they want to make Dunedin a better place.
"We're being told for our pains to pay considerably more rates. It seems totally inequitable," he said.
"It's obviously a section of the tourism industry that the council doesn't care about."
The seminar would be presented by a legal specialist and address areas of concern, including the legality of the rating changes and developing strategies to combat them.
The formation of a B&B association advocate group would also be discussed.
Mr Rozecki-Pollard said there were between 110 and 120 B&B operations in Dunedin.
The seminar will be held at 3pm on Friday, July 9, at the Barclay Theatre in the Otago Museum.
All B&B and short-term accommodation operators were invited to attend, he said.
