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OKLAHOMA CITY - These are not the worst of times at Bhavesh Patel's nine area hotels, but they are certainly not the best.

"We are getting by," he told NewsChannel 4, standing in the lobby of Home 2 on the south side. "We are trying to the best of our ability to cut expenses right now. Until we see revenue start to increase, we're holding off on certain expenditures."

Every dollar counts at Home 2, which opened its doors in October 2015, meaning it has a higher mortgage than other hotels, Patel said.

"Increasing any kind of expense to that already is going to hurt," he said, noting maintenance and landscaping could suffer. "We're just waiting for more income to come in so we can put our money into those."

Instead, Patel fears he may have to put more money into paying his taxes.

The Oklahoma City Council is considering imposing a fee on businesses that pay their hotel taxes with a credit card.

Right now, the city pays roughly $40,000 a year processing payments on hotel taxes.

"If we have to pay that cost, we're just trying to get reimbursed," said Oklahoma City Finance Director Craig Freeman. "It's a cost we have to take on for that payment process."

The hotel industry is the only one that pays a special Oklahoma City tax, Freeman said, and hoteliers can settle up by check or electronic payment.

Freeman has proposed a 2.2 percent fee on credit card payments - a practice he said hotels already pay when submitting state taxes with a credit card.

"We want to make sure that we can recoup that extra cost," he said, "but, at the same time, offer a method of payment that doesn't have an additional cost to them."

The hospitality industry feels singled out, said Jeff Penner, executive director of the Greater Oklahoma City Metro Hotel Association.

"It's a big deal to us," he said. "It's just another burden of added expense to a business that could be easily avoided."

Hotels do not charge their customers processing fees when they use credit cards, Penner said, and they don't plan to pass on the cost.

Instead, he will continue to lobby the city council to ensure hotels can still use credit cards without fees.

"By using a credit card, it actually allows us a little more flexibility," he said. "If it's a very low occupancy month or a low month on revenue, we can actually pay by credit card just to get another week or two float time."

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