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Hotel And Lodging Tax In Alberta 2026: Tourism Levy Rates By City
Alberta has no provincial sales tax, but a 6% Tourism Levy applies to hotel and short-term rental stays under the Tourism Levy Act. Banff adds its own 2% Tourism Improvement Fee on top, unique among Alberta cities.
September 12, 2026
10
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TL;DR
- Alberta has no general provincial sales tax, but a Tourism Levy applies to nearly all paid short-term accommodation.
- The Tourism Levy rate is 6% of the purchase price of accommodation as of April 1, 2026, up from 4% before that date.
- Hotel tax, lodging tax, bed tax, room tax, and accommodation tax all describe the same charge in Alberta; the province's official term is the Tourism Levy.
- Stays of 28 or more consecutive nights by the same guest are exempt from the levy, along with a handful of category exemptions.
- Since October 1, 2024, online marketplaces like Airbnb, Vrbo, and Expedia must register with Alberta and collect, report, and remit the levy directly.
- Alberta has no province-wide destination marketing fee, but individual cities and tourism organizations can layer on their own charges, most notably Banff's mandatory Tourism Improvement Fee.
- A new provincial law, the Traveller Protection and Destination Development Act, takes full effect January 1, 2027, and will require hotels to disclose the full price, including all mandatory fees, at the time of booking.
- The Tourism Levy is paid into Alberta's General Revenue Fund rather than a dedicated tourism fund, unlike destination-specific fees such as Banff's.
How Alberta's Hotel and Lodging Tax Works
Alberta is the only Canadian province with no provincial sales tax, so it also has no general hotel tax administered the way one is in provinces that charge sales tax on lodging. Instead, short-term accommodation is subject to a distinct charge called the Tourism Levy, authorized under the Tourism Levy Act and administered by Alberta's Treasury Board and Finance through its Tax and Revenue Administration (TRA) branch. The levy applies to the purchase price of "temporary accommodation": a unit of lodging occupied by a guest for fewer than 28 consecutive days. It covers lodging broadly, including hotels, motels, inns, bed and breakfasts, and residential units rented out on platforms like Airbnb.
The current levy rate is 6% of the purchase price, effective April 1, 2026. It replaced a 4% rate that had applied for years prior, and Alberta built in a transition rule: bookings made before April 1, 2026, and certain fixed-price contracts signed on or before March 23, 2026, still carry the 4% rate even if the stay itself happens after the increase.
Every operator that accepts payment for temporary accommodation, whether a hotel front desk or a homeowner renting a spare room, must register with TRA and charge the levy on top of the room price. Since October 1, 2024, that registration and remittance duty was extended to "facilitating marketplaces," meaning booking platforms such as Airbnb, Vrbo, and Expedia that collect payment on the host's behalf. Because the levy is a stand-alone charge rather than a sales tax, it sits alongside, not inside, Canada's federal GST of 5%, and it applies whether or not a municipality or tourism organization adds a destination marketing fee of its own. Alberta imposes no additional province-wide accommodation tax layer beyond the Tourism Levy itself; any extra charge on an Alberta hotel bill, such as a destination marketing fee in Calgary or Edmonton, or Banff's Tourism Improvement Fee, comes from a municipal bylaw or an industry association, not the province.
Tax Rates and Extra Fees
The Tourism Levy is uniform across Alberta, but what a guest actually pays on top of the room rate varies by city, since some destinations layer their own fee on top of the provincial charge. The table below breaks down the provincial levy and the notable additional charges found in the province's largest markets.
| Charge | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta Tourism Levy (province-wide) | 6% | Applies to hotels, motels, inns, B&Bs, and short-term rentals booked directly or through a marketplace facilitator. Rose from 4% on April 1, 2026. |
| Banff Tourism Improvement Fee | 2% of room revenue | Mandatory for Banff lodging properties with more than 4 rooms; remitted to Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, not the province. |
| Calgary Destination Marketing Fee | Up to 6% of gross room revenue | Voluntary, hotel-association-run fee through the Calgary Hotel Association; not charged by every property. |
| Edmonton Destination Marketing Fee | Around 3% | Voluntary, hotel-association-run fee through Edmonton Destination Marketing Hotels Ltd.; not charged by every property. |
| GST (federal) | 5% | Not a hotel-specific tax; applies alongside the Tourism Levy on the room price. |
The destination marketing fees charged in Calgary and Edmonton are not government taxes and don't appear in the Tourism Levy Act at all. They're voluntary charges set by hotel associations, the Calgary Hotel Association's Destination Marketing Fund and Edmonton Destination Marketing Hotels Ltd. respectively, and they only apply at member properties that opt in. That makes them a separate line from the Tourism Levy, not a variation of it, even though both can appear on the same folio.
Banff's fee works differently again. The Tourism Improvement Fee is mandatory for any lodging property in the townsite with more than four rooms, set by a Town of Banff bylaw, and collected the same way as the Tourism Levy: added to the guest folio and remitted on a schedule, in this case to Banff & Lake Louise Tourism rather than the provincial government. It accounts for roughly 70% of that organization's entire operating revenue, which makes it function closer to a dedicated municipal tourism tax than a typical hotel-association fee, even though the Town of Banff itself doesn't collect it directly.
Collection and Remittance
Guests pay the Tourism Levy at checkout, added to the room price the same way GST is. Legal responsibility for collecting and remitting it falls on the operator, whether that's a hotel, an inn, a B&B, or an individual host, unless a facilitating marketplace like Airbnb or Vrbo collects the guest's payment directly, in which case the marketplace takes on that duty instead. Every operator and marketplace must register through TRACS, Alberta's Tax and Revenue Administration Client Self-Service portal, before collecting the levy.
Filing frequency depends on size: operators with 50 or more rooms file and remit monthly, smaller operators file quarterly, and online marketplaces file quarterly regardless of size. Payment is due within 28 days of the end of the applicable collection period. A host who lists exclusively through a marketplace that already remits the levy generally doesn't need to file a separate return for those bookings, but still needs to register and confirm which platform is responsible if direct bookings happen too.
Alberta's Fee Transparency Rules
Alberta passed the Traveller Protection and Destination Development Act to address complaints about hidden fees appearing on hotel bills only at checkout. The Act, which came into force on July 14, 2026, amends the Consumer Protection Act to require accommodation providers to disclose the full price of a stay, including any mandatory fees, at the time of booking, not after. If a guest asks, the property must also explain what a given fee is for and how the money is used. Alberta built in a transition window: the rules apply fully only from January 1, 2027, after a runway to December 31, 2026, for hotels and destination marketing organizations to update their systems and agreements.
The Act also tightens how voluntary destination marketing fees like Calgary's and Edmonton's are governed, even though it doesn't touch the Tourism Levy itself. Each community can have only one approved fee and one approved destination marketing organization, and all of the money collected must flow through a mandatory third-party trustee rather than directly into a hotel's or association's own accounts. Banff's Tourism Improvement Fee, collected under its own Town of Banff bylaw rather than as an ordinary DMF, was already structured closer to that trustee model before the provincial law existed.
Exemptions From Alberta's Hotel Tax
The best-known exemption is for long-term stays: lodging occupied continuously by the same person for 28 days or more is not subject to the Tourism Levy at all, from the first night of the stay, not just the nights after day 28. Operators should keep the guest's registration or folio showing the continuous-stay dates as documentation in case of an audit.
- Low-revenue accommodation: units renting for less than $30 a day or $210 a week, where the operator's total annual gross revenue from accommodation is under $5,000, are exempt.
- Health and social care facilities, including nursing homes, hospitals, and licensed supportive living accommodation.
- Reserve accommodation covered under the Indian Act.
- Accommodation billed directly to the Canadian government or to accredited diplomatic missions.
If the levy is charged in error on a stay that turns out to be exempt, the operator can refund the guest and deduct the amount on its next TRA return, rather than needing government pre-approval for every correction.
Common Mistakes Hotels Make With Tax Compliance
- Charging the old 4% rate after April 1, 2026. Properties that didn't update their PMS or booking engine after the increase kept undercharging the levy, and it's the operator, not the guest, who owes the shortfall to TRA.
- Treating the 28-day exemption as automatic. The exemption applies to continuous occupancy by the same person, not to a guest who books 28 separate one-night stays; without documentation showing a single continuous stay, the levy applies to the whole booking.
- Assuming a marketplace always remits on the host's behalf. A host who takes any direct payment outside Airbnb, Vrbo, or another facilitating marketplace, for example a returning guest who pays by e-transfer, is personally responsible for that portion, even if the platform handles everything else.
- Folding a voluntary destination marketing fee into the Tourism Levy line. Calgary's and Edmonton's DMFs are not government taxes and shouldn't be labeled or calculated as part of the provincial levy; mixing them makes both an operator's filings and a guest's receipt wrong.
- Missing the new fee-disclosure requirement. Under the Traveller Protection and Destination Development Act, quoting a room rate without the mandatory fees included, then adding a DMF or the Tourism Levy at checkout, becomes a real compliance problem once the transition period ends on December 31, 2026.
- Not registering with TRACS before collecting the levy. New operators, and hosts who start taking direct bookings for the first time, need to register through TRACS ahead of time; collecting the levy without being registered creates remittance problems later.
Where A PMS Fits Into Tax Compliance
None of this is really about software so much as it's about keeping several separate numbers straight on every folio: the room rate, the 6% Tourism Levy, GST, and, depending on the city, a voluntary destination marketing fee or Banff's Tourism Improvement Fee that follows its own rate and remittance schedule. A PMS like roommaster helps by letting a property configure each of those as its own tax or fee code rather than a single blended "tax" line, so a rate change like the April 2026 levy increase can be updated in one place instead of hunted down across every rate plan, and so revenue reports can separate what's owed to TRA from what's owed to a destination marketing organization or to Banff & Lake Louise Tourism. A booking engine that shows the full price upfront, with the levy and any mandatory fees already included, also puts a property ahead of the disclosure rules the Traveller Protection and Destination Development Act now requires.
See how roommaster simplifies multi-property tax reporting.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does Alberta have its own hotel tax rate?
Yes. Alberta doesn't have a general sales tax, but it has a stand-alone Tourism Levy that functions as the province's hotel tax, currently 6% of the accommodation price.
2. What is Alberta's hotel tax?
Alberta's hotel tax is officially called the Tourism Levy. It's a 6% charge on the purchase price of hotel, motel, B&B, and short-term rental stays under 28 consecutive nights, authorized by the Tourism Levy Act.
3. What is Alberta's lodging tax?
Alberta's lodging tax is the same charge as its hotel tax: the Tourism Levy. Lodging tax, hotel tax, bed tax, and room tax are just different names people use for the same 6% provincial charge.
4. Is the Tourism Levy the same in every Alberta city?
The provincial rate is the same everywhere in Alberta: 6%. What differs is whether a city has an extra local charge on top. Calgary and Edmonton have voluntary hotel-association destination marketing fees, and Banff has its own mandatory Tourism Improvement Fee, but none of these change the provincial rate itself.
5. Do Airbnb and other short-term rentals have to charge the Tourism Levy?
Yes. Short-term rentals are covered the same as hotels, and from October 1, 2024, booking platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, and Expedia must register, collect, and remit the levy on the province's behalf for bookings made through their platform.
6. How long does a guest have to stay to be exempt from Alberta's hotel tax?
A stay must be 28 or more consecutive nights by the same person to qualify for the long-stay exemption, and the exemption applies from the first night of that stay, not only the nights after the 28-day mark.
7. Is Banff's Tourism Improvement Fee the same as the Tourism Levy?
No. They're two separate charges. The Tourism Levy is a provincial charge under the Tourism Levy Act, currently 6%. Banff's Tourism Improvement Fee is an additional, mandatory local charge of 2% of room revenue that funds Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, not the provincial government.
