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Hotel And Lodging Tax In Arizona 2026: TOT Rates By City
Arizona doesn't have a separate hotel tax at all. It taxes lodging through its Transaction Privilege Tax, and because of one statutory quirk, hotel rooms are actually taxed at a lower state rate than ordinary retail.
August 28, 2026
8
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TL;DR
- Arizona has no separate hotel tax; lodging is taxed through the state's Transaction Privilege Tax (TPT) under a dedicated "transient lodging" classification.
- "Hotel tax," "lodging tax," "occupancy tax," and "bed tax" all describe this same TPT-based charge in Arizona.
- The state TPT rate on lodging is 5.5%, actually lower than the 5.6% general retail rate, because a 0.6% education tax add-on skips the lodging category entirely.
- Cities and counties add their own TPT layers on top, pushing combined rates in major markets to 12% to 15% or more.
- Stays of 30 or more consecutive days fall outside Arizona's definition of a taxable "transient guest" and are exempt.
- Arizona law bars cities from banning short-term rentals outright, though cities can require a regulatory permit since a 2022 amendment.
- Tucson uses a flat $4-per-room surcharge instead of a percentage rate for its additional city lodging charge, unlike every other major Arizona city.
- No Arizona-specific fee-transparency law was verified; only the federal FTC junk fees rule applies.
How Arizona's Hotel and Lodging Tax Works
Arizona doesn't have a hotel tax as a separate, standalone charge. Instead, hotel stays are taxed through the state's Transaction Privilege Tax, commonly called TPT, under a dedicated "transient lodging" classification set out in Arizona Revised Statutes section 42-5070. TPT is legally a tax on a business's privilege of operating in Arizona, not a sales tax on the guest, though nearly every hotel passes the cost through on the folio the same way a sales tax would appear.
Arizona's rate structure has a genuinely counterintuitive quirk. The general state TPT rate most retail categories pay is 5.6%, made up of a 5.0% base rate plus a 0.6% education tax add-on created to fund public schools. That 0.6% add-on only applies to the specific tax categories listed in one part of the rate statute, and transient lodging isn't one of them. As a result, the state-level rate on a hotel room is 5.5%, a tenth of a point lower than what a retail store charges on the same transaction.
On top of that 5.5% state rate, counties and cities each add their own TPT layer specific to lodging, and many cities layer a second "additional" transient tax on top of their base city rate. Coverage extends to hotels, motels, and short-term rentals booked through online platforms; Arizona law specifically preempts cities from banning short-term rentals outright, though a 2022 amendment let cities require a basic regulatory permit.
Tax Rates and Extra Fees
Because Arizona stacks a state rate, a county rate, a base city rate, and often a separate additional city rate, the combined total a guest pays varies significantly by city, and in several markets exceeds what a general retail purchase would carry.
| City / county | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Glendale (Maricopa County) | 15.17% | 5.5% state, 1.77% Maricopa County, 2.9% base city, 5.0% additional city transient tax. |
| Mesa (Maricopa County) | 14.27% | 5.5% state, 1.77% county, 2.0% base city, 5.0% additional city transient tax. |
| Tempe (Maricopa County) | 14.07% | 5.5% state, 1.77% county, 1.8% base city, 5.0% additional city transient tax. |
| Scottsdale (Maricopa County) | 13.97% to 14.02% | City's own 2025 brochure cites 1.70% base city rate; a separate state tourism-office table cites 1.75%, a discrepancy worth confirming directly with the city before filing. |
| Paradise Valley (Maricopa County) | 13.17% | 5.5% state, 1.77% county, 2.5% base city, 3.4% additional city transient tax. |
| Phoenix (Maricopa County) | 12.57% | 5.5% state, 1.77% county (includes a 1% Prop. 302 stadium-district component approved by voters in 2000), 2.3% base city, 3.0% additional city transient tax. |
| Chandler (Maricopa County) | 11.67% | 5.5% state, 1.77% county, 1.5% base city, 2.9% additional city transient tax. |
| Flagstaff (Coconino County) | 11.18% | 5.5% state, 1.4% county, 4.281% city; no separate additional city rate. |
| Tucson (Pima County) | 12.05% plus $4 per room | 5.5% state, 0.55% county, 6.0% base city, plus a flat $4-per-room surcharge instead of an additional percentage rate. |
Maricopa County's 1.77% rate is itself a stacked figure: 1 full percentage point of it comes from Proposition 302, a stadium-district tax voters approved countywide in 2000 to help fund what is now State Farm Stadium. That 1% applies across every Maricopa County city in the table above, from Phoenix to Glendale to Chandler, regardless of whether that specific city has anything to do with the stadium itself.
Tucson is the clear outlier in how it structures its additional charge. Every other major Arizona city in this table adds a second percentage-based transient tax on top of its base city rate; Tucson instead charges a flat $4 per room, per stay, a structurally different mechanism that a percentage-based tax calculator will get wrong if it isn't specifically built to handle a flat add-on.
Collection and Remittance
The guest pays Arizona's TPT as part of the room charge, but legally the hotel is the one liable to the state for the tax, consistent with TPT's status as a tax on the business's privilege of operating rather than a tax on the purchaser. Filing frequency is assigned by the Arizona Department of Revenue based on estimated annual TPT liability: under $2,000 files annually, $2,000 to $8,000 files quarterly, and over $8,000 files monthly. A seasonal TPT license is available for a business, including many short-term rentals, that operates eight months or less per year.
Short-term rentals booked entirely through a registered online lodging marketplace can deduct that income from their own TPT return, since the marketplace itself is separately classified and taxed at the same 5.5% state rate, with the platform obtaining a certificate confirming it is the one remitting on the host's behalf.
Exemptions From Arizona's Hotel Tax
Arizona's TPT statute defines a "transient" as someone renting lodging space for less than 30 consecutive days; a guest who reaches that threshold falls outside the definition entirely and the stay is treated as a residential rental instead. As of January 1, 2025, city TPT on ordinary residential rentals of 30 days or more was eliminated statewide under a 2023 law, though that specific residential-rental exemption explicitly does not extend to hotels, motels, or short-term transient lodging businesses, which remain taxable under the lodging classification regardless of this separate change.
Common Mistakes Hotels Make With TOT Compliance
- Assuming Arizona's lodging rate matches the general retail TPT rate. The state's 0.6% education tax add-on doesn't apply to transient lodging, so the correct state-level rate on a hotel room is 5.5%, not the 5.6% general rate many tax tables default to.
- Treating Tucson's $4-per-room fee as a percentage. Tucson's additional city charge is a flat dollar amount per room, not a percentage rate, and a tax engine configured only for percentage-based city add-ons will miscalculate it.
- Missing that Maricopa County's rate includes a stadium-district component. Roughly 1 of the county's 1.77 percentage points funds the Prop. 302 stadium district approved in 2000, a detail worth knowing when reconciling county remittance statements.
- Applying the 2025 residential-rental exemption to a hotel. The elimination of city TPT on 30-day-plus residential rentals, effective January 1, 2025, specifically does not extend to hotels, motels, or other transient lodging businesses.
- Not verifying a city's current base rate against two conflicting sources. Scottsdale's own city brochure and the state tourism office's published rate table have shown different base city percentages in the same year; confirming directly with the city avoids under- or over-collecting.
- Assuming a short-term rental host doesn't need a TPT license. A host booking entirely through a registered marketplace can deduct that income, but still generally needs a TPT license and certificate confirming the marketplace is remitting on their behalf.
Where A PMS Fits Into TOT Compliance
None of this is about software, but Arizona's stacked state, county, and city TPT structure, plus at least one city using a flat per-room fee instead of a percentage, is exactly the kind of setup that's easy to misconfigure by hand. A property management system that lets a hotel hold the state's 5.5% lodging rate, the applicable county rate, and the city's base and additional rates as separate, clearly labeled tax codes, including a genuine flat-fee option for a market like Tucson, keeps a front desk from defaulting to a generic percentage that doesn't match the actual local structure. Revenue reports broken out by tax code also make it far easier to reconcile what's owed to the state, the county, and the city separately, particularly in Maricopa County markets where a stadium-district component is embedded inside the county's own rate.
See how roommaster simplifies multi-property tax reporting.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does Arizona have a statewide hotel tax rate?
Arizona has a 5.5% state-level Transaction Privilege Tax rate that applies to hotel rooms everywhere in the state, but nearly every city and county adds its own additional TPT layer on top, so the real total varies significantly by location.
2. What is Arizona's hotel tax?
Arizona doesn't have a separate hotel tax; lodging is taxed through the state's Transaction Privilege Tax under a dedicated transient lodging classification, combined with whatever county and city TPT layers also apply.
3. What is Arizona's lodging tax?
Lodging tax is another name for the same Transaction Privilege Tax charge described above. Arizona taxes hotel rooms under its general TPT system rather than a separately named lodging tax.
4. How long does a guest have to stay in Arizona before the hotel tax stops applying?
30 consecutive days. Arizona's TPT statute defines a taxable "transient" as someone renting for less than 30 consecutive days, so a stay reaching that threshold falls outside the definition and the hotel-specific tax no longer applies.
5. Does Arizona require hotels to disclose all fees upfront?
No Arizona-specific fee-transparency or all-in-pricing statute was verified for hotel or short-term rental disclosure. Only the federal FTC junk fees rule currently applies to Arizona hotels.
6. Who is responsible for filing and remitting Arizona's hotel tax?
The hotel is legally liable to the state for TPT, since it's structured as a tax on the business's privilege of operating rather than a sales tax on the guest. Filing frequency, monthly, quarterly, or annual, is assigned by the Arizona Department of Revenue based on estimated annual TPT liability.
7. Why is Tucson's hotel tax structured differently from Phoenix or Scottsdale?
Tucson charges a flat $4-per-room surcharge as its additional city lodging charge, instead of the percentage-based additional transient tax that Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, and most other major Arizona cities use, making it a structurally different calculation from nearly every other market in the state.
