Join Thousands of Hotels Thriving with roommaster
See how roommaster handles rates, taxes, and reporting for your property. Book a walkthrough with our team.
Table of Contents
Hotel And Lodging Tax In Austin 2026: TOT Rate And Rules
A slice of Austin's 9% city hotel tax funds a dedicated Live Music Fund for musicians and venues, a use no other Texas city's hotel tax supports at this scale.
August 28, 2026
7
min. read
Summarize with AI
TL;DR
- Austin hotel stays carry a combined 17% tax: 6% Texas state Hotel Occupancy Tax, 9% city Hotel Occupancy Tax, and a 2% Venue Project Tax, the statutory ceiling for a Texas city.
- Hotel tax, lodging tax, occupancy tax, and bed tax, called Hotel Occupancy Tax or HOT in Texas, all describe the same combined charge on an Austin hotel folio.
- Downtown hotels with 100 or more rooms owe an additional 2% Tourism Public Improvement District assessment on top of the 17% citywide rate.
- The tax applies to rooms costing $15 a night or more, and stays of 30 consecutive days or longer are exempt.
- Of the city's 9% Hotel Occupancy Tax, 4.5% funds the Convention Center, 2.0% a Venue Project Fund, 1.45% tourism and promotion, and 1.05% cultural arts, including a dedicated Live Music Fund.
- State law requires Austin hotel receipts to carry a specific printed disclosure statement about the 2% Venue Project Tax.
- A Texas appeals court struck down Austin's attempt to phase out non-owner-occupied (Type 2) short-term rentals, so that license type remains legal today.
How Austin's Hotel and Lodging Tax Works
Austin calls its hotel tax the Hotel Occupancy Tax, or HOT, the same name Texas uses statewide. A 6% state HOT applies everywhere, and Austin's own 9% city HOT plus a separate 2% Venue Project Tax bring the combined citywide rate to 17%, the ceiling state law sets for a city of Austin's size.
Austin's city council raised its own HOT rate from 7% to 9% through a 2019 ordinance, reaching that statutory ceiling. The tax applies to rooms renting for $15 a night or more, covering hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, and short-term residential rentals to non-permanent residents.
State law also lets a city like Austin authorize a Venue Project Tax, a separate 2% charge dedicated to financing a specific venue project rather than flowing into the city's general HOT allocation, which is why Austin's guest receipts are required to disclose it as its own line item rather than folding it into the general hotel tax.
Tax Rates and Extra Fees
An Austin hotel bill stacks the state HOT, the city's own HOT with its internal four-way split, the separate Venue Project Tax, and, for a defined group of large downtown hotels, an additional district assessment.
| Tax component | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Texas state Hotel Occupancy Tax | 6% | Applies statewide to the room rate |
| Austin city Hotel Occupancy Tax | 9% | Per city ordinance, split as 4.5% Convention Center, 2.0% Venue Project Fund, 1.45% tourism and promotion, 1.05% cultural arts |
| Austin Venue Project Tax | 2% | A separate charge state law requires to be itemized on the guest's receipt |
| Combined citywide tax | 17% | The statutory ceiling for a Texas city of Austin's size |
| Tourism Public Improvement District (TPID) assessment | 2% additional | Applies only to qualifying downtown hotels with 100 or more rooms, on top of the 17% citywide rate |
The 1.05% cultural arts slice of the city's HOT is where Austin's hotel tax diverges most from other Texas markets: a portion of that cultural arts allocation funds a dedicated Live Music Fund, created in 2019 and worth roughly $3 million to $3.6 million a year, that awards grants directly to musicians, event promoters, and music venues rather than to a general tourism marketing budget.
The TPID assessment is a separate mechanism from the four HOT allocations above. It was formed under the Texas Public Improvement District Act specifically to fund additional marketing for qualifying large downtown hotels, and because it only applies to properties with 100 or more rooms, most of Austin's small and mid-size hotels never see it on their tax filings at all.
Collection and Remittance
The guest pays the combined HOT and Venue Project Tax at checkout, and the hotel or short-term rental operator remits both the state's 6% portion to the Texas Comptroller and the city's 9% plus 2% portions to the City of Austin separately, since these are two different taxing authorities with two different filings.
A hotel that also falls inside the TPID boundary and meets the 100-room threshold has a third remittance obligation, to the district's assessment administrator, on top of the state and city HOT filings.
Austin's Fee Transparency Rules
Texas law requires that any Austin hotel bill or receipt subject to the Venue Project Tax carry a specific, conspicuously placed statement disclosing that an additional 2% is being charged for that purpose. This is a narrower, more specific disclosure rule than a general all-in-pricing law: it applies to the Venue Project Tax line specifically, not to every mandatory fee on the folio.
Exemptions From Austin's Hotel Tax
A stay of 30 consecutive days or more is exempt from both the state and city HOT, matching the threshold used statewide in Texas. Certain government employees traveling on official business can also be exempt when they present the state's Hotel Occupancy Tax Exemption Certificate at check-in, though the exemption depends on the traveler's specific status and payment method, not just their employer.
Common Mistakes Hotels Make With TOT Compliance
- Filing the state and city HOT together. Austin's 9% city tax and the state's 6% tax go to two separate taxing authorities, and a property that files them as one blended remittance risks errors with both.
- Forgetting the Venue Project Tax disclosure statement. State law requires the 2% Venue Project Tax to appear as its own itemized statement on the receipt, not folded into a general tax line.
- Missing the TPID assessment at a qualifying downtown property. A hotel that crosses the 100-room threshold inside the TPID boundary owes a third remittance most Austin properties never have to think about.
- Assuming the Type 2 short-term rental ban is still in effect. Austin's 2016 ordinance tried to phase out non-owner-occupied short-term rentals by 2022, but a Texas appeals court struck that provision down, so Type 2 licenses remain legal today.
- Treating the six-year rate as current. Austin's city HOT moved from 7% to 9% in 2019; a property or booking system still quoting the older 7% rate is under-collecting by two full points.
- Confusing the cultural arts allocation with a discretionary city fund. The 1.05% cultural arts slice, including the Live Music Fund, is governed by the same Texas Tax Code restrictions on how HOT revenue can be spent, not general-purpose city money.
Where A PMS Fits Into TOT Compliance
None of this is about software fixing a legal obligation. But a property management system that configures the state's 6% HOT, the city's 9% HOT, the 2% Venue Project Tax, and, where it applies, the TPID assessment as separate, clearly labeled tax codes makes it far easier for an Austin hotel to file correctly with two different taxing authorities instead of reconciling one blended number after the fact. A booking engine that itemizes the Venue Project Tax the way state law requires, and revenue reports that break totals down by date range, also turn the monthly filing into a matter of pulling a report rather than rebuilding it by hand.
See how roommaster simplifies multi-property tax reporting.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does Austin have its own hotel tax rate?
Yes. Austin charges a 9% city Hotel Occupancy Tax plus a separate 2% Venue Project Tax, on top of the 6% Texas state Hotel Occupancy Tax, for a combined 17% citywide rate.
2. What is Austin's hotel tax?
It is Austin's Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT), 9% at the city level, split into Convention Center, Venue Project Fund, tourism and promotion, and cultural arts allocations, plus a separate 2% Venue Project Tax and the state's 6% HOT.
3. What is Austin's lodging tax?
Lodging tax is another name for the same charge as the hotel tax and occupancy tax in Austin: the combined 17% Hotel Occupancy Tax made up of the state's 6% and the city's 9% plus 2% Venue Project Tax.
4. How long does a guest have to stay in Austin to be exempt from the hotel tax?
A stay of 30 consecutive days or more is exempt from both the state and city Hotel Occupancy Tax, matching the threshold used statewide in Texas.
5. Does Austin require hotels to disclose all fees upfront?
Austin doesn't have a general all-in-pricing law, but Texas law specifically requires the 2% Venue Project Tax to be disclosed as its own itemized statement on the guest's hotel receipt.
6. Who is responsible for filing and remitting Austin's hotel tax?
The hotel or short-term rental operator collects the tax from the guest and remits the state's 6% portion to the Texas Comptroller and the city's 9% plus 2% Venue Project Tax to the City of Austin separately, since each is a distinct taxing authority.
7. What is Austin's Live Music Fund?
It is a dedicated grant program, created in 2019 and funded from a slice of the city's cultural arts hotel tax allocation, worth roughly $3 million to $3.6 million a year, that awards money directly to musicians, event promoters, and music venues rather than to general tourism marketing.
