Hotel And Lodging Tax In Connecticut 2026: TOT Rates By City

How Connecticut's Hotel and Lodging Tax Works

Connecticut charges a single statewide room occupancy tax under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-407: 15% for hotels, motels, and lodging houses, and 11% for bed and breakfast establishments. Cities and towns cannot add a local rate on top.

That statewide-only structure is unusual: most states let cities or counties layer their own hotel tax over a state rate, but Connecticut law reserves this tax entirely to the state legislature, so a hotel in Hartford and a hotel in a small shoreline town collect the exact same percentage. The rate has moved only a handful of times in state history, from 8% before 1991, to 12% in 1991, to 15% in 2011 under Public Act 11-6, with the legislature carving out the lower 11% bed-and-breakfast rate in 2017.

The tax applies to hotels, motels, lodging houses, bed and breakfasts, and short-term rentals booked for 30 consecutive days or less. Since a 2019 law (Public Act 19-117), short-term rental facilitators such as Airbnb and Vrbo are legally required, not just voluntarily invited, to collect and remit Connecticut's room occupancy tax on bookings they facilitate.

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Tax Rates and Extra Fees

Because Connecticut's rate is set entirely at the state level, the percentage doesn't change from one city to the next; what changes is the type of property. The table below confirms the same statewide rate applies across Connecticut's major markets, with one notable exception.

Connecticut doesn't layer a tourism marketing district or business improvement district charge on top of the room occupancy tax anywhere in the state; the closest equivalent is that 10% of the room occupancy tax revenue collected is deposited into the state's Tourism Fund, which is split between tourism promotion and arts and culture funding, rather than added as a separate line item on the folio.

The two tribal casino resorts, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, are the real exception to the "one rate statewide" rule. Because their hotels sit on sovereign tribal reservation land, they fall outside the state's room occupancy tax statute and are instead subject to a tribal occupancy tax set by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation or the Mohegan Tribe, a distinction that has also driven years of state-tribal disputes over taxation of the non-gaming parts of those properties.

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Collection and Remittance

The guest pays the room occupancy tax as part of the room charge, but the hotel, motel, lodging house, B&B, or short-term rental operator is legally responsible for registering with the Department of Revenue Services, collecting the tax, and remitting it.

Returns are filed electronically through myconneCT using Form OP-210, Room Occupancy Tax Return. Most operators file monthly, with the return and payment due on or before the last day of the month following the filing period; DRS can also assign quarterly filing to smaller operators based on their tax liability.

Because Connecticut law requires short-term rental facilitators to collect and remit the tax on bookings made through their platforms, Airbnb and Vrbo generally handle this automatically for Connecticut listings booked through their sites. A host who also takes direct bookings outside the platform still needs to register with DRS and file separately for those reservations.

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Exemptions From Connecticut's Hotel Tax

Connecticut's long-stay exemption applies once a guest occupies the same room for more than 30 consecutive calendar days; at that point the stay is no longer considered transient occupancy and falls outside the room occupancy tax entirely.

To support the exemption, a property should keep a reservation or folio record showing the actual length of stay, since the exemption is based on the number of consecutive days a guest actually occupies the room, not on the type of reservation made at booking. Federal and state government employees traveling on official business are also exempt from the room occupancy tax when the room is billed directly to the government agency; a personal credit card reimbursed later by an employer does not qualify for this exemption.

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Common Mistakes Hotels Make With TOT Compliance

• Applying the wrong rate to a bed and breakfast. Some B&B operators default to the 15% hotel rate instead of the 11% rate the legislature carved out specifically for bed and breakfasts in 2017, overcollecting from every guest.
• Assuming a city can add its own hotel tax. Because most states allow local hotel taxes, some multi-state hotel groups mistakenly budget for a Connecticut city surcharge that doesn't exist; Connecticut's 15% and 11% rates are the entire tax, statewide.
• Confusing tribal casino resort taxes with the state room occupancy tax. A property near Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun quoting "Connecticut's hotel tax" to guests should be clear that those two resorts, sitting on tribal land, don't follow the state's 15% rate the way every other Connecticut hotel does.
• Treating OTA remittance as optional. Since the 2019 facilitator law, platforms like Airbnb are required to collect and remit the tax on Connecticut bookings, so a host who also collects tax manually on those same platform bookings risks double-charging guests.
• Missing direct bookings when a platform handles the rest. A short-term rental host who assumes Airbnb's remittance covers every reservation can under-collect on phone or walk-in bookings taken outside the platform.
• Not filing a zero return. DRS requires a room occupancy tax return for every filing period once a business is registered, even a month with no taxable rentals; skipping the filing entirely is a common and avoidable compliance gap.

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Where A PMS Fits Into TOT Compliance

None of this is about software making a legal decision, it's about applying the right one of two statewide rates to the right kind of property every time. A property management system that lets an operator configure the correct 15% or 11% tax code by property type reduces the risk of a bed and breakfast defaulting to the higher hotel rate. Revenue reports filtered by date range make it easier to reconcile what was actually collected against the monthly OP-210 filing before the deadline, and a booking engine that displays the full, tax-inclusive nightly rate upfront keeps pricing clear for guests comparing a Connecticut hotel against properties in states with more variable local rates.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Does Connecticut have a statewide hotel tax rate?

Yes, and it's the only rate that applies. Connecticut charges a flat 15% room occupancy tax on hotels, motels, and lodging houses statewide, with no city or county allowed to add its own local rate on top.

2. What is Connecticut's hotel tax?

Connecticut's hotel tax is the room occupancy tax under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-407, set at 15% for hotels, motels, and lodging houses. It applies the same way in every Connecticut city and town, since the state doesn't permit local hotel tax add-ons.

3. What is Connecticut's lodging tax?

Connecticut's lodging tax is the same charge as its hotel or room occupancy tax, just a different name for it. Hotel tax, lodging tax, room occupancy tax, bed tax, and TOT all refer to the same 15% (or 11% for bed and breakfasts) statewide charge in Connecticut.

4. Why do bed and breakfasts pay a different rate in Connecticut?

In 2017, the Connecticut legislature created a separate, lower 11% room occupancy tax rate specifically for bed and breakfast establishments, distinct from the 15% rate that applies to hotels, motels, and lodging houses.

5. Do Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun charge Connecticut's hotel tax?

Not the state rate. Both resorts sit on sovereign tribal reservation land, Foxwoods on the Mashantucket Pequot reservation and Mohegan Sun on the Mohegan Tribe's reservation, so their hotel rooms are subject to a tribal occupancy tax set by the tribe rather than the state's 15% room occupancy tax.

6. Is there an exemption for long-term hotel stays in Connecticut?

Yes. A stay that runs longer than 30 consecutive calendar days is no longer considered transient occupancy and is exempt from Connecticut's room occupancy tax for the portion of the stay past that threshold.

7. How often do Connecticut hotels need to file and pay room occupancy tax?

Most operators file Form OP-210 monthly through the state's myconneCT portal, with the return and payment due on or before the last day of the following month. The Department of Revenue Services can assign some smaller operators a quarterly filing schedule instead.