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Hotel And Lodging Tax In Georgia 2026: TOT Rates By City
Georgia charges a flat $5-a-night state fee most states don't, and raising a city's rate above 5% needs an act of the state legislature. See 2026 rates and where properties get compliance wrong.
August 27, 2026
6
min. read
TL;DR
- Georgia charges two separate things: a local Hotel-Motel Excise Tax that varies by city, and a flat statewide $5-per-room-per-night State Hotel-Motel Fee that applies everywhere.
- "Hotel tax," "lodging tax," "occupancy tax," "bed tax," and "excise tax" all describe the local percentage charge, which is distinct from the flat state fee.
- Local rates range from 3% to 8%, and raising a city above 5% requires a specific act passed by the Georgia General Assembly, not just a council vote.
- The long-stay exemption applies after 30 consecutive nights for the local tax and after night 30 for the flat state fee, with a new check-in resetting the count for both.
- No Georgia fee-transparency law requiring total-price disclosure was confirmed to exist.
- Georgia mandates that a fixed share of tax revenue at the higher tiers go specifically to tourism marketing and visitor-attraction development, rather than a separately assessed district.
- Filing is monthly by default, due the 20th of the following month, though a local government can elect quarterly or annual filing instead.
How Georgia's Hotel and Lodging Tax Works
Georgia layers two separate charges on a hotel stay: a local Hotel-Motel Excise Tax set city by city, and a flat statewide State Hotel-Motel Fee of $5 per room per night that applies everywhere, regardless of the room rate, a structure unusual among the states in this cluster since most states only tax lodging as a percentage.
Georgia has no voter-referendum requirement for local rate increases. Instead, a city or county can adopt rates up to 5% by ordinary local ordinance, but reaching the 6%, 7%, or 8% tiers requires a specific act passed by that jurisdiction's own delegation in the Georgia General Assembly, a legislative approval process rather than an electoral one. Savannah's 2023 increase from 6% to 8% went through exactly this process.
Both charges exempt continuous occupancy after 30 days. A checkout and new check-in resets the count, so a guest can't accumulate exempt status across separate, non-continuous stays.
Tax Rates and Extra Fees
Because local rates vary by tier and reaching the higher tiers needs state legislative approval, the combined local rate differs meaningfully by city. Here's where the major Georgia markets stand as of 2026, on top of which every property also owes the flat $5-per-night state fee.
Rates change after a local legislative act, so treat this table as a starting point and confirm the current published rate with the specific city before filing.
Georgia doesn't use a separately assessed tourism district the way California does. Instead, the statute itself mandates that a fixed share of the tax at the higher tiers, roughly 40% at 5% and up to about 44% at the 6-8% tiers, be spent through a destination marketing organization, split further between convention/trade-show promotion and physical visitor-attraction development, achieving a similar effect through a legal earmark rather than a separate assessed charge.
Collection and Remittance
The guest pays both the local excise tax and the flat state fee, and the property remits them, though to two different state agencies: the Department of Revenue collects the $5 flat fee, while the Department of Community Affairs is the statutory repository for every local government's excise tax ordinance and revenue reporting. Filing is monthly by default, due the 20th of the following month, but a local government can elect quarterly or annual returns instead by its own resolution, so don't assume every city files monthly.
Exemptions From Georgia's Hotel Tax
Both charges exempt long stays, but the mechanics differ slightly. The local excise tax exempts continuous occupancy after the first 30 days. The flat state fee is charged for the first 30 nights and stops on night 31 for the same guest. A checkout followed by a new check-in resets both counts, so the exemption only applies to one genuinely continuous stay, not a cumulative total across separate visits.
Common Mistakes Hotels Make With TOT Compliance
- Forgetting the flat $5 state fee. It's a separate charge from the local percentage tax, applies to every room every night regardless of rate, and needs its own line on the folio.
- Assuming a city can raise its rate by council vote alone. Any increase above 5% needs a specific act passed by that jurisdiction's delegation in the state legislature, not just local approval.
- Using a stale rate after a legislative change. Savannah's official state registry lagged behind its actual 2023 rate increase for months, worth confirming the live rate directly with the city rather than trusting a state list alone.
- Treating the earmark percentage as a separate assessed tax. Georgia's tourism-marketing share is a statutory spending requirement baked into the existing tax, not an additional charge on the guest's bill.
- Missing a new local surcharge. Macon-Bibb County added a separately branded $3-per-night Tourism Tax in January 2026, on top of its existing excise tax, a property there needs both lines tracked distinctly.
- Not retraining front desk staff after a rate change. When a local act raises the rate, as Savannah's did, staff quoting the old number to walk-in guests creates disputes at checkout.
Where A PMS Fits Into TOT Compliance
None of the above is about software. It's about a Georgia property tracking two genuinely separate charges, the local percentage tax and the flat $5 state fee, and knowing that a rate change above 5% took actual state legislative action, not just a local vote. Where a PMS actually helps is in keeping the flat fee and the percentage tax configured as distinct tax codes, and pulling revenue reports by date range for whichever filing cadence the local government has chosen. roommaster lets properties configure tax codes per rate, so a legislative rate change is a configuration update once, not a manual recalculation on every folio.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does Georgia have a statewide hotel tax rate?
Georgia has a flat statewide $5-per-room-per-night state fee that applies everywhere, but the local excise tax varies by city, from 3% to 8%.
2. What is Georgia's hotel tax?
Georgia's hotel tax is really two charges: a local Hotel-Motel Excise Tax that varies by city, and a separate flat $5-per-night State Hotel-Motel Fee that applies statewide regardless of room rate.
3. What is Georgia's lodging tax?
Lodging tax is the same charge as Georgia's Hotel-Motel Excise Tax, just a different common name for the local percentage-based portion, distinct from the flat state fee.
4. Can a Georgia city raise its hotel tax rate by itself?
Only up to 5%. Reaching the 6%, 7%, or 8% tier requires a specific act passed by that jurisdiction's own delegation in the Georgia General Assembly, not just a local council vote.
5. How long can a guest stay in Georgia before the hotel tax stops applying?
30 consecutive days for the local excise tax, and the flat state fee stops after night 30 as well. A new check-in resets the count for both.
6. Does Georgia require hotels to disclose the total price before booking?
No confirmed statute requiring this was found for Georgia at either the state or city level.
7. Who is responsible for collecting and remitting Georgia's hotel tax?
The property collects both the local excise tax and the flat state fee from the guest and remits them, generally monthly, though a local government can elect quarterly or annual filing for its own excise tax instead.