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

How Massachusetts's Hotel and Lodging Tax Works

Massachusetts calls its hotel tax the Room Occupancy Excise. The statute sets a 5% state rate, but an uncodified surtax adds another 0.7% on top of it, bringing the actual state rate to 5.7%, a detail the state's own guidance calls out explicitly since the statute text alone would understate it. Cities and towns can add their own local-option rate on top, up to 6% generally, or 6.5% for Boston specifically.

There's no voter-referendum requirement. A change to a local rate takes a vote of that municipality's legislative body, a city council in a city, or a Town Meeting vote in a town-meeting-form town, ordinary local legislative action rather than a mandatory standalone ballot measure.

Two additional regional charges can stack depending on location: a 2.75% Cape & Islands Water Protection Fund fee in Barnstable, Nantucket, and Dukes counties, and a separate 2.75% Convention Center Financing fee in six specific cities, Boston, Cambridge, Worcester, Springfield, West Springfield, and Chicopee, and nowhere else.

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Tax Rates and Extra Fees

Because the local rate, and up to two additional regional fees, vary by city, the combined total looks very different depending on where a property sits. Here's where the major Massachusetts markets stand as of 2026.

Rates change after a local legislative vote, so treat this table as a starting point and confirm the current published rate with the specific city before filing.

Massachusetts does have a formal district-assessment mechanism, capped at 2% of taxable rents statewide, but only one district is fully active and verified: Boston and Cambridge together, at 1.5%, run by the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau, applying only to properties with 50 or more rooms. A boutique inn under that room count in the same two cities doesn't owe it, even though a large hotel across the street does.

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Collection and Remittance

The guest pays the tax, and the property remits it, but Massachusetts centralizes this unusually completely: the state excise, every city or town's local rate, the Convention Center fee, the Water Protection Fund fee, and any Tourism District assessment are all filed together on one consolidated monthly return through the state's own tax portal, due by the 30th of the following month. Cities never separately bill or collect their own share.

One size-based wrinkle applies regardless of location: since April 2021, an operator or intermediary with more than $150,000 in cumulative room-occupancy tax liability in the prior calendar year must also make an advance payment within the filing month, on top of the standard monthly return, a compliance step larger hotel groups need to budget for.

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Massachusetts's Fee Transparency Rules

Since 2025, a Massachusetts Attorney General regulation requires clear disclosure of the total price, including mandatory fees, before a consumer completes a purchase, and coverage extends to short-term lodging. State and local taxes qualify as government charges under the rule and are explicitly exempt from that bundling requirement, so a hotel can still list the Room Occupancy Excise as a separate line, the rule targets bundled mandatory fees like resort charges, not the tax itself.

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Exemptions From Massachusetts's Hotel Tax

Massachusetts uses two different exemption thresholds depending on property type. Traditional hotels, motels, and bed and breakfasts get a 90-consecutive-day window before the exemption applies. Short-term rentals instead use a much shorter 31-consecutive-day threshold, a meaningful difference by property type rather than by city. Separately, a small-scale host who rents 14 days or fewer per calendar year owes no tax at all on those days, but only if they proactively file for that exemption with the state by January 15 each year, it isn't automatic.

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Common Mistakes Hotels Make With TOT Compliance

• Using the 5% statutory rate instead of 5.7%. The uncodified 0.7% surtax is real and currently in effect, even though it doesn't appear in the base statute text.
• Applying one exemption threshold to both property types. Traditional hotels get 90 days; short-term rentals get 31 days, using the hotel threshold for a short-term rental understates what's owed.
• Missing a location-specific regional fee. The Convention Center fee applies in exactly six cities, and the Water Protection Fund fee only in three counties, neither applies statewide.
• Applying the Boston/Cambridge district assessment to a small property. It only applies to properties with 50 or more rooms, a boutique inn in the same city doesn't owe it.
• Assuming Massachusetts's fee-transparency rule covers tax. It requires bundling mandatory fees into the total price but explicitly exempts government-imposed taxes from that requirement.
• Missing the advance-payment requirement for larger operators. Above $150,000 in prior-year liability, an advance payment is due during the filing month itself, not just the normal after-the-fact remittance.

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Where A PMS Fits Into TOT Compliance

None of the above is about software. It's about a Massachusetts property tracking which of up to five possible charges, state excise, local rate, Convention Center fee, Water Protection Fund fee, and district assessment, actually apply to its specific city and room count. Where a PMS actually helps is in keeping each of those configured as its own tax code, and applying the correct exemption threshold depending on whether the booking is a traditional room or a short-term rental. roommaster lets properties configure tax codes per rate, so a rate or fee change is a configuration update once, not a manual recalculation on every folio.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Does Massachusetts have a statewide hotel tax rate?

Massachusetts has a state rate of 5.7%, but cities and towns each add their own local rate on top, so the combined total varies from about 11.7% to nearly 17% depending on the city.

2. What is Massachusetts's hotel tax?

Massachusetts's hotel tax is officially called the Room Occupancy Excise, combining a 5.7% state rate with a local rate set by each city or town, plus regional fees in some areas.

3. What is Massachusetts's lodging tax?

Lodging tax is the same charge as Massachusetts's Room Occupancy Excise, just a different common name for it, not a separate statewide figure.

4. How long can a guest stay in Massachusetts before the hotel tax stops applying?

It depends on the property type: 90 consecutive days for traditional hotels and motels, but only 31 consecutive days for short-term rentals.

5. Do Massachusetts voters have to approve hotel tax increases?

No. A change to a local rate takes a vote of that city or town's own legislative body, a city council or Town Meeting, not a standalone public referendum.

6. Does Massachusetts require hotels to disclose the total price before booking?

Yes for mandatory fees, since 2025 state regulation requires the total price including mandatory fees to be disclosed, but taxes are explicitly excluded from that requirement.

7. Who is responsible for collecting and remitting Massachusetts's hotel tax?

The property collects the tax from the guest and remits it on one consolidated monthly return covering every applicable state, local, and regional charge, filed through the state's own tax portal rather than separately with each city.