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Hotel And Lodging Tax In New Orleans 2026: TOT Rate And Rules
New Orleans charges one of the most layered hotel tax stacks in the country: a combined 16.35% rate split across at least five separate taxing authorities, on top of size-based per-night fees.
August 28, 2026
8
min. read
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TL;DR
- New Orleans hotel guests pay a combined 16.35% hotel tax, layered across the state, city, the Superdome district, and the Convention Center authority.
- Hotel tax, lodging tax, occupancy tax, and bed tax all describe the same charge collected on a New Orleans hotel bill.
- Hotels with 10 or more rooms pay a reduced 3% state sales tax plus a 4% Superdome tax and a 3% Convention Center tax; hotels with 9 or fewer rooms pay only the standard 5% state sales tax.
- Stays of 30 consecutive days or more are exempt from Louisiana's hotel occupancy taxes.
- The Convention Center adds a flat per-night fee on top of its percentage tax, ranging from $0.50 to $2.00 depending on hotel size.
- Short-term rentals face a different tax stack from hotels: a 6.75% STR Equalization Occupancy Tax plus a $12 nightly STR fee, created specifically to match the hotel tax burden.
- Since 1966, the city has suspended roughly 1 percentage point of its own local hotel sales tax to help fund the Superdome, a temporary measure still costing the city about $12.3 million a year.
- Roughly three-quarters of all hotel tax revenue collected in New Orleans funds tourism, convention, and sports entities rather than general city services.
How New Orleans's Hotel and Lodging Tax Works
New Orleans doesn't charge one hotel tax, it charges several, layered by separate state and local authorities that each fund a different piece of the city's tourism infrastructure. The combined rate reaches 16.35%, among the most complex hotel tax stacks of any major U.S. city.
That complexity traces back to 1966, when Louisiana voters approved a tax to help build the Louisiana Superdome, now the Caesars Superdome. To make room for it, the City of New Orleans suspended part of its own local sales tax on hotel rooms as a temporary measure. Nearly six decades later, that suspension is still in effect, and a nonprofit watchdog group's analysis found it costs the city roughly $12.3 million a year that could otherwise fund infrastructure like drainage and streets.
The tax applies to hotels, motels, and any transient lodging establishment renting rooms for fewer than 30 consecutive days. Establishments with 10 or more rooms in Orleans Parish carry the full stack: a reduced 3% state sales tax, the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District's 4% tax funding the Superdome, and the Ernest N. Morial Exhibition Hall Authority's 3% tax funding the Convention Center. Smaller properties with 9 or fewer rooms are exempt from those district taxes and instead pay only the standard 5% state sales tax.
Tax Rates and Extra Fees
The table below breaks out each layer that makes up New Orleans's hotel tax stack at a typical 10-or-more-room property, plus the separate stack that applies specifically to short-term rentals.
| Tax component | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Louisiana state sales tax (10+ room hotels) | 3% | Reduced rate that applies specifically to hotels with 10 or more rooms in Orleans and Jefferson Parish |
| City of New Orleans local sales tax | 1.5% | Roughly one percentage point of the city's nominal local rate has been suspended since 1966 to help fund the Superdome |
| Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District tax | 4% | Funds the Caesars Superdome; applies to Orleans and Jefferson Parish hotels with 10 or more rooms |
| Ernest N. Morial Exhibition Hall Authority tax | 3% | Funds the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center; applies to Orleans Parish hotels with 10 or more rooms |
| Convention Center per-night flat fee | $0.50 to $2.00 per room, per night | Scales with hotel size: $0.50 for 10 to 299 rooms, $1.00 for 300 to 999 rooms, $2.00 for 1,000 or more rooms |
| Combined hotel tax rate | 16.35% | As calculated by the Bureau of Governmental Research across all overlapping state and local layers |
| Short-term rental sales tax | 5% | Charged on the listing price plus any cleaning fee for stays of 59 nights or fewer |
| STR Equalization Occupancy Tax | 6.75% | City tax applied only to short-term rentals, created to bring their tax burden closer in line with hotels |
| STR nightly occupancy fee | $12 per night | Applies to short-term rental bookings of 29 nights or fewer |
Unlike a typical tourism marketing district assessment, most of what New Orleans collects doesn't go toward city government at all. An analysis of city hotel tax revenue found that about 75.5% of it funds tourism, convention, and professional sports entities, while only 9.5% goes to general municipal purposes, with the remainder split among public education, public transit, and the state.
The Convention Center authority's per-night fee and 3% tax were originally meant to help finance a major expansion project. That expansion was shelved indefinitely after Hurricane Katrina, and the same analysis found the Convention Center had accumulated roughly $235 million in unrestricted reserves, funded in part by hotel taxes still being collected for a project that never happened.
Collection and Remittance
Guests pay the combined tax at checkout, but the hotel, motel, or short-term rental operator is responsible for collecting and remitting each layer to the correct agency. The state sales tax portion goes to the Louisiana Department of Revenue, while the city's Hotel Occupancy Privilege Tax and related local charges are filed with the City of New Orleans. Because New Orleans splits its hotel tax across at least five separate taxing authorities, an operator can end up filing more than one return each month even though the guest sees only a single combined charge on the folio. Airbnb and other qualified platforms collect and remit several of the short-term rental-specific taxes automatically, but operators listing through their own website or a non-participating channel remain responsible for filing those taxes themselves.
New Orleans's Fee Transparency Rules
Louisiana has no state-level all-in pricing law requiring hotels to disclose mandatory fees upfront. The federal FTC Junk Fees Rule, effective May 12, 2025, fills that gap nationally, requiring New Orleans hotels and short-term rentals to display the total price, including any mandatory resort or service fee, the first time a rate is shown rather than adding it at checkout. Given how many separate tax lines already appear on a New Orleans folio, hotels that also bury a mandatory fee outside the advertised rate face real exposure under the federal rule.
Exemptions From New Orleans's Hotel Tax
A stay of 30 or more consecutive days by the same guest is exempt from Louisiana's hotel occupancy taxes, across every layer in the stack, state, Superdome, and Convention Center alike. Properties with 9 or fewer rooms fall outside the definition of a taxable hotel for the Superdome and Convention Center taxes entirely, regardless of stay length, and owe only the standard state sales tax. As with other cities, none of these exemptions apply automatically. An operator needs documentation supporting the exemption on file in case of an audit by the state or any of the local taxing authorities.
Common Mistakes Hotels Make With TOT Compliance
- Treating the tax stack as a single filing. New Orleans splits its hotel tax across the state, the city, the Superdome district, and the Convention Center authority, and missing any one of those separate returns leaves real tax unremitted even if the others were filed on time.
- Applying the wrong state sales tax rate by room count. Hotels with 10 or more rooms owe the reduced 3% state rate plus the district taxes, while a 9-room or smaller property owes the full 5% state rate and none of the district taxes; using the wrong bracket misstates the bill either way.
- Charging hotel-rate taxes on a short-term rental. Short-term rentals owe their own stack, including the 6.75% STR Equalization Occupancy Tax and the $12 nightly fee, which don't match the taxes a traditional hotel collects.
- Forgetting the per-night Convention Center fee. The flat $0.50 to $2.00 per-room, per-night fee is separate from the Convention Center's 3% percentage tax, and skipping it under-collects even when the percentage tax is calculated correctly.
- Assuming the long-stay exemption applies below 30 days. A 29-night stay is still fully taxable across every layer; the exemption only starts at 30 consecutive days by the same occupant.
- Not itemizing which authority each tax line funds. With revenue split across five or more agencies, folding every tax into one unlabeled line item makes it harder to catch a missed remittance before an audit does.
Where A PMS Fits Into TOT Compliance
None of this is about software, it's about keeping five or more separately filed tax authorities straight on every single reservation, especially when hotel taxes and short-term rental taxes use entirely different rates and fee structures. A property management system like roommaster can help by letting an operator configure each state and local tax, along with any flat per-night fee, as its own line item rather than one blended rate, so nothing gets lost when it's time to file separately with the state and each local authority. Revenue reports by date range make it easier to reconcile what each taxing body is actually owed each period, and a booking engine that shows the full nightly rate and any mandatory charges upfront supports the pricing transparency the federal junk fees rule now requires.
See how roommaster simplifies multi-property tax reporting.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does New Orleans have its own hotel tax rate?
Yes, though it's really several rates layered together. New Orleans hotels with 10 or more rooms pay a reduced 3% state sales tax plus separate city, Superdome, and Convention Center taxes, for a combined rate of about 16.35%.
2. What is New Orleans's hotel tax?
New Orleans's hotel tax is a combined charge made up of a reduced state sales tax, a city sales tax, a 4% Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District tax, and a 3% Ernest N. Morial Exhibition Hall Authority tax, plus a flat per-night Convention Center fee. Together, these add up to roughly 16.35% at hotels with 10 or more rooms.
3. What is New Orleans's lodging tax?
Lodging tax is another name for the same combined charge that makes up New Orleans's hotel tax. Hotel tax, lodging tax, occupancy tax, and bed tax all refer to the same layered state and local taxes New Orleans hotels collect.
4. How long must a guest stay in New Orleans to be exempt from hotel tax?
A guest must stay 30 or more consecutive days to be exempt from New Orleans's hotel occupancy taxes. The exemption applies across every layer of the tax stack, but only once that 30-day threshold is met and documented.
5. Does New Orleans have hotel fee transparency rules?
Louisiana has no state all-in pricing law, but the federal FTC Junk Fees Rule, effective May 12, 2025, requires New Orleans hotels and short-term rentals to disclose the full price, including mandatory fees, before checkout.
6. Who is responsible for filing New Orleans's hotel tax?
The hotel or short-term rental operator is responsible for collecting the combined tax from guests and remitting each layer to the correct agency, the Louisiana Department of Revenue for the state portion and the City of New Orleans for local charges, since the taxes aren't consolidated into one filing.
7. Do short-term rentals pay the same tax as hotels in New Orleans?
No. Short-term rentals pay their own stack that includes a 5% city sales tax, a 6.75% STR Equalization Occupancy Tax, and a $12 nightly occupancy fee, a structure the city created specifically to bring short-term rental taxes closer in line with what hotels already pay.
