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Hotel And Lodging Tax In New York City 2026: TOT Rate And Rules
New York City stacks a 5.875% hotel occupancy tax onto state and city sales tax, then adds a flat $1.50 per night Javits Center fee found nowhere else in the state, for a combined 14.75% plus that flat charge on every stay.
August 28, 2026
8
min. read
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TL;DR
- New York City hotel stays carry a combined tax and fee burden of 14.75% plus a flat $1.50 per room per night, built from five separately imposed charges rather than one city rate.
- Hotel tax, lodging tax, occupancy tax, and bed tax all refer to the same charge, described here as NYC's Hotel Room Occupancy Tax.
- The city's Hotel Room Occupancy Tax itself is 5.875% of the room charge, layered under NY State Sales Tax (4%), NYC Sales Tax (4.5%), and the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District surcharge (0.375%).
- A separate New York State Hotel Unit Fee, commonly called the Javits Center fee, adds a flat $1.50 per room per night specifically to hotels located within New York City, funding the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
- Guests qualify for a long-term stay exemption only after 180 consecutive days in the same unit, six times longer than the 30-day threshold common in most other cities.
- New York's Junk Fee Prevention Act (General Business Law Section 396-yy) requires the total price, including mandatory fees like resort fees, to be shown upfront in every advertisement statewide.
- Local Law 18 (2022) requires short-term rental hosts to register with the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement and generally bars renting an entire unit for fewer than 30 days unless the host is present, a restriction that has sharply cut Airbnb-style listings citywide.
- Operators with fewer than 10 rooms may file the Hotel Room Occupancy Tax annually; all other operators file quarterly, and every operator or room remarketer must hold a Certificate of Registration.
How New York City's Hotel and Lodging Tax Works
New York City's hotel tax is officially the Hotel Room Occupancy Tax, a 5.875% city charge that stacks on top of state and city sales tax, a regional transit surcharge, and a flat per-night state fee, five distinct charges combining into one line on the folio.
The city tax is authorized under Title 11, Chapter 25 of the New York City Administrative Code, while the state sales tax layered on top comes from New York Tax Law Article 28, and the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District surcharge under Article 29 applies because New York City sits inside the MCTD region. A fifth charge, the New York State Hotel Unit Fee, was added by the state legislature specifically to help fund the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and applies only to hotels located within New York City, not statewide.
Coverage extends to hotels, motels, and bed and breakfasts, but short-term rentals occupy a narrower lane in New York City than in most other markets. Since 2023, Local Law 18 has required short-term rental hosts to register with the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement and generally bars renting an entire unit for fewer than 30 days unless the host is present, which has removed most whole-unit, investor-run listings from the city's short-term rental market entirely.
Tax Rates and Extra Fees
New York City's combined hotel tax burden is built from four percentage-based charges plus one flat nightly fee, rather than a single city rate layered on a single state rate.
| Tax component | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| NYC Hotel Room Occupancy Tax | 5.875% | City tax on the room charge, set at this flat rate since December 20, 2013 |
| New York State Sales Tax | 4% | Applies statewide to hotel room charges |
| NYC Local Sales Tax | 4.5% | City portion of the combined sales tax on hotel rooms |
| MCTD Surcharge | 0.375% | Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District surcharge covering the NYC region |
| NY State Hotel Unit Fee (Javits Center Fee) | $1.50 per room per night | Flat fee, applies only to hotels located within New York City; funds the Javits Convention Center |
The New York State Hotel Unit Fee is worth separating out from the percentage-based taxes above it, because it isn't a district assessment or tourism improvement charge the way similar flat fees work in other cities. It's a dedicated state fee tied to financing one specific piece of infrastructure, the Javits Center, and it applies uniformly to every hotel room in the city regardless of room rate or neighborhood.
Because the fee is flat rather than a percentage, it makes up a larger share of the total tax burden on a lower-priced room than on a luxury one, which is worth flagging to guests booking budget stays who may not expect a fixed dollar charge alongside a percentage tax.
Collection and Remittance
The guest pays all five charges as part of the total charged at checkout, but the hotel operator, or the room remarketer when a room was purchased from an intermediary, is legally responsible for collecting and remitting the Hotel Room Occupancy Tax to the city. Every operator or room remarketer must first file a Certificate of Registration before collecting the tax.
Filing frequency depends on size: operators with fewer than 10 rooms may file and remit annually, while all other operators file quarterly. Short-term rental platform remittance is not uniform, whether a booking site collects and remits New York City's Hotel Room Occupancy Tax and the related state charges on a host's behalf depends on that platform's specific tax agreement, so a host cannot assume a listing is fully covered just because it was booked through a major platform.
New York City's Fee Transparency Rules
New York State's Junk Fee Prevention Act, codified at General Business Law Section 396-yy, requires any business advertising a price in the state to display the total price inclusive of all mandatory fees, rather than adding those fees later in the booking process. For hotels, that means a resort fee or amenity fee has to be folded into the advertised nightly rate up front, not revealed at checkout, and the law applies statewide rather than only within New York City.
Exemptions From New York City's Hotel Tax
New York City's long-term stay exemption kicks in only after 180 consecutive days occupying the same unit without the space being rented or sold to someone else during that period, a far longer threshold than the 30-day exemption common in most other cities' hotel tax rules. A guest who moves rooms within the same hotel, or whose stay is interrupted, can lose the accrued days toward that threshold.
Separate exemptions apply to New York State and its political subdivisions, the federal government, the United Nations, and nonprofit organizations operating for religious, charitable, educational, or animal welfare purposes, each of which needs its own supporting documentation on file with the operator rather than a verbal assurance from the guest.
Common Mistakes Hotels Make With TOT Compliance
- Applying a 30-day exemption instead of the city's actual 180-day threshold. A guest who has stayed 45 or 60 days is still fully taxable in New York City, and treating that stay as exempt under a generic long-stay rule creates a real under-collection.
- Treating the Javits Center fee as optional or foldable into the percentage rate. The $1.50 per room per night charge is a distinct, mandatory state fee, not part of the 5.875% city tax, and needs its own line item for accurate remittance.
- Never filing a Certificate of Registration. Both a hotel operator and any room remarketer handling a New York City reservation must register before collecting the tax, and operating without it is a compliance gap that surfaces the moment the city audits.
- Listing an entire unit short-term without Local Law 18 registration. Since 2023, unregistered whole-unit listings under 30 days are effectively unbookable through major platforms in New York City, and treating a listing as business as usual without registering risks the listing itself, not just a tax penalty.
- Advertising a room rate that excludes a mandatory resort or amenity fee. The state's Junk Fee Prevention Act requires the total price upfront, and a rate page that reveals a resort fee only at checkout is a straightforward violation.
- Filing on the wrong cadence after crossing the 10-room threshold. A small property that adds rooms and crosses into 10 or more units needs to move from annual to quarterly filing, and continuing the old schedule out of habit creates a filing gap the city will eventually flag.
Where A PMS Fits Into TOT Compliance
None of this is about software resolving New York City's five-part tax stack on its own, since the percentage charges, the flat Javits fee, and the 180-day exemption all come from different statutes with different rules. What a PMS can do is let a property configure each charge, the city occupancy tax, the two sales taxes, the MCTD surcharge, and the flat per-night fee, as its own line item rather than one blended percentage, so a rate change to any single component doesn't require re-deriving the whole combined rate by hand. Revenue reports by date range help front-desk and accounting staff confirm long-stay guests are correctly tracked toward the 180-day mark, and a booking engine that shows the full tax-inclusive price upfront keeps a property aligned with the state's Junk Fee Prevention Act by design rather than by afterthought.
See how roommaster simplifies multi-property tax reporting.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does New York City have its own hotel tax rate?
Yes. New York City imposes its own Hotel Room Occupancy Tax of 5.875% on top of New York State's sales tax, and New York State also adds a $1.50 per room per night Hotel Unit Fee that applies only to hotels located within the city.
2. What is New York City's hotel tax?
New York City's hotel tax is the Hotel Room Occupancy Tax, a 5.875% city charge on the room rate. Combined with New York State Sales Tax, NYC Sales Tax, the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District surcharge, and the state's flat Hotel Unit Fee, the total works out to 14.75% plus $1.50 per room per night.
3. What is New York City's lodging tax?
New York City's lodging tax is the same charge as its hotel tax: hotel tax, lodging tax, occupancy tax, and bed tax are different names for the Hotel Room Occupancy Tax and the related state and city taxes layered on top of it.
4. How long does a guest need to stay in New York City to be exempt from hotel tax?
A guest must occupy the same unit for more than 180 consecutive days without the space being rented or sold to anyone else during that period. That's six times longer than the 30-day threshold used in many other cities.
5. Does New York City require hotels to disclose all fees upfront?
Yes, indirectly through state law. New York's Junk Fee Prevention Act (General Business Law Section 396-yy) requires any advertised price in the state, including a hotel room rate, to include all mandatory fees such as resort fees rather than revealing them later in the booking process.
6. Who is responsible for filing and remitting New York City's hotel tax?
The hotel operator, or the room remarketer when a room was purchased from an intermediary, must file a Certificate of Registration and remit the Hotel Room Occupancy Tax. Operators with fewer than 10 rooms file annually; all other operators file quarterly.
7. Why do short-term rentals face extra restrictions in New York City?
Since 2023, Local Law 18 has required short-term rental hosts to register with the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement and generally prohibits renting an entire unit for fewer than 30 days unless the host is present, a rule that has removed most whole-unit, investor-run listings from major booking platforms citywide.
