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Hotel And Lodging Tax In Ohio 2026: TOT Rates By City
Ohio has no statewide hotel tax at all, and a strange 1980 rule permanently locks a county out of ever levying its own lodging tax the moment any city inside it claims that authority first.
August 28, 2026
7
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TL;DR
- Ohio has no statewide lodging or hotel excise tax; the state's general 5.75% sales tax applies to hotel rooms like any other sale, and any additional lodging tax comes entirely from a county or municipal excise tax layered on top.
- "Hotel tax," "lodging tax," "occupancy tax," and "bed tax" all describe this same local excise charge in Ohio.
- Two statutes govern it: ORC 5739.08 lets a municipality or township levy up to 3%, and ORC 5739.09 lets a county levy an additional 3%, but only if no city inside it claims that second 3% first.
- Whichever government, city or county, claims the second 3% first locks the other out permanently for as long as that tax stays in effect.
- Seven counties (Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Fairfield, Hamilton, Lucas, Summit, and Trumbull) have special legislative authority for a third lodging tax layer tied to a convention facilities authority, letting them exceed the standard 6% ceiling.
- Stays of 30 or more consecutive days are exempt, since the tax only applies to "transient guests" by statutory definition.
- A property with fewer than five rooms falls outside Ohio's statutory definition of a taxable "hotel" entirely, a loophole lawmakers have proposed closing for short-term rentals.
- The tax can be enacted by a simple majority vote of a county commission or city council, with no public notice, hearing, or referendum required.
How Ohio's Hotel and Lodging Tax Works
Ohio has no statewide hotel or lodging excise tax. The state's general 5.75% sales tax applies to a hotel room the same way it applies to any other taxable sale, and any additional lodging-specific tax comes entirely from a county or municipal excise tax that local governments choose to enact on their own.
Two separate statutes create this local-option system. ORC 5739.08, dating to 1967, lets any municipality or township levy an excise lodging tax of up to 3% for any lawful purpose. ORC 5739.09, added in 1980, lets a county levy a second, additional 3%, with at least two-thirds of the revenue dedicated to funding a convention and visitors bureau. The 1980 law gave counties an exclusive window to claim that second 3% first, but if a county didn't act in time, any city or township inside it could claim that authority instead, permanently locking the county out of ever levying its own version for as long as the municipal tax remains in effect. A 1994 fix let counties that had been locked out enact the tax in whichever of their cities and townships hadn't separately claimed it, which is why two cities in the same Ohio county can legitimately sit at different combined rates today.
The tax applies to "transient guests," a term Ohio law defines specifically as someone occupying a room for fewer than 30 consecutive days at a "hotel," itself statutorily defined as an establishment with five or more rooms. That five-room threshold means a small bed-and-breakfast or a single-unit short-term rental can fall outside the lodging tax entirely under current law, a gap state lawmakers have proposed closing.
Tax Rates and Extra Fees
Because Ohio's lodging tax is built from local layers rather than one state schedule, the combined rate a guest pays depends on the state and county sales tax, plus whatever municipal and county excise lodging tax applies in that specific city. The table below reflects the local excise lodging tax layers confirmed for each area, not including Ohio's separate state and county sales tax, which applies in addition to these figures.
| City / county | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Columbus (Franklin County) | 9.1% | 4% Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority tax, unchanged since 1988, plus a 5.1% City of Columbus excise tax under the municipal code. |
| Cincinnati / Hamilton County | 7.5% | County-only total: 3% for the convention and visitors bureau, 3.5% for the Duke Energy Convention Center, and 1% added December 1, 2023 for convention facilities; the city of Cincinnati layers its own additional excise tax on top. |
| Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) | 6.5% | County lodging tax alone, made up of a 5% county rate plus a 1.5% capital-improvement tax effective since January 1, 2020; most Cuyahoga cities, including Cleveland, add their own municipal excise tax on top of this county figure. |
| Dublin | 6% | City excise tax confirmed directly from Dublin's own government site; the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority's 4% applies in addition to this. |
| Akron (Summit County) | 5.5% | County lodging excise tax administered by the Summit County Fiscal Officer. |
| Sandusky (Erie County) | 4% | County baseline rate; an additional local tax can apply if the property sits in a township or municipality that has also enacted its own excise tax. |
| Dayton (Montgomery County) | 3% | County-only rate funding the Dayton/Montgomery County Convention and Visitors Bureau and area cultural facilities. |
Rates change as individual counties and cities enact or update their own ordinances, so treat this table as a starting point and confirm the current published rate with the specific city or county before filing, especially in Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland where more than one government layers its own excise tax on the same room.
Seven Ohio counties, Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Fairfield, Hamilton, Lucas, Summit, and Trumbull, carry special legislative authority for a third lodging tax layer tied to a county convention facilities authority under ORC 351.021, letting them exceed the 6% ceiling that applies everywhere else in the state. This is a genuine structural exception granted county by county, not a general rule other Ohio counties can adopt on their own.
Collection and Remittance
The guest pays the excise lodging tax as part of the room charge, and the hotel operator is responsible for collecting it and remitting it to the specific county or municipality that imposed it. Ohio law lets each county set its own administrative regulations for the tax, so filing frequency is not uniform statewide: most counties require monthly filing, due by the last day of the following month, while some, including Hamilton County, require quarterly filing instead.
A multi-property operator in Ohio may need to track separate filing schedules and remittance addresses for every county or city where it operates, since there is no single statewide portal or filing calendar for this tax the way there is for the state sales tax.
Exemptions From Ohio's Hotel Tax
Ohio's exemption threshold is 30 or more consecutive days. Because the tax only applies to "transient guests," and that term is statutorily defined as someone occupying a room for fewer than 30 consecutive days, a guest who reaches that threshold falls outside the definition entirely rather than qualifying for a separate carve-out.
Separately, a lodging establishment with fewer than five rooms doesn't meet Ohio's statutory definition of a "hotel" in the first place, so small bed-and-breakfasts and single-unit short-term rentals can fall outside the tax base entirely under current law, regardless of how long a guest stays.
Common Mistakes Hotels Make With TOT Compliance
- Assuming every Ohio county can add a third tax layer. Only seven counties, Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Fairfield, Hamilton, Lucas, Summit, and Trumbull, have the special legislative authority to exceed the standard 6% ceiling with a convention-facilities-linked tax.
- Treating a county and its cities as having one combined rate. Because a city can lock its county out of ever levying a county tax under Ohio's 1980 rule, two cities in the same county can legitimately sit at different total rates.
- Applying a single statewide filing calendar. Ohio leaves filing frequency to each county's own regulations, so an operator with properties in Hamilton County and a monthly-filing county can face two different deadlines for the same type of return.
- Overlooking the five-room threshold. A property with fewer than five rooms doesn't meet Ohio's statutory definition of a taxable hotel, a distinction that matters for small inns and single-unit short-term rentals evaluating their own filing obligations.
- Missing that Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland stack a city tax on top of a county or authority tax. Quoting only the county figure in these markets understates the real combined lodging tax a guest actually owes.
- Not watching for short-term rental legislation. Bills introduced in the Ohio legislature would require booking platforms to collect and remit lodging tax and would extend the tax to smaller properties currently below the five-room threshold, changes that would directly affect current compliance assumptions if enacted.
Where A PMS Fits Into TOT Compliance
None of this is about software, but Ohio's patchwork of county and municipal excise layers, with some counties locked out of the tax entirely and others carrying a special third layer, is exactly the kind of structure that's easy to misconfigure by hand. A property management system that lets a hotel set up separate tax codes for the county rate, the municipal rate, and any convention-facilities-authority layer means front desk staff apply the full, correct combined rate automatically rather than relying on someone remembering which of Ohio's overlapping local rules applies to that specific address. Revenue reports broken out by tax code also make it easier to reconcile what's owed to a city against what's owed to a county on a different filing schedule, particularly in stacked markets like Columbus and Cincinnati.
See how roommaster simplifies multi-property tax reporting.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does Ohio have a statewide hotel tax rate?
No. Ohio has no statewide lodging or hotel excise tax. The state's general 5.75% sales tax applies to hotel rooms like any other sale, and any additional lodging tax comes entirely from a county or municipal excise tax that local governments choose to enact.
2. What is Ohio's hotel tax?
Ohio's hotel tax is a local excise tax authorized under two statutes: ORC 5739.08 lets a city or township levy up to 3%, and ORC 5739.09 lets a county levy an additional 3%, though only one of the two can claim that second 3% in a given area.
3. What is Ohio's lodging tax?
"Lodging tax" is another name for the same local excise charge described above. Ohio doesn't operate a separate tax under that name; it's the same county and municipal excise tax that funds convention and visitors bureaus and, in seven counties, convention facilities.
4. How long does a guest have to stay in Ohio before the hotel tax stops applying?
30 consecutive days. Ohio's tax only applies to "transient guests," a term statutorily defined as someone occupying a room for fewer than 30 consecutive days, so a guest who reaches that threshold falls outside the tax's definition entirely.
5. Does Ohio require hotels to disclose all fees upfront?
No Ohio-specific fee-transparency or all-in-pricing statute was found. Only the federal FTC junk fees rule currently applies to Ohio hotels, which is why this page doesn't include a state-specific fee-transparency section.
6. Who is responsible for filing and remitting Ohio's hotel tax?
The property operator is responsible for collecting the tax from guests and remitting it to the specific county or municipality that imposed it, since Ohio has no single statewide filing system for this tax. Filing frequency is set locally and is monthly in most counties, though some, like Hamilton County, require quarterly filing instead.
7. Why can two cities in the same Ohio county have different hotel tax rates?
Under a 1980 rule, whichever government, a city or the county itself, claims the additional 3% lodging tax first permanently locks the other out of levying its own version for as long as that tax stays in effect. That means cities within the same county can end up on different combined rates depending on their own enactment history.
