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Hotel And Lodging Tax In Seattle 2026: TOT Rate And Rules
Seattle's combined hotel tax runs 15.70%, driven mainly by King County's 7% Convention and Trade Center Tax; the city's own official rate table lists Seattle's special hotel-motel excise tax as not currently imposed at all.
August 28, 2026
8
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TL;DR
- Seattle's combined lodging tax rate is 15.70%, made up of Washington's combined sales tax on lodging plus a 7% King County Convention and Trade Center Tax.
- Hotel tax, lodging tax, occupancy tax, and bed tax all refer to the same charge that shows up on a Seattle hotel or short-term rental folio.
- State law lets Seattle charge its own Special Hotel/Motel Tax of up to 4%, the highest cap of any city in Washington, but the state's own published rate table currently lists Seattle's rate for that tax as not imposed.
- The King County Convention and Trade Center Tax is 7% inside Seattle but only 2.8% for lodging in the rest of King County.
- A stay of 30 consecutive days or more is exempt from the lodging tax, matching the statewide threshold.
- Licensed short-term rentals in Seattle carry the identical 15.70% combined rate as hotels, tracked under a separate reporting code rather than a discounted rate.
- The Seattle Tourism Improvement Area charges 2.3% of the room rate at a defined group of 71 downtown hotels, separate from the taxes the state collects, with revenue going straight to Visit Seattle.
- Seattle and King County each added a new 0.1% sales tax for public safety funding effective January 1, 2026, a change that flows into the sales-tax portion of a hotel bill.
How Seattle's Hotel and Lodging Tax Works
Seattle doesn't brand its hotel tax with one official name. The Washington Department of Revenue tracks it as a combined "lodging tax rate" made up of the state and local sales tax on the room charge plus King County's Convention and Trade Center Tax, currently published at a combined 15.70% for Seattle specifically.
Washington law lets a city the size of Seattle add its own Special Hotel/Motel Tax on top, capped at 4%, higher than the 2% cap most other Washington cities and counties get. Seattle's own rate for that tax is currently listed as not imposed in the state's quarterly lodging rate table, which is why the King County Convention and Trade Center Tax, not a city-specific excise tax, drives most of Seattle's rate above the general sales tax baseline. Any change to a Washington lodging tax also has to go through a Lodging Tax Advisory Committee consultation at least 45 days beforehand, though that committee cannot block the change outright.
The tax applies to hotels, motels, and short-term rentals of fewer than 30 consecutive days. A stay of 30 days or more is treated as a rental or lease rather than taxable lodging, the same threshold Washington uses statewide.
Tax Rates and Extra Fees
A Seattle hotel bill layers three distinct components, though one of Washington's usual layers is currently absent in Seattle's case, plus a separate downtown-only assessment that doesn't run through the state's tax system at all.
| Tax component | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Combined state and local sales tax on lodging | 8.70% | Washington Department of Revenue's own lodging-specific combined rate for Seattle, covering the 6.5% state rate plus local and Regional Transit Authority sales tax |
| Seattle Special Hotel/Motel Tax | Not imposed | State law authorizes Seattle to charge up to 4%, the highest cap of any Washington city, but Seattle's published rate for this component is currently listed as N/A |
| King County Convention and Trade Center Tax | 7% | Applies inside Seattle city limits; the same tax is only 2.8% for lodging elsewhere in King County |
| Total lodging tax rate (Washington DOR) | 15.70% | Published quarterly by the state; identical for hotels and licensed short-term rentals |
| Seattle Tourism Improvement Area (STIA) fee | 2.3% of room rate | Applies only at a defined group of 71 downtown Seattle hotels, not citywide, and is not part of the state's lodging tax total above |
The Convention and Trade Center Tax expanded on January 1, 2019 to cover every lodging business in King County regardless of room count, closing an earlier exemption for small properties. It funds debt service and operations for the Washington State Convention Center's downtown Seattle campus.
The STIA fee has changed shape twice since it was created in 2011 at a flat $2 per room, per night. The Seattle City Council doubled it to $4 a night in March 2022, then converted it to a percentage of the occupied room rate, 2.3%, effective January 1, 2024. All of the revenue goes to a dedicated marketing fund run by Visit Seattle, the city's tourism promotion nonprofit, and it applies only to the specific downtown hotels named in the assessment, not to every Seattle property.
Collection and Remittance
The guest pays the combined lodging tax at checkout, and the operator, whether a hotel or a short-term rental host, is responsible for remitting it to the Washington Department of Revenue. Airbnb and Vrbo both collect and remit Washington's combined sales tax and the King County Convention and Trade Center Tax automatically on behalf of hosts, but a host still has to register separately with the Department of Revenue and file returns reporting that rental income.
The STIA fee works differently: it is billed and collected directly by the participating downtown hotels themselves and passed through to the assessment's administrator, not filed alongside the state's lodging tax return, so a downtown property needs a separate process to track and remit it.
Effective January 1, 2026, Seattle and King County each added a new 0.1% sales tax to fund public safety and criminal-justice programs, pushing Seattle's general combined sales tax to 10.55%. Because the lodging tax rate incorporates the local sales tax rate, that change flows into a Seattle hotel folio as well as into every other retail purchase in the city.
Exemptions From Seattle's Hotel Tax
A stay of 30 consecutive days or more is exempt from Seattle's lodging tax, the same threshold used statewide in Washington. The exemption depends on the property being rented or leased on a long-term basis rather than as a series of shorter bookings, so a guest who checks out and back in cannot string together separate short stays to claim it.
Washington does not offer a blanket exemption for government travelers the way some states do; a government agency renting a room is generally still subject to the same lodging tax unless a specific statutory exemption applies to that agency's purchase.
Common Mistakes Hotels Make With TOT Compliance
- Assuming Seattle charges its own hotel-motel tax at the full 4% cap. State law allows it, but Seattle's own published rate table currently lists that component as not imposed, so budgeting for a rate the city doesn't actually charge overstates the total.
- Confusing the Convention and Trade Center Tax rate inside and outside city limits. The same tax is 7% in Seattle but only 2.8% elsewhere in King County, and a property near the city line can get the rate wrong in either direction.
- Treating the STIA fee like a state tax. Because it is billed directly by participating downtown hotels and never appears in the Department of Revenue's lodging tax filing, it is easy to either forget to collect it or to double-count it against the state return.
- Assuming a platform's automatic remittance covers everything. Airbnb and Vrbo handle the combined sales tax and the Convention and Trade Center Tax, but hosts still have to register with the Department of Revenue and file their own returns.
- Missing the January 2026 sales tax change. The new 0.1% city and 0.1% county public safety taxes raised Seattle's general sales tax rate, and a folio still quoting the pre-2026 rate will undercharge the guest.
- Applying a discounted rate to short-term rentals. Washington's own rate table shows licensed short-term rentals in Seattle at the identical 15.70% total as hotels, not a lower rate.
Where A PMS Fits Into TOT Compliance
None of this is about software fixing a legal obligation. But a property management system that lets a Seattle hotel configure the combined sales and lodging tax, the Convention and Trade Center Tax, and a downtown property's STIA assessment as separate tax codes, rather than folding everything into one blended percentage, makes it far easier to catch a rate change like January 2026's sales tax increase before it undercharges a guest. Revenue reports that break totals down by date range also make it simpler to reconcile what a booking platform actually remitted against what the property still owes on its own state filing.
See how roommaster simplifies multi-property tax reporting.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does Seattle have its own hotel tax rate?
Seattle is authorized to charge its own Special Hotel/Motel Tax of up to 4%, but the state's own published lodging rate table currently lists that component as not imposed. Seattle's elevated combined rate comes mainly from the 7% King County Convention and Trade Center Tax, which applies specifically inside city limits.
2. What is Seattle's hotel tax?
It is a combined lodging tax rate of 15.70%, made up of Washington's state and local sales tax on the room charge plus the 7% King County Convention and Trade Center Tax, published quarterly by the Washington Department of Revenue.
3. What is Seattle's lodging tax?
Lodging tax is another name for the same 15.70% combined charge as the hotel tax and occupancy tax on a Seattle stay, covering both hotels and licensed short-term rentals at the identical rate.
4. How long does a guest have to stay in Seattle to be exempt from the hotel tax?
A stay of 30 consecutive days or more is exempt, the same threshold Washington applies statewide, provided the arrangement is a genuine long-term rental rather than a string of separate short bookings.
5. Does Seattle require hotels to disclose all fees upfront?
Washington does not have a dedicated state or Seattle-specific hotel fee-transparency law comparable to some other states. Mandatory charges like the Seattle Tourism Improvement Area fee still have to be disclosed under general Washington consumer protection law against misleading pricing.
6. Who is responsible for filing and remitting Seattle's hotel tax?
The property or short-term rental host collects the tax from the guest and remits it to the Washington Department of Revenue. Airbnb and Vrbo automatically collect and remit the sales tax and Convention and Trade Center Tax portions for their hosts, but hosts must still register with the Department of Revenue and file their own returns.
7. What is the Seattle Tourism Improvement Area fee?
It is a 2.3%-of-room-rate assessment charged only at a defined group of 71 downtown Seattle hotels, created in 2011 as a flat $2-a-night fee and converted to its current percentage structure in January 2024. Revenue funds Visit Seattle's tourism marketing rather than any state or county government program.
