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

How Utah's Hotel and Lodging Tax Works

Utah's hotel tax, officially the transient room tax (TRT), is not one flat statewide rate. It is a stack of up to three separate taxes, a statewide TRT, a county TRT of up to 4.5 percent, and a municipal TRT of up to 1.5 percent, charged on stays under 30 consecutive days at hotels, motels, and similar lodging.

The tax is authorized under Utah Code Title 59, Chapter 12, Parts 3, 3A, and 6. Counties impose their share under Section 59-12-301, cities and towns under Section 59-12-352 and its companion additional municipal TRT provision, and Salt Lake County alone under the separate Tourism, Recreation, Cultural, Convention, and Airport Facilities Tax Act in Part 6. Unlike California, where a district-level lodging assessment often needs voter approval under Proposition 218, Utah lets a county or city legislative body adopt or raise TRT by ordinance alone, which is part of why rates have moved so often since 2025.

TRT applies to hotels, motels, inns, trailer courts, campgrounds, RV parks, tourist homes, and short-term rentals booked through platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo. It does not apply to charges for meeting rooms, exercise facilities, dry cleaning, telephone use, or vending machines billed separately from the room.

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Tax Rates and Extra Fees

Utah's total lodging tax bill has three layers: the statewide TRT, the county TRT, and, in most cities, a municipal TRT. The rates below reflect the combined TRT a guest pays in each location, not including regular state and local sales tax, which applies separately on top of TRT.

In Salt Lake County, the tax stack goes one layer deeper. The county has adopted a tax under the Tourism, Recreation, Cultural, Convention, and Airport Facilities Tax Act, commonly shortened to the TRCC tax, which is a separate authority from the base county TRT even though the county lists them together as one combined rate on its rate chart. Large downtown hotels in Salt Lake City also sit inside a Convention and Tourism Assessment Area, a hotel-specific assessment that functions much like a tourism marketing district elsewhere, funding convention and visitor promotion on top of the base TRT.

None of these district or TRCC charges replace the base TRT. A hotel that folds them into a single room tax line on a guest folio, instead of tracking each authority's share separately, is the kind of bookkeeping shortcut that causes real problems at audit time, since the county, city, and TRCC portions are remitted to different accounts.

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Collection and Remittance

Utah requires the lodging guest to pay TRT, but the property is legally responsible for collecting, reporting, and remitting it. Returns are filed through the Utah Taxpayer Access Point (TAP) using Form TC-62T, alongside the regular sales tax return, and are due the last day of the month following the filing period. Filing frequency, monthly or quarterly, is set by the state based on the property's prior-year tax liability.

Properties that list on Airbnb, Vrbo, or similar platforms should confirm which portion of TRT the platform actually remits on their behalf. Marketplace facilitator agreements in Utah vary by platform and sometimes by county, so a hotel or short-term rental operator can still owe a return even when a platform has already collected part of the tax from the guest.

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Exemptions From Utah's Hotel Tax

Stays of 30 consecutive days or longer are exempt from TRT under Utah Code 59-12-302, the same threshold used for the state's general sales tax exemption on long-term lodging. The exemption is tied to the terms of the rental agreement or reservation, not simply to how long a guest happens to stay, so a property should keep a signed lease or extended-stay agreement on file to support the exemption if the state ever audits the return.

Federal government employees and foreign diplomats traveling on official business are exempt with a valid federal exemption certificate. Utah state and local government employees don't get an up-front exemption; the paying agency generally has to request a refund of TRT already paid, rather than the hotel waiving the tax at checkout. Religious and charitable organizations can qualify for exemption on purchases of $1,000 or more using a TC-721 exemption certificate or a TC-73 exemption contract.

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Common Mistakes Hotels Make With TOT Compliance

• Using last year's county rate. Utah counties changed their TRT rate twice within four months, in October 2025 and January 2026, so a property that hasn't checked its rate recently may still be collecting the old 4.25 percent county TRT instead of 4.5 percent.
• Treating the 30-day exemption as automatic. Utah ties the long-stay exemption to the lease or reservation terms, not just to how long the guest ends up staying, so hotels need signed agreements on file, not just a folio that happens to show 30-plus nights.
• Assuming Airbnb or Vrbo remits everything. Platform remittance agreements vary by county in Utah, and a short-term rental host can still owe a TRT return even after a platform collects tax from the guest.
• Folding the TRCC or CTAA charge into the base county rate. In Salt Lake County, the tourism TRT and the Convention and Tourism Assessment Area charge are distinct from the base county TRT and need to be tracked and remitted separately.
• Missing the municipal layer. A property inside city limits owes up to three separate TRT layers, state, county, and municipal, and skipping the city's own 1 to 1.5 percent rate is a common gap for smaller independent hotels.
• Not retraining front desk staff after a rate change. When a county or city raises its TRT rate, the point-of-sale and booking engine tax settings need to be updated at the same time as the front desk's quoted rates, or guests get billed the wrong amount for weeks after the change takes effect.

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Where A PMS Fits Into TOT Compliance

None of this is about software fixing tax law, it's about a property having a system that keeps up with it. A PMS that lets a hotel configure separate tax codes for the state, county, municipal, and TRCC layers of Utah's TRT reduces the chance that a rate change gets missed on the folio. Revenue reports that break down collected tax by date range make it easier to reconcile what was charged against what's owed when a county changes its rate mid-quarter, as several did in Utah in late 2025 and early 2026. And a booking engine that shows the full price, including all applicable TRT layers, before checkout gives guests an accurate total up front instead of a surprise at the front desk.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Does Utah have a statewide hotel tax rate?

Yes. Utah charges a statewide transient room tax (TRT) of 1.07 percent, made up of a 0.32 percent rate that funds hospitality education and outdoor recreation infrastructure and a 0.75 percent rate added by House Bill 456 in 2025 that funds a grant program for counties dealing with tourism-related strain on emergency services and roads. This statewide rate applies everywhere in Utah on top of whatever county and municipal TRT a property also owes.

2. What is Utah's hotel tax?

Utah's hotel tax is the transient room tax (TRT), a charge on stays of less than 30 consecutive days at hotels, motels, inns, campgrounds, and similar lodging. It's made up of a statewide rate, a county rate of up to 4.5 percent, and, in most cities, a municipal rate of up to 1.5 percent, so the total a guest pays depends on exactly which county and city the property sits in.

3. What is Utah's lodging tax?

Lodging tax and hotel tax are the same charge in Utah; both terms describe the transient room tax authorized under Utah Code Title 59, Chapter 12. Some travelers also see it called a bed tax, room tax, TOT, or occupancy tax, but all of these refer to the same combined state, county, and municipal TRT.

4. How much is hotel tax in Salt Lake City?

A hotel in Salt Lake City collects a combined TRT of about 6.82 percent: 4.25 percent county TRT, 0.5 percent county tourism TRT, 1 percent city TRT, and 1.07 percent statewide TRT. Large downtown hotels inside the Convention and Tourism Assessment Area may also see an additional assessment on top of that combined rate.

5. Is Utah's hotel tax the same in every county?

No. Only the 1.07 percent statewide TRT is uniform everywhere. The county TRT ranges up to a 4.5 percent cap that most, but not all, counties have adopted, Weber County still charges 3 percent, for example, and municipal TRT within a county can range from zero up to 1.5 percent depending on the city.

6. Do short-term rentals like Airbnb pay Utah's hotel tax?

Yes. Utah's TRT applies to short-term rentals booked through platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo the same as it applies to hotels and motels. Some platforms remit part of the tax directly, but remittance agreements vary by county, so a host should confirm what's actually being collected on their behalf rather than assuming the platform has it covered.

7. How long can a guest stay before Utah's hotel tax no longer applies?

A stay of 30 consecutive days or longer is exempt from Utah's transient room tax under Utah Code 59-12-302. The exemption depends on the terms of the rental agreement or reservation, so hotels should keep a signed lease or extended-stay agreement on file rather than relying on the guest simply staying that long.