Alameda, CA Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)
Key Facts
- Tax rate
- 14% of rent (Sec. 3-61.3)
- Who pays
- Transient guest, collected by hotel operator
- Reporting
- Quarterly returns due to Tax Administrator
- Late penalty
- 10% plus 15% more after 90 days
- Interest
- 1.5% per month on unpaid tax
- Misdemeanor penalty
- Up to $500 fine or 6 months jail
Summary
Alameda charges every hotel guest a 14 percent Transient Occupancy Tax on the rent paid for lodging of 31 days or less. Hotel operators collect the tax with the rent, state it separately from room charges, and remit it quarterly to the City Treasurer under Municipal Code Section 3-61.3.
Hotel shall mean any structure, or any portion of any structure, which is occupied or intended or designed for occupancy by transients for dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes, and includes any hotel, inn, tourist home or house, motel, studio hotel, bachelor hotel, lodging house, rooming house, apartment house, dormitory, public or private club, mobilehome or house trailer at a fixed location, or other similar structure or portion thereof. ... For the privilege of occupancy in any hotel, each transient is subject to and shall pay a tax in the amount of fourteen (14%) percent of the rent charged by the operator. ... An additional penalty of fifteen (15%) percent shall accrue if the tax remains unpaid on the 90th day following the date of the original delinquency. Interest shall accrue at the rate of one and one-half of one (1½%) percent a month, or fraction thereof, on the amount of tax, exclusive of penalties, from the date the tax becomes delinquent to the date of payment.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 74).
Full Breakdown
Alameda's Uniform Transient Occupancy Tax Regulations, first adopted by Ordinance No. and codified at Municipal Code Section 3-61, tax every stay in a hotel, motel, inn, lodging house, apartment house or similar structure. 2 defines a transient as anyone occupying space for thirty-one consecutive calendar days or less, and defines rent as the full consideration charged for the room, in money, goods or services, without deduction. 3 sets the tax at fourteen percent of the rent charged by the operator, payable by the transient at the time rent is paid, and prorated across installment payments.
The operator must separately state the tax from the rent on the guest's receipt and may not advertise that the tax will be absorbed into the room rate. 7 requires operators to file a return with the Tax Administrator, the City Treasurer, by the last day of the month following the close of each calendar quarter, remitting the full tax collected at that time; the Tax Administrator may shorten the reporting period for a specific certificate holder. All tax collected is held in trust for the City until remitted.
3 adds a ten percent penalty, an additional fifteen percent once ninety days late, and interest of one and one-half percent a month on the unpaid balance, with interest and penalties becoming part of the tax itself.
Violations & Fines
An operator who fails to remit tax collected owes a ten percent penalty for the first delinquency and a second ten percent penalty if the amount is still unpaid thirty days later, rising to twenty-five percent if the Tax Administrator finds fraud, plus interest of one-half of one percent monthly, under Section 3-61.13. Any operator who fails to register, file a return, or who files a false or fraudulent return is guilty of a misdemeanor under Section 3-61.14, punishable by a fine of up to $500, up to six months in jail, or both.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Alameda's hotel occupancy tax rate?
How often must a hotel operator remit the tax to the City?
What penalties apply if a hotel is late paying Alameda's occupancy tax?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Alameda
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Transient Occupancy Tax in Nearby Cities
How other cities in Alameda County handle transient occupancy tax.