Ames, IA Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)
Key Facts
- Base tax rate
- 5% of gross lodging receipts (Sec. 24.3)
- Increased rate
- 7% after voter-approved election (Sec. 24.4)
- Covered lodging
- Hotels, motels, inns, rooming houses, tourist courts
- Applies to
- Any transient sleeping accommodations furnished for rent
- Revenue use
- Tourism, convention, and recreation facility funding (Sec. 24.5)
- Administered with
- Ames Convention and Visitors Bureau, ISU representatives
Summary
Ames imposes a hotel and motel tax on transient lodging under Ames Municipal Code Sec. 24.3, set at a base rate of five percent (5%) of gross rental receipts. Sec. 24.4 raises that rate to seven percent (7%) once voters approve the increase in a local election, and the definition sweeps in any place offering paid sleeping accommodations to transient guests, not just traditional hotels.
Sec. 24.3. TAX IMPOSED. There shall be imposed hereby a tax at the rate of five percent (5%) upon the gross receipts from the renting of any and all sleeping rooms, apartments, or sleeping quarters in any hotel, motel, inn, public lodging house, rooming house, tourist court, or in any place where sleeping accommodations are furnished to transient guests for rent, whether with or without meals. ... Sec. 24.4. ... HOTEL AND MOTEL TAX INCREASED TO SEVEN PERCENT (7%). The rate of the hotel and motel tax shall be and is hereby increased from the rate stated in Sec. 24.3 to a rate of seven percent (7%) upon the occurrence of an election at which a majority of those voting on the question favors that increase.
Full Breakdown
The City of Ames taxes short-term lodging through Chapter 24, Taxation. Sec. 24.3 imposes a base tax of five percent (5%) on the gross receipts from renting any and all sleeping rooms, apartments, or sleeping quarters in any hotel, motel, inn, public lodging house, rooming house, tourist court, or in any place where sleeping accommodations are furnished to transient guests for rent, whether with or without meals, a definition broad enough to reach short-term rentals and other transient lodging arrangements, not only conventional hotels and motels.
Sec. 24.4 raises that rate to seven percent (7%), but the increase is conditioned on the occurrence of an election at which a majority of those voting on the question favors that increase, the mechanism Iowa cities use to adopt a rate above the statutory floor; Ames's code carries the increase as codified law, meaning voters approved it. Sec. 24.5 directs how the proceeds must be spent: the City Manager works with the Ames Convention and Visitors Bureau and Iowa State University representatives on multi-year agreements, subject to City Council approval, to fund tourism and convention promotion and to build or improve recreation, convention, cultural, and entertainment facilities.
The tax is collected from the operator of the lodging establishment on the guest's rent, and it stacks on top of the state's own hotel and motel excise tax framework referenced directly beneath Sec. 24.3 in the code.
Violations & Fines
Ames's own text does not spell out a separate local penalty clause for failing to remit the hotel and motel tax; the printed cross-reference beneath Sec. 24.3 points to the state hotel and motel tax law, and nonpayment is enforced through that state collection framework rather than a standalone municipal infraction printed in Chapter 24 itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the hotel and motel tax rate in Ames, Iowa?
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Sources & Official References
Other rules in Ames
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