Bellevue, WA Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)
Key Facts
- Tax rate
- 5% of the lodging charge
- Covered lodging
- hotel, motel, rooming house, tourist court, trailer camp
- Long-stay exemption
- 30+ continuous days presumed a lease, untaxed
- Collected by
- WA State Dept. of Revenue
- Proceeds restricted to
- Chapter 67.28 RCW tourism purposes
- Effective date
- January 2, 1999 (Ord. 5077)
Summary
Bellevue levies a 5 percent lodging excise tax on charges for hotel, motel, rooming house, tourist court and trailer camp stays under BCC 4.19.010, collected by the state alongside sales tax and funneled into the city's hotel/motel tax fund.
There is imposed and levied and shall be collected an excise tax of five percent on the sale or charge made for the furnishing of lodging that is subject to tax under Chapter 82.08 RCW. The tax applies to the sale or charge made for the furnishing of lodging by a hotel, rooming house, tourist court, motel or trailer camp and the granting of any similar license to use real property as distinguished from the renting or leasing of real property. It shall be presumed that the occupancy of real property for a continuous period of one month or more constitutes a rental or lease of real property and not a mere license to use or enjoy the same.
Official source re-checked September 8, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: current through Ordinance 6929, passed July 14, 2026).
Full Breakdown
08 RCW (the state retail sales tax). The tax reaches a hotel, rooming house, tourist court, motel or trailer camp, and it extends to "the granting of any similar license to use real property as distinguished from the renting or leasing of real property," which is how the chapter captures short-stay lodging booked outside a traditional hotel desk. The same section presumes that occupancy for a continuous period of one month or more is a rental or lease rather than a taxable license, so long-term stays fall outside the tax.
020 designates the Washington State Department of Revenue as the city's collection agent: DOR gathers the tax alongside the operator's regular state sales tax return and remits Bellevue's share, which is deposited into the hotel/motel tax fund. 040 establishes and governs that dedicated fund. 18A Lodging Excise Tax that had governed the same subject.
Violations & Fines
Enforcement runs through the state rather than city citations: BCC 4.19.020 hands collection and remittance to the Washington State Department of Revenue, so an operator who under-collects or fails to remit is pursued the same way DOR pursues delinquent state sales tax on the same transaction. BCC 4.19.030 further limits the city's own hotel/motel tax fund to Chapter 67.28 RCW tourism purposes; Chapter 4.19 itself sets no separate local fine schedule for lodging operators.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Bellevue's hotel tax rate?
Does the lodging tax apply to short-term rentals?
Who collects Bellevue's lodging tax?
What can Bellevue spend the lodging tax on?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Bellevue
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Transient Occupancy Tax in Nearby Cities
How other cities in King County handle transient occupancy tax.