Cathedral City, CA Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Cathedral City Municipal Code § 3.24.030 imposes the transient occupancy tax at twelve percent of the rent charged by the operator, effective January 1, 2007. The tax is a debt owed by the transient to the city, extinguished only by payment to the operator or the city. The transient pays the operator when the rent is paid, a proportionate share comes due with each installment, and any unpaid balance is due when the transient stops occupying space. If the operator does not collect, the tax administrator can require direct payment to the city. The tax administrator is the city manager or a designated agent.

A transient is a person occupying a hotel for thirty consecutive calendar days or less. A written qualifying rental agreement for at least thirty-one consecutive days takes the occupant out of that group. The definition of hotel in § 3.24.010 reaches inns, motels, lodging houses, timeshare projects, and trailer and RV sites, and it excludes an individually owned single-family dwelling rented only occasionally and incidentally to the owner's own use. The owner carries the burden of proving that exclusion. Section 5.96.020 adds that short-term vacation rentals are sleeping accommodations subject to the tax.

Operators must hold a transient occupancy registration permit before opening (§ 3.24.015), paying a registration fee set by council resolution, and cannot operate without it (§ 3.24.020). The tax is stated separately from the rent on each receipt, and a duplicate receipt is kept three years (§ 3.24.040). No operator can advertise that the tax will be absorbed or refunded. Returns are due on or before the last day of the month following each calendar month and are filed even when no rent was charged (§ 3.24.045). Section 3.24.048 allows an extension of up to thirty days at one-half percent monthly interest. Section 3.24.035 exempts timeshare estates, state park campsites, federal and state employees on official business and occupancy the city cannot lawfully tax, on a signed exemption claim.