Commerce City, CO Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Section 20-240 states the purpose of Article IX of Chapter 20: to impose a four percent tax on the price paid for short-term hotel and motel room and accommodations. Section 20-242 levies that excise tax, effective January 1, 2008, on the price any vendor charges for leasing, renting or otherwise providing a hotel or motel room or accommodation in Commerce City, and specifies the tax applies in addition to the sales and use tax charged under Chapter 20, Article V. Section 20-241 defines "vendor" broadly as the owner or operator of a hotel, motel, lodging house, inn, guest house, hostel or bed and breakfast that provides room or accommodation services for a consideration, and "price" as the full value paid or promised for the room.

Anyone providing hotel or motel room or accommodation services must first obtain a Commerce City business license under Section 20-245, and Section 20-246 makes the vendor liable for remitting four percent of gross proceeds from those services. Section 20-247 folds administration and collection into the same process used for the sales and use tax, including the assessment of interest and penalties for nonpayment. Section 20-243 exempts several categories of sales from the tax, most notably any stay where the occupant enters an agreement and pays for a room or rooms for at least thirty consecutive days, even if payment is made in shorter increments, as well as sales to charitable organizations and to federal, state or city government entities acting in their governmental capacity.

Section 20-244 directs the collected revenue, plus interest earned, into a dedicated Hotel and Motel Room and Accommodation Services Tax Account restricted to economic development, marketing, and parks and recreation spending.