Glendale, AZ Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Section 21.1-444 sets the base hotel classification rate at 2.9% of gross income for "every person engaging or continuing in the business of operating a hotel charging for lodging and/or lodging space furnished to any" person. Section 21.1-447 then adds "an additional tax in an amount equal to five percent (5%) of the gross income from the business activity of any hotel...charging for lodging and/or lodging space furnished to any transient," bringing the combined city rate on transient stays to 7.9%. The chapter's general definitions section pins down who counts: a "transient" is any person who obtains lodging space "on a daily or weekly basis, or on any other basis for less than thirty (30) consecutive days," while a "hotel" reaches any public or private hotel, inn, motel, rooming house, apartment house, or trailer offering lodging for compensation, but excludes foster homes, rest homes, sheltered care homes, nursing homes, and primary health care facilities.

Section 21.1-444(b) carves out specific exclusions from the base hotel tax: income from housing prisoners under a government detention contract, income already taxed under another classification, and separately stated telephone, fax, or internet charges (which instead fall under the telecommunications classification, Section 21.1-470). A hotel operator must hold a Transaction Privilege and Use Tax License under Section 21.1-320 ($35, renewed every January 1) before charging for lodging; Section 21.1-350 makes operating without one unlawful. Because the additional 5% tax is levied on top of, not instead of, the base 2.9% rate, a Glendale hotel bill reflects both line items collected together by the Tax Collector under Chapter 21.1.