Grays Harbor County, WA Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Grays Harbor County Code Section 3.48.010 levies a special excise tax of three percent on the sale of, or charge made for, lodging furnished by a hotel, rooming house, tourist court, motel or trailer camp, and on any similar license to use real property short of an actual lease. The chapter borrows its core definitions of selling price, seller, buyer and consumer from RCW 82.08.010 under Section 3.48.020, and Section 3.48.030 makes clear the tax stacks on top of any other license fee or tax the county already imposes on the same lodging business.

Administration is handled entirely by the state: under Section 3.48.040, the Washington Department of Revenue collects and administers the tax on the county's behalf under RCW 67.28.200, prescribes the reporting forms operators must use, and applies the same audit and refund rules that govern state excise collections. Section 3.48.050 puts the legal duty to remit the tax on the seller, meaning the lodging operator, not the guest, who must pay the Department of Revenue directly. If a city inside the county, such as Aberdeen, Hoquiam or Ocean Shores, also levies its own lodging tax authorized under RCW 67.28, Section 3.48.060 credits that city tax against the county's three percent so a guest's combined lodging tax rate never exceeds three percent of the room charge.

The tax funds a dedicated tourism sub-fund, fund 112-000-100, inside the county's stadium fund under Section 3.48.080, and Section 3.48.090 exempts emergency shelter-voucher lodging provided to homeless persons for stays under thirty days when run through a city, town, county or authorized agency. Because stays of one month or more are presumed to be a rental or lease rather than a license to occupy, long-term extended-stay guests fall outside the tax altogether under Section 3.48.010's own definition.