Kankakee County, IL Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Section 50-67(a) imposes the county's hotel and motel operators' occupation tax at five percent of gross rental receipts from renting, leasing, or letting rooms, excluding receipts from permanent residents who have occupied or had the right to occupy a room for at least 30 consecutive days. Section 50-66 defines hotel or motel broadly to include inns, motels, tourist homes, lodging and rooming houses, apartment houses, retreat and conference centers, hunting lodges, and short-term rentals including, but not limited to, Airbnb and VRBO, so a short-term rental host is subject to the same tax as a traditional hotel.

Section 50-70 limits where the tax applies: it covers any hotel or motel in the county that is not located within a city, village, or unincorporated town that already imposes its own hotel tax under 65 ILCS 5/8-3-14, so operators inside a municipality with its own hotel tax pay that tax instead. Operators must file a monthly return with the county treasurer by the 20th of each month reporting gross rental receipts, exclusions, and tax due, and must pay the tax at the same time.

Disputes over the tax fall under the jurisdiction of the Twenty-First Judicial Circuit Court, and the county may contract with chambers of commerce or visitors' bureaus to spend the proceeds it collects.