Kenner, LA Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)
Key Facts
- License fee
- $2.00 per sleeping room, annual
- Covers
- Hotels, motels, rooming/boarding houses, STRs
- License type
- Flat-fee occupational license
- Collector
- Director, Inspections and Code Enforcement
- General penalty
- Up to $500 / 60 days
Summary
The City of Kenner does not levy a percentage room tax on hotels; instead it charges every hotel, motel, rooming house, boarding house and short-term rental a flat annual occupational license tax of $2.00 per sleeping room under the city's business license article.
Whenever in this Code or in any ordinance of the city an act is prohibited or is made or declared to be unlawful or an offense or a misdemeanor, or whenever in such Code or ordinance the doing of any act is required or the failure to do any act is declared to be unlawful, where no specific penalty is provided therefore, the violation of any such provision of this Code or of any such ordinance shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500.00) or by imprisonment for not more than sixty (60) days, or both such fine and imprisonment; and/or community service work as deemed appropriate by the magistrate court for the City of Kenner not to exceed thirty-two (32) hours. ... (i)Hotels, motels, rooming houses, boarding houses, short-term rentals. Any person operating a hotel, motel, rooming house, boarding house or short-term rental shall pay an annual license tax of two dollars ($2.00) for each sleeping room contained by the hotel, motel, rooming house, boarding house or short-term rental.
Full Breakdown
Kenner Code of Ordinances § 10-78(i) places hotels, motels, rooming houses, boarding houses and short-term rentals among the businesses that pay a flat-fee occupational license rather than a receipts-based one, at a rate of two dollars per sleeping room contained in the establishment. Because this is an occupational license, not a room-night sales tax, it is due annually to the city's collector, the director of the Department of Inspections and Code Enforcement under § 10-53(b), regardless of occupancy rates or nightly rents charged. Section 10-58 additionally requires a hotel, motel, rooming house or boarding house to hold its own separate license even if another business is operated in conjunction with it on the same premises.
The general occupational license provisions apply on top of this flat fee: the license year runs January 1 to December 31, a new short-term rental or hotel operator must pay a tentative tax before commencing business under § 10-56, and an intentionally false statement on the license application is a misdemeanor. No provision in the Kenner Code imposes a percentage-based transient occupancy or room tax on lodging; that kind of tax, where it applies in the area, runs through separate parish or state sales tax collection, not this city ordinance.
Violations & Fines
Operating a hotel, motel, rooming house, boarding house or short-term rental in Kenner without paying the $2.00-per-room annual license, or making an intentionally false statement on the license application, exposes the operator to the general Code penalty of a fine up to $500.00, imprisonment up to sixty days, or both under § 1-9, and a false-application conviction under § 10-62(d) can bring a fine up to $500.00 or imprisonment up to six months.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Kenner charge a percentage hotel occupancy tax?
Do short-term rentals pay the same fee as hotels in Kenner?
What happens if a Kenner hotel does not pay its license tax?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Kenner
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