Montebello, CA Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Chapter 3.40 of the Montebello Municipal Code defines a taxable stay broadly: Section 3.40.020 covers any hotel, motel, tourist home, apartment house, mobile home, or similar structure occupied by a transient, defined as anyone with a right of occupancy for thirty consecutive days or less unless a written agreement provides for a longer stay. Section 3.40.030(A) sets the tax at thirty-seven percent of rent, collected by the operator at the time rent is paid and owed to the city as a debt of the transient until paid.

Section 3.40.030(B) escalates or reduces that rate every July 1st based on the change in the consumer price index for the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County area since the June 1978 base month. Section 3.40.040 exempts federal, state, and treaty-exempt foreign government employees on official business, claimed under penalty of perjury at the time rent is collected. Section 3.40.050 requires every operator to register within thirty days of opening and post a transient occupancy registration certificate on the premises. Section 3.40.070 requires quarterly returns and remittance to the tax administrator, defined in Section 3.40.020 as the city's license collector, with records kept for three years under Section 3.40.080.

A city council ordinance temporarily capped the rate at ten percent from July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010 under Section 3.40.130, confirming the standing rate otherwise exceeded that cap.