Nicholasville, KY Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Article VI of Chapter 21 (Taxation) is the whole hotel tax scheme in Nicholasville. Section 21-85(b) sets the rate at three percent (3%) of the rent, and it reaches well beyond hotels. The printed list names any hotel, motel, inn, tourist camp, tourist cabin, campground and recreational vehicle park, plus any other place where accommodations are regularly furnished to transients for consideration, and it closes by naming businesses operating as motor courts, motels, hotels, inns and "bed and breakfasts." The tax attaches to the rent charged for every occupancy, so a night in a cabin or on a campsite is taxed under the same sentence as a hotel room.

The duty to collect falls on the business, not the guest. Section 21-86 makes it the duty of an entity described in § 21-85 doing business in the city to collect the tax and pay it to the city on a monthly basis. Payments are due and payable fifteen (15) days after the end of each month, a schedule that began October 1, 2017 and continues on every fifteenth day of every month thereafter.

Section 21-87 authorizes the city to examine the books, papers and records of any person, firm, organization or similar accommodation business required to file a return. The examination exists to test the accuracy of a return or, when no return was made, to determine the amount of room tax due and owing. Section 21-85 carries amendment history from Ord. No. 991-2017, Ord. No. 104-2023 and Ord. No. 172-2024, the latest adopted 12-9-24, so operators should read the current text rather than older summaries of the tax.