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

Salinas Municipal Code Sec. 32-22, in Article IV of Chapter 32, imposes the city's transient occupancy tax on any structure, or portion of a structure, occupied or designated for occupancy by transients for dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes, a definition in Sec. 32-21 broad enough to cover hotels, motels, inns, tourist homes, rooming houses, and mobile homes or trailers at a fixed location. Subsection (a) sets a seven percent base tax on rent, and subsection (b) layers on an additional three percent, effective July 1, 1984, for a combined ten percent rate. A 'transient' is anyone occupying a room for twenty-eight consecutive days or less; rent paid in one lump sum for twenty-nine days or more is exempt from the tax under both subsections.

The operator collects the tax from the guest when rent is paid, states it separately from the rent, and may not advertise that the tax will be absorbed into the room rate. Sec. 32-27 requires every operator to register the hotel with the tax administrator, the city tax collector, within thirty days of commencing business and post the resulting transient occupancy registration certificate on the premises. Sec. 32-25 requires quarterly returns and remittance by the last day of the month following each calendar quarter, with all collected tax held in trust for the city until paid over, and Sec. 32-26 requires operators to keep supporting records for three years for city inspection.