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

The City of Santa Ana imposes an eleven percent Hotel Visitors Tax on rent paid for occupancy in any hotel, motel, inn, lodging house, rooming house, apartment house, dormitory, mobile home or similar structure rented for lodging purposes, under Section 35-127 of Chapter 35, Article V, renamed from 'Transient Occupancy Tax' to 'Hotel Visitors Tax' by Ordinance No. NS-2648 in 2004. The tax is a debt owed by the guest ('hotel visitors') to the city, collected by the hotel operator at the time rent is paid and, if rent is paid in installments, apportioned across each installment; it becomes due in full once the guest stops occupying the room.

If an operator fails to collect it, the finance director can require the guest to pay the tax directly. A person occupying a room is treated as a hotel visitors, and taxable, through the 30th consecutive day of the stay; occupancy under a qualifying rental agreement beyond thirty days shifts liability to the person who made that agreement if they sublet to someone else. Section 35-128 exempts occupants the city lacks power to tax, foreign-government officers exempt by federal law or treaty, and federal or state employees on official business paid by government voucher, but exemptions require a signed claim, under penalty of perjury, at the time rent is collected.

Operators must register within thirty days of opening, post a hotel visitors registration certificate, and separately state the tax from rent on every receipt; operating without a posted, valid certificate is a misdemeanor under Section 35-130.