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

020 imposes the tax on "the privilege of occupancy in any hotel": every transient (a guest occupying space for 30 consecutive calendar days or less) owes 11 percent of the rent charged by the operator. The debt is extinguished only when the transient pays the operator, and if rent is paid in installments the tax is prorated across each installment. 010 defines "hotel" broadly to include any structure or portion of a structure occupied by transients for dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes, covering inns, motels, tourist homes, apartment houses, roominghouses, mobilehomes at a fixed location, and similar uses, so short-term rental hosts operating under Chapter 20-48 fall within this same tax chapter alongside traditional hotels and motels.

050 requires every operator to register the hotel with the Tax Collector within 30 days of the ordinance's effective date or of commencing business, and to post the resulting Transient Occupancy Registration Certificate in a conspicuous place on the premises; that certificate does not double as a business permit. 060 sets the filing cycle: each operator files a return and remits the full tax collected on or before the last day of the month following the close of each calendar quarter, and the Tax Collector may shorten that period for a particular certificate holder.

070 obligates operators to keep supporting records for three years, open to Tax Collector inspection. 030 cover occupancies the City lacks power to tax, and federal, State, or treaty-exempt foreign government officers on official business, claimed under penalty of perjury at the time rent is collected.