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

Chapter 3.16 SMC, the city's Uniform Transient Occupancy Tax Ordinance, taxes anyone occupying a room in a City of Sonoma hotel, motel, inn, tourist home, lodging house, dormitory, mobilehome or house trailer at a fixed location for dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes. A person is a "transient" for up to 30 consecutive calendar days of occupancy; occupants who have a written agreement for a longer stay are exempt from that status. The tax under SMC 3.16.030 is 12 percent of the rent charged by the operator, effective January 1, 2019, with the code text also authorizing the city council to raise the rate to 13 percent. The tax is a debt owed by the transient to the City of Sonoma that is extinguished only by payment to the operator, and the guest pays it to the operator at the time rent is paid.

Operators must register each hotel with the tax administrator, the city manager, within 30 days of the effective date of the chapter or of commencing business, and post the resulting transient occupancy registration certificate on the premises under SMC 3.16.060. Under SMC 3.16.070, operators file a return and remit collected tax to the tax administrator by the last day of the month following the close of each calendar quarter, or on any shorter reporting period the tax administrator sets; all collected tax is held in trust for the city until remitted. Exemptions under SMC 3.16.040 are narrow: occupancy the city lacks power to tax, and federal, state or foreign government officers and employees on official business. No exemption applies unless claimed under penalty of perjury on a city form at the time rent is collected.