Sullivan County, NY Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Part 3 of Chapter 182 of the Code of Sullivan County, the Sullivan County Hotel and Motel Room Occupancy Tax Law, imposes the county's lodging tax. Section 182-24 sets the rate at 5% of the rent charged for every occupancy of a room in a hotel or short-term rental unit in the county, effective June 1, 2007, and exempts only permanent residents and exempt organizations listed in § 182-26, such as government bodies and religious, charitable or educational nonprofits using the room for their exempt purpose.

The law defines HOTEL broadly under § 182-18 to include an apartment hotel, motel, boarding house or club regardless of whether meals are served, and folds short-term rentals into the same tax base. The operator, meaning the hotel, motel or short-term rental host, collects the tax from the occupant as trustee for the county and is personally liable for turning it over, under § 182-25. Operators must separately state the tax on every bill, and the Treasurer administers, audits and can assess the tax under §§ 182-21 and 182-31 when a return is missing or incorrect.

Rent is presumed taxable until the operator proves otherwise, and any occupancy provided free of charge or as a complimentary stay is taxed at the standard rate that would otherwise apply, under § 182-25 and the definition of RENT in § 182-18. The tax was reenacted and amended in its entirety on December 18, 2025 by Local Law No. 6-2025 to fold short-term rental units explicitly into the existing hotel and motel tax structure.