West Des Moines, IA Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

City Code section 3-3-1, "Imposition; Rate," levies a 7 percent tax on the gross receipts a hotel or motel collects from renting rooms, apartments, or sleeping quarters, but only while the same person rents that space for 30 consecutive days or less; longer stays are excluded from the levy entirely. Section 3-3-2 defines who owes the tax: a "hotel and motel" is any hotel, motel, inn, or other place furnishing sleeping accommodations to transient guests for rent, with or without meals, expressly excluding university and college dormitory and memorial-union rooms.

The same section separately defines "rental, long term" as lodging used for more than 30 consecutive days and "rental, short term" as lodging used for 30 consecutive days or less, and defines "renting and rent" broadly enough to reach charges for rooms in a hotel, motel, or a short- or long-term rental as defined in the chapter. Payment mechanics run through the state framework: section 3-3-3 directs that the tax be paid as provided in the state's hotel and motel tax act, with proceeds used for the purposes the state act specifies.

Under section 3-3-4, the tax only takes effect after voter approval and then begins on the first day of the next calendar quarter, meaning January 1, April 1, July 1, or September 1. The chapter was most recently amended by Ordinance 2560 in 2023 to update the rate provision, and it sits in Title 3, Chapter 3 of the City Code, distinct from the alcohol and business-license chapters that surround it.