A hotel stay in New York City is taxed at roughly 14.75% of the room rate, plus a flat $2 occupancy fee and a $1.50 convention center fee per night. Outside the five boroughs, the tax is lower and more variable: the state’s 4% sales tax applies everywhere, local sales tax adds a few more points depending on the county, and many counties and towns tack on their own bed tax on top. The exact hotel tax in New York depends on where you stay, what the room costs, and how long you stay.
How the New York City Hotel Tax Adds Up
A room in Manhattan, Brooklyn, or any of the other three boroughs picks up three separate taxes, each from a different law.
The City Occupancy Tax
New York City charges a hotel room occupancy tax of 5.875% of the nightly room charge.1NYC311. Hotel Room Occupancy Tax On top of that percentage, a flat daily fee applies per room, and the fee scales with the nightly rate. Rooms costing under $10 a night owe no flat fee; rooms at $40 a night or more pay the top tier.2American Legal Publishing. New York City Administrative Code 11-2502 – Imposition of Tax Since almost every hotel room in the city rents for more than $40, virtually every visitor pays the top-tier flat fee.
State and Local Sales Tax
The standard combined New York State and City sales tax of 8.875% also applies to the room. The state’s share is 4% under Tax Law Section 1105(e), which treats hotel rent as a taxable sale.3New York State Senate. New York Tax Law 1105 – Imposition of Sales Tax The remaining 4.875% comes from the city’s local sales tax and the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District surcharge.
The Javits Convention Center Fee
Every occupied hotel room in the city carries a flat $1.50 per night charge, known as the Javits fee, that funds the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. It applies to any room renting for more than $2 a night and does not apply to permanent residents.4New York State Senate. New York Tax Law 1104 – Convention Center Hotel Unit Fee
What It Looks Like on a $300 Room
Add the occupancy tax (5.875%) and the sales tax (8.875%) and you get a percentage-based tax burden of 14.75%. On a $300 room, that’s about $44.25 in percentage taxes, plus a few dollars in flat fees. A typical NYC hotel stay ends up with roughly $47 to $48 in tax per night. It’s the kind of line item that surprises people at checkout.
What Else on Your Bill Gets Taxed
The room rate isn’t the only thing New York can tax. Parking fees, cleaning fees, pet fees, service charges, and charges for extra guests can all be taxable, either as part of the room charge or as separate taxable services.5New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Hotel and Short-Term Rental Unit Occupancy
Package deals bundling a room with meals, spa services, or entertainment are generally taxed on the whole price. There’s one way out: the hotel has to break out the room charge separately on the receipt, and the amount stated has to be reasonable compared to the other items in the bundle.3New York State Senate. New York Tax Law 1105 – Imposition of Sales Tax A single lump-sum “package” price is treated as fully taxable rent.
Hotel Tax Outside New York City
The rest of the state runs on a different arithmetic. The 4% state sales tax on hotel rent still applies everywhere, and each county adds its own local sales tax. Combined sales tax rates commonly land between 7% and 8.875% depending on the jurisdiction.
Many counties, cities, towns, and villages also impose their own bed tax on top of sales tax. New York doesn’t grant this power in one general statute; instead, the state legislature has passed dedicated sections of Tax Law Article 29 authorizing individual localities to charge hotel taxes. Suffolk County, for example, can charge up to 5.5% of the nightly rate.6New York State Senate. New York Tax Law 1202-O – Hotel and Motel Taxes in Suffolk County Other jurisdictions set rates typically in the 3% to 6% range. Revenue usually funds local tourism promotion and economic development. Not every municipality has adopted a bed tax, so what you pay depends entirely on where you book.
Airbnb, Vrbo, and Other Short-Term Rentals
Renting someone’s apartment through a booking app doesn’t dodge the tax. New York defines taxable lodging broadly enough to catch hotels, motels, inns, bed and breakfasts, hostels, cabins, cottages, campgrounds, and tourist homes. Size doesn’t matter: a one-room B&B owes the same types of taxes as a large chain.
As of March 1, 2025, New York explicitly extended state and local sales tax, along with the NYC unit fee, to short-term rental unit occupancy.7New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Summary of 2025 Sales and Other Tax Type Changes – Section: Imposition of Tax on Sales of Short-Term Rental Unit Occupancy Booking platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo are now directly responsible for collecting and remitting the tax on stays they facilitate. Under New York’s marketplace provider rules, a platform that hosts third-party listings and collects the guest’s payment has to register as a sales tax vendor and handle collection, whether or not the individual host is registered too.8New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Sales Tax Requirements for Marketplace Providers For guests, this generally means the tax already appears on the platform’s checkout total.
The 90-Day Rule: How Long Stays Escape the Tax
The main way ordinary guests avoid hotel tax is by staying long enough to count as a permanent resident. The thresholds are different inside and outside New York City, and this is where people get tripped up.
Under state law, a guest who occupies a hotel room for at least 90 consecutive days becomes a permanent resident. Once you hit that mark, the state sales tax on occupancy no longer applies, and the hotel has to stop collecting it. Any state sales tax collected during the first 90 days is refundable to the guest.9Legal Information Institute. New York Comp Codes R and Regs Tit 20 527.9 – Hotel Occupancy
In New York City, the local sales tax uses a longer threshold: 180 consecutive days. So a guest staying in a Manhattan hotel for 100 straight nights would be exempt from the state portion of sales tax but would still owe the city’s local sales tax until day 180.10New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Hotel and Short-Term Rental Unit Occupancy – Section: Permanent Residents The permanent resident exemption also covers the NYC hotel room occupancy tax and the Javits fee.4New York State Senate. New York Tax Law 1104 – Convention Center Hotel Unit Fee
If the hotel or booking service won’t refund the taxes collected before your stay reached permanent-resident length, you can apply directly to the state for a refund.5New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Hotel and Short-Term Rental Unit Occupancy
Other Ways to Avoid Hotel Tax
A handful of guest categories are exempt from hotel taxes, but only with the right paperwork presented at the time of booking or check-in.
Government Travel
The federal government is exempt from state and local hotel taxes when its employees travel on official business and the agency pays the bill directly. New York State agencies and political subdivisions get the same treatment. The exemption does not apply if an employee pays personally and files for reimbursement later. The government entity has to be the direct payer.
Tax-Exempt Nonprofits
Qualifying nonprofits with New York sales tax exemptions can book tax-free stays, but the organization has to present Form ST-119.1, the Exempt Organization Exempt Purchase Certificate, to the hotel at check-in.11New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Sales Tax Exempt Organizations The nonprofit also has to be the direct payer. Without the certificate in hand, the hotel is required to charge the full tax.
Foreign Diplomats
Diplomatic personnel and foreign mission staff may be exempt, but only to the extent recognized by the U.S. Department of State. Eligible diplomats have to present a State Department photo tax exemption card. The stripe on the card sets the scope: blue covers all sales and hotel taxes, green covers sales taxes but specifically excludes hotel room taxes, and red covers all taxes only when the purchase exceeds a stated dollar amount. The diplomat must be the direct payer, and the hotel has to record the exemption card number on the invoice.12New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. New York Comp Codes R and Regs Tit 20 528.16 – Diplomatic Missions, Diplomatic Personnel and Foreign Government-Owned Enterprises and Agencies
If none of those categories fits, the tax is baked into the cost of the stay. Budget accordingly: on a week in a mid-priced Manhattan hotel, the tax line alone can run over $300.