The Nashville hotel tax rate is 16.75% of the room charge, plus a flat $2.50 fee for each night you stay. That combined percentage covers three separate taxes stacked on the same base rate, and the flat fee is added on top regardless of what the room costs. On a $200-per-night room, expect roughly $36 in taxes and fees per night.
The Three Taxes on Your Room
The 16.75% breaks into three pieces, each authorized by a different law and collected for a different purpose.
State Sales Tax: 7%
Tennessee applies its 7% state sales tax to hotel room charges the same way it applies to other retail transactions.1FindLaw. Tennessee Code 67-6-202 – Levy of Tax on Sales
Local Sales Tax: 2.75%
Davidson County adds a 2.75% local option sales tax on top of the state rate. The local piece rose from 2.25% to 2.75% on February 1, 2025, after Nashville voters approved a half-percent transit surcharge in November 2024.2Tennessee Department of Revenue. Sales and Use Tax Notice 24-11 – Change of Local Tax Rate Davidson County Combined with the state rate, sales tax alone on your room is 9.75%.
Hotel Occupancy Tax: 7%
Nashville also imposes a 7% hotel occupancy privilege tax on the room charge. This rate has been in effect since July 1, 2023.3Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County. Increase of Hotel Occupancy Tax Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County It is calculated on the same base room rate as the sales tax but collected under separate authority granted to metropolitan governments by state law.4Justia. Tennessee Code 7-4-102 – Authorization, Nature and Levy of Tax – Convention Centers
Flat Fee: $2.50 Per Night
Every occupied room in Nashville also carries a flat $2.50 per-night fee, regardless of the room rate.5Justia. Tennessee Code 7-4-202 – Additional Privilege Tax on Hotel Rooms A $100 room and a $500 room both pay the same $2.50. You will usually see it listed as its own line on your folio.
What This Costs on a Real Bill
Here is how the math works on a $200-per-night room for three nights:
- Base room charges: $200 × 3 = $600.00
- State sales tax (7%): $42.00
- Local sales tax (2.75%): $16.50
- Hotel occupancy tax (7%): $42.00
- Flat nightly fee ($2.50 × 3): $7.50
- Total taxes and fees: $108.00
That is an effective rate of 18% on this stay. Because the $2.50 is a flat charge, cheaper rooms end up with a slightly higher effective rate. On a $100 room, taxes and fees work out to about 19.25% of the nightly rate.
Which Stays Are Covered
All three tax layers apply to hotels, motels, bed-and-breakfasts, and short-term rentals booked through platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo. What matters is not the type of building but that the stay is short-term and transient. There is no exemption based on whether the trip is for business or leisure.
Staying More Than 30 Days
If you stay continuously at the same property for more than 30 days, the operator stops collecting the occupancy tax from that point forward. Tax collected during the first 30 days is still remitted to the state, but after the threshold you are treated as a longer-term resident and no longer owe the transient tax on the rest of the stay.6Tennessee Department of Revenue. Local Occupancy Tax
The 30 days have to be consecutive at the same property. Checking out for a weekend and returning resets the clock. If you are on an extended assignment or in temporary housing, confirm with the front desk that your continuous stay is being tracked, because the operator is the one responsible for documenting when the exemption begins.
Airbnb, Vrbo, and Direct Bookings
Book a Nashville short-term rental through Airbnb and the platform collects and remits state sales tax, local sales tax, and locally imposed occupancy taxes on the host’s behalf. Airbnb applies these automatically to Tennessee reservations of 89 nights or shorter.7Airbnb. Occupancy Tax Collection and Remittance by Airbnb in Tennessee Vrbo handles collection in a similar way where it is legally required or has an agreement with the tax authority.
Hosts cannot opt out of platform-managed collection in these jurisdictions, but they remain responsible for taxes on any bookings taken outside the platform, including direct reservations. If you book directly with an owner rather than through a marketplace, ask how taxes are being handled, because the obligation does not go away just because a platform is not in the middle.