Austin Hotel Tax: Rates, Extra Fees and Exemptions

October 8, 2026

The downtown Austin skyline after dark. (Elsie Soto · Pexels License · Edited)

For an ordinary taxable stay within Austin’s full-purpose city limits, you pay both Texas and city hotel occupancy taxes. Mandatory room-related fees can also be taxable, and some hotels add a separate Tourism Public Improvement District (TPID) recovery fee. Work from the itemised, fee-inclusive price rather than the room rate alone to see what your stay will cost.

State and city hotel taxes

Texas hotel occupancy tax: 6% on taxable sleeping accommodation costing $15 or more per day
Austin hotel occupancy tax: 11%, comprising 9% occupancy tax and 2% venue project tax, within full-purpose city limits
Combined ordinary rate: 17% where both state and Austin taxes apply
Local minimum room charge: $2 per day for local hotel occupancy tax

The combined rate is two statutory levies, not a single hotel surcharge. An Austin postal address alone does not establish that the city tax applies. The property must be within Austin’s full-purpose city limits, where the city exercises its full municipal jurisdiction. Properties within its limited-purpose jurisdiction are not subject to this city levy. On the City of Austin website, use the Hotel and Rental Tax page’s link to the Jurisdictions Web Map. Choose “Find My Jurisdiction”, enter the property’s street address, select the matching address and submit. Open “Property Profile”: Full Purpose Jurisdiction is the result that brings the property within Austin’s city hotel tax.

Hotel occupancy tax reaches beyond conventional hotels. Texas covers motels, inns, bed-and-breakfasts, lodging houses and short-term rentals of all or part of a home. Austin also explicitly covers hostels and other buildings offering paid sleeping rooms. A holiday rental is not exempt simply because it is someone’s home.

Hospitals, sanitariums and nursing homes fall outside both accommodation scopes. Texas also excludes qualifying higher-education dormitories and oilfield portable units. For most travellers, the decisions that change the bill are the property’s jurisdiction and whether the guest qualifies for an exemption.

The TPID fee and other hotel charges

The Austin Tourism Public Improvement District assessment is the hotel’s liability, not a statutory tax imposed on you. It covers hotels with 100 or more rooms within Austin city limits and is calculated on gross taxable nightly room-rental revenue. An assessed hotel may absorb it or recover it from guests as a separate fee.

Suggested bill labels include “Austin TPID Fee”, “Austin Tourism PID Fee” and “Austin Tourism PID Recovery Fee”. List placement should be with guest-room charges, not room-night taxes. The recovery must not be labelled a tax, although specific wording is not mandated.

Other compulsory room-related charges can increase the taxable amount. Texas includes pet and smoking fees and energy surcharges. Austin includes charges for cleaning, pets, rollaway beds, refrigerators, safes and reservations when related to room use or preparation. Separately stated personal services unrelated to the room are excluded, while a lump-sum lodging package is taxable in full. Itemising unrelated services therefore matters.

Keep mandatory charges, optional purchases and refundable card authorisations separate. A compulsory property fee belongs in the stay cost. A purchase you choose adds to your spending only if you take it. A refundable authorisation temporarily reduces your available card balance or credit but is not itself a final lodging charge.

Working out the full stay cost

Start with the room subtotal for all nights, or the quoted fee-inclusive subtotal.
Add disclosed mandatory charges only if they are not already included, including any hotel-chosen TPID recovery.
Identify the taxable base for each applicable lodging tax, then calculate and add each tax.
Compare the payable lodging total for the same dates and room conditions, keeping optional purchases and refundable holds separate.

Advertised short-term lodging prices must prominently include known, upfront-calculable mandatory fees. The total must be clearer and more prominent than other pricing information. Government taxes may be excluded initially, but their nature, purpose and amount must be disclosed before payment and included in the final amount. A compulsory TPID recovery is a hotel fee, so do not treat it as an excluded government tax or add it twice.

This hypothetical bill assumes two nights at $150 per night within Austin’s full-purpose city limits, no exemption and no other fees. The recovery example applies the assessment percentage to the room subtotal, then taxes the resulting room-and-fee amount.

Bill item	No recovery	With TPID recovery
Room subtotal	$300.00	$300.00
TPID recovery	$0.00	$6.00
Taxable amount	$300.00	$306.00
Texas tax	$18.00	$18.36
Austin tax	$33.00	$33.66
Payable lodging total	$351.00	$358.02

Long stays, exemptions and holiday rentals

Traveller case	Texas tax	Austin tax
Qualifying continuous long stay	Exempt	Exempt
Federal official business, including military	Exempt	Exempt
American Red Cross official US business	Exempt	Exempt
Qualifying diplomatic tax-exemption card	Exempt	Exempt
Designated Texas official with special card	Exempt	Exempt
Texas state-agency official travel	Exempt	Pay, then reimbursement
Qualifying religious, charitable or educational business	Exempt	Payable
Specifically exempt nonprofit entity’s official business	Exempt	Exempt
Ordinary business travel	Payable	Payable
Federal contractor or local-government travel	Payable	Payable

A long-stay exemption requires continuous occupancy and payment. For Texas, written notice of your intended qualifying stay starts exemption on the notice date, provided you complete the qualifying period afterwards. For Austin, written notice on arrival allows exemption from the start. Without notice, both taxes apply for the first 30 days, with exemption from day 31.

Official-travel exemptions are tied to status and purpose, not merely to an employer paying the bill. Diplomatic eligibility requires a qualifying US Department of State tax-exemption card. Designated Texas officials use a special hotel-tax exemption card or photo ID. Provide the exemption certificate at registration, with applicable proof and payment arrangements. Religious, charitable and educational eligibility requires a qualifying exempt organisation and travel on its business, including eligible college and university personnel.

For a holiday rental booked through a marketplace that collects your payment, the marketplace collects and remits Austin tax. Texas tax is collected by the platform only when it has agreed with the owner to do so, otherwise the owner is responsible. Read the receipt’s separate tax components before discussing an additional request from the host.

Questioning an itemised charge

Ask the accommodation provider to explain the disputed line and its calculation base. A wrongly applied statutory tax needs a tax correction. A hotel-imposed recovery or other fee is a separate dispute about the property’s charge, even when lodging tax applies to it.

Texas hotel-tax questions: Comptroller help line: 800-252-1385
Austin hotel-tax questions: hotels@austintexas.gov, or 512-974-2590 (press 1)

Use the state contact for Texas tax eligibility or calculation questions and the city contact for Austin tax. Keep the provider involved when you need the bill amended.

Keep the itemised receipt, quoted booking price and payment receipt.
Retain exemption evidence already supplied and identify the exact line you question.

Don’t

Treat every surcharge as a government tax.
Assume a work trip or long booking automatically establishes exemption.

Sources & fact-checking

Checks against the sources below cover: fares and charges, as well as services.