The Lodging Tax, sometimes referred to as “Transient Occupancy” Tax, is one of the popular revenue levers for cities across Virginia. Since debates over changing this tax on hotels (and other short term lodgings) usually contain information on comparable cities, just how do the largest cities in Virginia compare to one another? We’ve compiled, with references, a brief dataset that looks at lodging taxes across cities in Virginia (and a few others relevant to Charlottesville). We hope this dataset will help citizens understand where their city stands easier.
One important thing to note, these discussions almost always revolve around the “percent” of the lodging tax but that can be misleading. Seven of the cities we document below also have a $1-$3 room tax which impacts the total tax paid and the effective rate. In most cases, the tax rate on short term rentals, or Airbnb, is the same.
This dataset currently includes the following municipalities: Alexandria, Chesapeake, Hampton, Suffolk, Roanoke, Richmond, Newport News, Portsmouth, Salem, Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Blacksburg, Fredericksburg, Danville, Manassas, and Albemarle County.
You can download the full dataset here.