NYC Hotel Tax (14.75% Plus $3.50 a Night) and Destination Fees

By SuddenStay Editorial · October 19, 2026

Photo: Chris06, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

NYC hotel tax comes to 14.75% of the room plus $3.50 a night, so a $300 night in Manhattan costs about $348 before any fee the hotel adds. Most hotels add one. Of the 48 we cover, 38 charge a nightly fee of their own, and the hotels add both percentages to it.

The tax on the room

The 14.75% is two taxes. The combined state and city sales tax is 8.875%, and the city's hotel room occupancy tax is 5.875%, a rate New York has set to run through November 30, 2027. Two flat amounts come on top: $2 a room a night to the city, and the state's $1.50 hotel unit fee. On a $300 room that's $26.63, $17.63, $2 and $1.50, or $347.76. A suite pays the $2 for each room in it.

The InterContinental Times Square's $45 amenity fee shows as $51.63 once the two percentages go on, and ROW NYC's $40 becomes $45.90. Put a $40 fee on that $300 room and the night costs about $394.

The fee the hotel adds

The city's January announcement said it "bans hotel hidden fees", but 38 of our 48 hotels still charge one. What the rule did, from February 21, 2026, was make any advertised New York hotel price include the fee, though taxes can still come later. A federal rule has required the same of hotels everywhere since May 2025. About half the booking screens we read fold the fee into the nightly price, and the rest show it as its own line. ROW NYC's FAQ says its $40 is paid at the hotel on arrival, though that depends on where you booked.

Twenty-eight of the 38 fees fall between $35 and $46 a night before tax. The lowest is at The Empire Hotel by Lincoln Center, a $19.95 Residence Fee plus tax. The Library Hotel charges $25 with tax included, both Pods $29.84 with tax included, and the Lotte New York Palace a $30 Historic Preservation Fee plus tax. At the top, The Plaza's Urban Experience Fee is $65 a night plus tax. The Ace Hotel charges a destination fee plus tax on every booking, but its FAQ and its booking screen give different amounts.

Six hotels with no fee

Six of the 48 showed no fee when we read their booking screens or FAQs in October: Mandarin Oriental at Columbus Circle, Hotel Beacon and The Lucerne on the Upper West Side, the Hotel Chelsea, The Bowery Hotel, and citizenM Times Square, whose rate list on Marriott carried no fee line. The Hotel Chelsea's breakdown did carry an $8 line it calls an NYC Hotel Occupancy Fee, on top of the city's real $2 charge, so ask what that is. Four more, the Hilton Times Square, the Waldorf Astoria, the Ritz-Carlton Central Park and the Conrad downtown, publish no fee and showed none on the date we checked, but none of them says outright that there isn't one.

When the fee comes back as credit

A few fees return part of the money. The New York Hilton Midtown's $40 charge includes a $20 food and drink credit and $35 toward laundry each day. The InterContinental Barclay's $45 includes a $30 daily food and drink credit. The Dominick's $51 Destination Fee carries a $50 daily credit at its Sisley spa, good on a treatment of an hour or more or $150 of products. The Plaza's credits add up to $100 against its $65 fee: $50 a day for food and drink, and $50 toward a spa treatment of an hour or more. Skip both and you've paid $65 for Chromecast.

Parking and the congestion toll

Driving in costs twice. From 60th Street south you're in the congestion zone, where a car with E-ZPass pays $9 once a day between 5am and 9pm on weekdays or 9am and 9pm on weekends, and $2.25 overnight. The garage comes on top. Parking in Manhattan is taxed at 18.375%, and most hotels don't say whether their quoted rate already includes it. Arthouse's partner garage is $75 for 24 hours plus tax, which comes to $88.78 with it.

The cheapest parking we found is $50. The W Times Square sends you to an off-site garage at $50 with tax included, and the Hotel Chelsea gives out an Icon Parking voucher for $50 for 24 hours, though it doesn't say whether tax comes on top. Valet at the St. Regis is $142.05 a day, and the Ritz-Carlton's off-site valet is $135 per 24 hours. At ROW NYC, the Waldorf Astoria and the JW Marriott Essex House, among others, taking the car out during the day means paying again.

The four Upper West Side hotels we cover sit north of 60th Street, outside the toll zone: The Empire Hotel, Hotel Beacon, The Lucerne and Arthouse. Come in through the Lincoln or Holland Tunnel, or drive below 60th during the stay, and you still pay it. Two of the four charge no fee at all.

What a night costs

Take the same $300 room at a hotel with a $40 fee and $95 valet, the pair the New York Hilton Midtown and the Gansevoort both charge. Tax brings the room and fee to about $394, and the valet with Manhattan's parking tax adds about $112 if it wasn't already included. That's a $300 room costing $506 a night with the car, before the $9 toll. Leave the car at home, pick one of the hotels without a fee, and the same night is $348.

Each hotel page gives the fee and parking figures we found, and says so where a hotel publishes none. Browse them by neighborhood: Times Square, Midtown East, Central Park, Chelsea and Flatiron and Lower Manhattan. If you're coming for the ball drop, read the New Year's Eve guide first.