Transient Lodging (includes apartments, bed & breakfast, hotel/motel, tourist home, campground, space for mobile home, etc.)

Transient Lodging (includes apartments, bed & breakfast, hotel/motel, tourist home, campground, space for mobile home, etc.)

If you plan to charge for lodging space to any person for 29 days or less, you may be subject to transaction privilege (sales) tax/licensing under the Transient Lodging classification. For more information, see section below titled, "Engaging in activities subject to transaction privilege (sales)/use tax" or click here.

Examples include, but are not limited to, the following: apartments, bed & breakfast, a hotel or motel, including an inn, tourist home or house, dude ranch, resort, campground, studio or bachelor hotel, lodging house, rooming house, apartment house, dormitory, public or private club, mobile home or house trailer at a fixed location or other similar structure, and also including a space, lot or slab which is occupied or intended or designed for occupancy by transients in a mobile home or house trailer furnished by them for such occupancy.

The Arizona Department of Revenue has issued Arizona Transaction Privilege Tax Ruling TPR 06-1 regarding taxation of charges for goods, services or activities customarily provided in the course of the business of operating a transient lodging facility. See also, TPR 06-1 Matrix: Arizona Tax Matrix for Hotel/Motel Lodging Industry. For additional information related to the ruling, use the search feature on the Arizona Department of Revenue website to find all references to the subject matter. 

If you plan to be in the business of transient lodging (including hotels, motels, trailer coach parks, campgrounds, and other forms of public accommodation), you need a license from your environmental health department—either at the county or the state level, depending on where your business will be located. Additionally, you need to follow the relevant sanitary regulations enumerated in Title 9 Chapter 8 of the Arizona Administrative Code.

Contact: Arizona Department of Health Services, Office of Environmental Health, Food Safety & Environmental Services (Click on "Starting a Business? Here’s what to do."), 602-364-3118