Kyoto's Accommodation Tax: Five Bands Since March, and Tenfold at the Top

Kyoto has charged an accommodation tax on every overnight stay since 1 October 2018. On 1 March 2026 the city moved from three bands to five. It kept the cheapest band at 200 yen and raised the most expensive from 1,000 yen to 10,000.

Some write-ups still use the future tense or the old table. The rates below have applied since March.

The five bands

The city’s own table, with the amount charged per person per night:

The city describes the change as an increase in some rates according to ability to pay. The two top bands take the biggest rises: four times the old amount from 50,000 yen, ten times from 100,000.

The band follows the room rate, not the bill

The city taxes the accommodation fee, the amount payable for the stay itself with meals and consumption tax excluded. That is the room-only rate. A rate quoted with breakfast does not pick your band, and neither does the total on your card. The notice does not say how a bundled rate is split between lodging and meals, so ask the property about package bookings.

A flat sum per night

The city calls the figure a tax rate, which is the statutory word, but it is a fixed sum per person per night. Kyoto’s own worked example: a stay at a property charging 10,000 yen a night, for two nights, is two nights multiplied by 400 yen, so 800 yen in total.

The boundaries are hard

Each band is a flat amount, so every boundary is a cliff:

• A room at 19,900 yen is taxed 400 yen a night. At 20,100 yen it is taxed 1,000 yen. A 200 yen difference in rate costs 600 yen a night per person.
• A room at 49,900 yen is taxed 1,000 yen. At 50,100 yen it is taxed 4,000 yen. The same 200 yen difference now costs 3,000 yen a night per person.
• Above 100,000 yen the step is 6,000 yen a night per person.

For two people on four nights, the 50,000 yen boundary is a 24,000 yen swing on a rate difference of 200. Look at what a room costs either side of a boundary, as well as at the headline number.

Who collects it

The provider does. The city makes each accommodation business a special collection agent: it collects the tax from guests, then files and remits it to Kyoto by the end of the following month.

The city tells guests to pay the tax at the property, and adds that it may already be included in what you paid a booking site or travel agent. Ask the property which applies. The band follows the room-only rate either way, so the rate you book is the figure to check against the bands. Comparing two properties on booked totals alone can mislead if they sit in different bands.

The ordinance and the revenue forecast

Kyoto passed the amending ordinance in its February 2025 city assembly, then held the consultation with the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications that local tax law requires. The minister’s consent arrived on 3 October 2025.

The city projects roughly 12.6 billion yen in accommodation tax revenue after the revision and says the increase will go toward tourism promotion and toward measures reconciling residents’ daily life with tourism. The projection is a forecast, and this page cannot verify how the money is spent.

What the notice leaves out

Kyoto City has since withdrawn the revision page from its website, so the source card below links to an archived copy taken on 22 August 2026. The five bands above still appear on the city’s standing accommodation tax page as of 3 October 2026.

The revision page states the bands, the definition of the accommodation fee, the worked example and the collection mechanism. It does not address exemptions, how a package rate is apportioned, or what happens when a booking is changed after the tax has been collected. For those, start from the city’s standing accommodation tax page.