Las Vegas hotels: taxes and resort fees

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Las Vegas is never short of rooms, so availability is rarely the question. The question is what the rate turns into by checkout, and in Clark County that is unusually knowable, because the county publishes both the rate table and the definition of what the rate is charged on.

The short version: the resort fee is not a way around the room tax. It sits inside the statutory definition of rent, along with the cleaning fee, the crib, the late check-out and even the no-show charge. Meanwhile the federal rule that took effect on 12 May 2025 changed where that fee has to appear in an advertised price, without touching how large it is allowed to be.

As everywhere on this site, there are no room rates here. What follows is the published material: the tax components, the rules about what they attach to, and the transit connections that make one address more useful than another.

The 13.38 percent on a Strip hotel bill is seven separate taxes

Clark County sets the combined transient lodging tax in a rate table — Table 4.08.010(c), in force since 1 March 2017. A resort hotel inside the Primary Gaming Corridor, which is most of the Strip, pays 13.38%, and it arrives in seven pieces:

5% — Convention and Visitors Authority.
0.5% — CVA Expansion.
2% — Tourism/School District Fund.
1% — Transportation District.
1% — County.
3% — State Education.
0.88% — Stadium District.

Legally the tax is the hotel’s debt, not the guest’s. The code says it “may be collected from the paying transient guests and may be shown as an addition to the rent charged”, and that “the operator is liable to Clark County for the tax whether or not it is actually collected from the paying transient guest”. That is why it lands as a line beneath the rate rather than inside it, and why no front desk has discretion to waive it.

Three rates, and a mapped boundary decides which one you pay

Only one component of that stack moves. The Stadium District line is 0.88% inside the Primary Gaming Corridor, 0.5% inside the Stadium District but outside the corridor, and zero beyond both. So an otherwise identical resort hotel is taxed at 13.38%, 13% or 12.5% — a spread of 0.88 points settled purely by geography.

And the geography is a map attached to Ordinance 4448, not a street-address rule. It is also all-or-nothing: “Any parcel, building or other structure located partially within the primary gaming corridor is deemed to be wholly within the primary gaming corridor.” The Stadium District definition carries the identical partial-equals-whole wording, so a property clipped by a boundary is taxed as though it were entirely inside.

Downtown answers to a different authority. The City of Las Vegas levies its own room tax, at matching headline rates, and notes that “a small area of the city of Las Vegas falls within the Primary Gaming Corridor” — which means most downtown lodging is at 13% rather than 13.38%. The city applies the tax to lodging rented daily, or less than weekly, for 30 days or less, and assesses it on the occupancy of the room and all related charges.

Two further wrinkles. A resort hotel is defined by size rather than branding: a building or complex with three hundred or more rooms used for sleeping accommodation. Anything smaller inside the corridor still totals 13.38%, but the split changes — 4% to the Convention and Visitors Authority and 2% to the county, instead of 5% and 1%. And more than 35 miles from the Las Vegas Convention Center the total falls to 10.5%, with no stadium component at all.

The resort fee is not outside the tax. It is inside the definition of rent.

This is the part that catches anyone who assumes a separately stated fee gets separate treatment. Clark County defines rent to include, regardless of whether separately stated, “charges that would normally be part of an all inclusive room rate, such as, but not limited to, payment processing fees, check-in fees, accommodation fees, facility fees, access fees, charges for additional guests, late check-out fees, and utility surcharges”.

Then comes the subsection that makes renaming pointless. Rent also takes in “any charges for services, amenities, accommodations, or use, not otherwise specified above, that are mandatory in nature and charged in connection with rental of a sleeping/room space”. Resort fee, destination fee, amenity fee: whatever it is called, it is taxed at the same combined rate as the room.

Also inside the base:

Cancellation, no-show, late-arrival and early-departure fees — taxable even though nobody occupied a room.
Cleaning and linen fees, and non-refundable deposits.
Rental of a crib, rollaway, refrigerator, television, microwave or in-room safe.
Non-refundable pet cleaning fees and pet deposits.

The dividing line on the folio is food and personal service. Rent “shall not include the charge for any food served or personal services rendered to the occupant, including but not limited to, valet service, room service, or delivery service”. Those lines may carry other charges, but not this one.

One timing rule matters on a long stay: the room tax stops on day 31, not at four weeks. A guest becomes a permanent resident at thirty-one consecutive days in the same establishment, and rent is “exempt from the transient lodging tax on the thirty-first day and every consecutive day thereafter”. Anyone with a right of occupancy for thirty consecutive days or less is a transient guest and is taxed throughout.

The FTC rule of 12 May 2025 changed the display, not the fee

Since 12 May 2025 the FTC’s Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, 16 CFR Part 464, has covered short-term lodging alongside live-event tickets. An advertised price has to be the total price inclusive of every mandatory charge, and the worked example the FTC chose for its own business guidance is a hotel resort fee: a nightly rate plus a mandatory per-day resort fee, with the fee required to be in the total.

Three categories, and only three, may be left out of that total: government charges, which includes taxes; shipping charges; and fees for optional ancillary goods or services. Anything excluded must still be disclosed — “Before a business prompts people to pay, the business must disclose the charges it has excluded from the total price.” Because Clark County room tax is a government charge, a compliant Las Vegas quote can show room plus mandatory resort fee as the headline and add the tax at checkout. That is the pattern to expect: the resort fee should no longer be the surprise, but the 13.38% still moves the total.

The rule binds the channel as well as the property. It “covers any business that offers, displays, or advertises live-event tickets or short-term lodging, including third-party platforms, resellers, and travel agents”, so an online travel agency owes the same total-price duty as the hotel’s own site. If the two disagree on the headline number, one of them is not complying — which is a reason to compare the same stay on both, as set out in how booking works.

What the rule does not do is cap anything. The Commission said the final rule “preserves flexibility for businesses by not prohibiting any type or amount of fee or specific pricing strategies”. A resort fee of any size remains lawful; it simply has to be in the first number you see. Where a state or local pricing law directly conflicts and a business cannot comply with both, the federal rule supersedes it only to the extent of the conflict.

The 9 percent that lands on the show rather than the room

Nevada’s Live Entertainment Tax is 9% of the admission charge to a facility where live entertainment is provided, and the statute requires that it “be added to and collected from the purchaser at the time of purchase”. The often-repeated 200-person figure is an exemption rather than a precondition: live entertainment escapes the tax where the venue’s maximum occupancy is under 200 and it is either not in a licensed gaming establishment, or is in one licensed for fewer than 51 slot machines or fewer than six games. A large casino showroom is taxable regardless.

It also reaches beyond the face value of a ticket. Admission charge takes in “an entertainment fee, a cover charge, a required minimum purchase of food, beverages or merchandise, a membership fee and a service charge”. But the statute expressly excludes charges for access to a particular portion of a venue, including tables, seats, lounge chairs and areas near a swimming pool. So a nightclub cover or a drink minimum carries the 9%, and a pool cabana or a reserved table does not. Worth knowing before a hotel package is compared with the same components bought separately — see Las Vegas tours and tickets.

Where to stay, measured in connections rather than distance

The useful measure here is not how far a hotel is from the middle of the Strip. It is whether you can reach the rest of it without walking the length of a resort first. Two fixed-guideway systems answer that, and they do not cover the same ground.

The Las Vegas Monorail runs behind the east side of the Strip and serves seven stations: MGM Grand, Horseshoe/Paris, Flamingo & Caesars Palace, Harrah’s & The LINQ, Boingo Station at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Westgate and SAHARA Las Vegas. It does not serve the airport. The full 3.9-mile route takes around 15 minutes of travel time end to end, station-to-station hops run one to four minutes, and trains arrive every four to eight minutes. A hotel on the west side of the Strip is not on it at all, whatever the map suggests about proximity.

Two things to check before depending on it. Service starts at 7am daily but closes at midnight on Monday, 2am Tuesday to Thursday and 3am Friday to Sunday, so it shuts well before the Strip does at the start of the week. And the station machines sell full-price paper tickets only: “Discounted Mobile Tickets are not available at the Ticket Vending Machines”. Bought online as an eTicket, a single ride is $5.50 against $6 at the station and a 1-Day Pass $13.45 against $15, with the same gap running through the 2-, 3-, 4-, 5- and 7-day passes. Nevada residents pay $1 a single ride on production of state identification at a customer service booth, available at every station except Boingo.

The Vegas Loop is the other system, and it pays to be precise about its size. The Boring Company states that Clark County and the City of Las Vegas have approved “68 miles of tunnel and 123 stations” — those are approvals, not track. What is running is 14 stations across four connectors: the Convention Center loop, Resorts World, Westgate and Encore, with trips quoted at two to eight minutes. Choosing a hotel because it is on the Loop means confirming its station is one of the built ones rather than one of the approved ones.

Everything else is a road journey, which is its own calculation: see car hire and parking in Las Vegas and the bus page. For how the booking sites differ on the same property, the hotels and stays page covers it.

Common questions

How much tax is added to a Las Vegas hotel room?

A resort hotel inside Clark County’s Primary Gaming Corridor, which covers most of the Strip, pays a combined 13.38%: 5% Convention and Visitors Authority, 0.5% CVA Expansion, 2% Tourism/School District Fund, 1% Transportation District, 1% County, 3% State Education and 0.88% Stadium District. Inside the Stadium District but outside the corridor it is 13%, and outside both 12.5%. Most downtown lodging, taxed by the City of Las Vegas, is at 13%.

Is the resort fee taxed as well as the room?

Yes. Clark County’s definition of rent covers charges that would normally be part of an all-inclusive room rate, and a catch-all subsection adds any mandatory charge for services, amenities, accommodation or use connected with renting the room. Renaming it a destination or amenity fee changes nothing: it is taxed at the same combined rate as the room itself.

Did the FTC rule ban resort fees in Las Vegas?

No. The Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, effective 12 May 2025, governs how fees are displayed, not whether they exist. The Commission said it “preserves flexibility for businesses by not prohibiting any type or amount of fee”. What changed is that the advertised price must be the total including mandatory charges, with only government charges, shipping and optional extras allowed out — and the duty falls on booking platforms as well as hotels.

Do I pay room tax if I cancel or fail to turn up?

Yes, if the hotel charges you. Clark County’s definition of rent expressly includes attrition, cancellation, late arrival, early departure and no-show fees, so the combined lodging tax applies even though no room was occupied. Non-refundable deposits and cleaning or linen fees are treated the same way.

When does Las Vegas room tax stop on a long stay?

On the thirty-first day. A guest with the right of occupancy for thirty-one consecutive days or more at the same establishment becomes a permanent resident, and rent is exempt from the transient lodging tax from the thirty-first day onward. Thirty consecutive days or fewer and you are a transient guest, taxed for the whole stay.

Which hotels are actually on the monorail?

Seven stations, all on the east side of the Strip: MGM Grand, Horseshoe/Paris, Flamingo & Caesars Palace, Harrah’s & The LINQ, Boingo Station at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Westgate and SAHARA Las Vegas. End to end is about 15 minutes over 3.9 miles, with trains every four to eight minutes. It does not reach the airport, and it closes at midnight on Mondays.

Sources

Fares, journey times and operating rules on this page were checked against these sources on 11 September 2026. Authorities change fares and timetables without notice — confirm anything time-critical on the operator’s own site.

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