Kyoto City’s lodging tax (宿泊税) is set in five tiers — ¥200, ¥400, ¥1,000, ¥4,000 and ¥10,000 — according to the accommodation charge per person per night. The revised rates apply to stays from March 1, 2026, replacing the previous three tiers of ¥200, ¥500 and ¥1,000 and raising the upper tiers sharply. The “accommodation charge” used to determine the tier is the per-person room-only rate, excluding meals and consumption tax, so applying the tax-inclusive price shown for a two-guest room directly will put you in the wrong tier. This article first sets out the rates and classification rules as confirmed on Kyoto City’s official website, then uses listed prices by property type to estimate how much you will actually pay.

Kyoto City’s Lodging Tax Has Five Tiers — From Stays on March 1, 2026

The rates are as shown in the table below, published on Kyoto City’s official page (municipal tax guide, “Lodging Tax”, checked October 23, 2026). The effective date is March 1, 2026 (Reiwa 8), and the date of the stay is what counts. The pre-revision tiers are shown alongside, so you can see how the tax depends on when you stay.

Table 1: Based on the rate table on Kyoto City’s official “Lodging Tax” page (before the revision there were three tiers: ¥200 under ¥20,000, ¥500 for ¥20,000 to under ¥50,000, and ¥1,000 at ¥50,000 or more)

Only the ¥200 rate for stays under ¥6,000 was left unchanged. The ¥6,000–under-¥20,000 band rose from ¥200 to ¥400, ¥20,000–under-¥50,000 from ¥500 to ¥1,000, ¥50,000–under-¥100,000 from ¥1,000 to ¥4,000, and ¥100,000 or more from ¥1,000 to ¥10,000. At a typical business hotel price, that means ¥400 per person per night — ¥800 for two guests, or ¥1,600 for two guests over two nights — on top of the room charge. We have separately tracked how bookings and prices at Kyoto City’s ¥10,000-range hotels actually moved in the three months after the March increase.

The Tier Is Based on the Per-Person, Pre-Tax, Room-Only Rate

According to Kyoto City, the “accommodation charge” that determines the tier is the room-only rate (room charge plus service charge), and it excludes meals and consumption tax. In other words, you should not read the tax-inclusive price for a two-guest room with breakfast at face value. Divide by 2 to get the per-person amount, subtract breakfast, remove consumption tax, and then apply Table 1. If you only know the tax-inclusive price, dividing by 1.1 gives a rough pre-tax figure (keep the service charge in; subtract meals separately).

Exemptions apply to children and students of schools defined in Article 1 of the School Education Act (excluding universities) staying on school trips or other school events, and their chaperones; and to children aged 3 and over at nursery schools, integrated centers for early childhood education and care (幼保連携型認定こども園) and similar facilities staying on events organized by the facility, and their chaperones. On ordinary trips, children are taxed at the same rate as adults (there is no age-based exemption).

The tax is paid to the accommodation where you stay; the operator (licensed under the Hotel Business Act or the Private Lodging Business Act) collects it as a special collection agent and pays it to the city. Kyoto City also notes that the tax “may be included in the amount paid to a booking site or travel agency,” so whether a prepaid plan includes the lodging tax varies by booking channel. Some properties charge it separately in cash or by card at check-in, while in other cases it is included at the time of payment — check the price breakdown on the booking screen or the property’s information beforehand to avoid surprises on the day. Exemption rules and payment methods for each municipality that levies the tax, including outside Kyoto, are summarized in Japan Lodging Tax 2026: ¥100–200 per Night, Kyoto Up to ¥10,000.

How Much Will You Pay by Property Type? — Estimates from Kyoto Prefecture Listed Prices

We lined up OTA listed prices for properties in Kyoto Prefecture by property type (stays in November 2026, two guests per room, per-room tax-inclusive, simple average across listed properties, as of October 23, 2026; HotelBank Editorial Team research), converted them to a per-person amount, and applied the tax tiers. Because listed prices include tax, we also show the pre-tax equivalent (÷1.1) used for the classification. These are estimates based on averages; the actual tier depends on the rate for the specific property, plan and dates.

Table 2: Prepared by HotelBank Editorial Team from OTA listed prices (stays in November 2026, two guests per room, per-room tax-inclusive, simple average across listed properties, Kyoto Prefecture, N=1,243 properties across the six types, as of October 23, 2026). Pre-tax equivalent is an approximation (tax-inclusive ÷ 1.1); lodging tax is an estimate applying the tiers in Table 1

Source: HotelBank Editorial Team research (OTA listed prices, stays in November 2026, two guests per room, per-room tax-inclusive, simple average across listed properties, Kyoto Prefecture, as of October 23, 2026)

Business hotels and guesthouses come in at around ¥12,000–¥13,000 per person and fall into the ¥400 tier. City hotels, machiya and ryokan are all around ¥25,000–¥31,000 per person, putting them in the ¥1,000 tier. Ryokan prices are often listed with dinner and breakfast included, and since the tier is determined on the room-only equivalent excluding meals, some ryokan will fall into a lower tier than the table suggests.

Deluxe hotels need particular care. At ¥101,600 per person tax-inclusive, applying the table directly would seem to put them in the top ¥10,000 tier, but excluding consumption tax brings the figure to about ¥92,300, which falls in the ¥4,000 tier. The ¥10,000 tier applies only to rooms at ¥100,000 or more per person before tax — roughly ¥110,000 or more per person tax-inclusive (about ¥220,000 for a two-guest room). By the same logic, the ¥1,000 tier starts at around ¥22,000 per person tax-inclusive (¥44,000 for a two-guest room), and the ¥4,000 tier at around ¥55,000 per person tax-inclusive (¥110,000 for a two-guest room). If you want to narrow down Kyoto City hotels by price and facilities, this article comparing three hotels with large public baths by monthly listed price (in Japanese) is a useful reference.

Tax as a Share of the Accommodation Charge — Heavier in the Upper Tiers

Because the tax is a flat amount per tier, the share is higher at cheaper rates within the same tier and jumps at each tier boundary. For a pre-tax accommodation charge per person per night of ¥5,000, the tax is ¥200 (4.0%); at ¥10,000 it is ¥400 (4.0%); at ¥30,000 it is ¥1,000 (3.3%); at ¥60,000 it is ¥4,000 (6.7%); and at ¥120,000 it is ¥10,000 (8.3%). Before the revision, the same five cases came to 4.0%, 2.0%, 1.7%, 1.7% and 0.8%, so the more expensive the room, the bigger the impact of the revision.

Source: Prepared by HotelBank Editorial Team based on the rate table on Kyoto City’s official page (per person per night, pre-tax room-only rate)

How Kyoto Compares with Tokyo and Osaka

In Tokyo, the lodging tax is not charged below ¥10,000 per person per night; it is ¥100 for ¥10,000 to under ¥15,000, and ¥200 at ¥15,000 or more (see our Tokyo accommodation tax guide). In Osaka Prefecture, for stays from September 1, 2025, there is no tax under ¥5,000; it is ¥200 for ¥5,000 to under ¥15,000, ¥400 for ¥15,000 to under ¥20,000, and ¥500 at ¥20,000 or more (Osaka Prefecture official page, checked October 23, 2026). Kyoto City has no tax-free threshold, so a minimum of ¥200 applies at every price point, and at ¥20,000 and above the gap widens to ¥1,000 or more versus Osaka’s ¥500. Tokyo is scheduled to switch to a flat 3% rate from April 2027; the exemption line and the differences from Osaka’s tiered system are analyzed using actual room rates in our article on Tokyo’s 2027 flat-rate lodging tax. For other regions, see our articles on Kumamoto (¥200 in Kumamoto City only), Niseko (flat 3% from November 2026) and Okinawa Prefecture (2% from February 2027), as well as our list of 2026–27 revisions.

What to Look for When Choosing Accommodation in Kyoto

If you are budgeting for the tax, these three points are enough. First, in the business hotel and guesthouse price range (around ¥13,000 per person per night, tax-inclusive), add ¥400 per person — ¥1,600 for two guests over two nights. Second, for city hotels, machiya and ryokan (¥25,000 to the low ¥30,000s per person), it is ¥1,000 per person, or ¥4,000 for two guests over two nights. Third, upper-range rooms above about ¥55,000 per person tax-inclusive jump to ¥4,000, and above ¥110,000 to ¥10,000, so if you are choosing a luxury property during an expensive period such as the autumn foliage season, compare total costs including the tax. The lodging tax is usually not included in listed prices, so check whether there is a lodging tax line in the “price breakdown” on the booking screen to avoid a mismatch with what you are charged at check-in.

Where to Look for More Detail

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Do children pay the lodging tax?
A. There is no age-based exemption; children for whom an accommodation charge applies are taxed in the same tier as adults. Exemptions are limited to students staying on school trips and other school events and their chaperones, and to children aged 3 and over staying on events organized by nursery schools, integrated centers for early childhood education and care and similar facilities, and their chaperones. Treatment of infants sharing a bed at no charge varies by property, so it is best to check when booking.

Q. For a ¥50,000 room for two guests, how much lodging tax does each person pay?
A. If it is ¥50,000 tax-inclusive and room-only, that is ¥25,000 per person, or about ¥22,700 excluding consumption tax. This falls in the “¥20,000 to under ¥50,000” tier, so the tax is ¥1,000 per person per night — ¥2,000 for two guests. If the rate includes dinner and breakfast, the tier is determined after excluding meals, so if the per-person room-only equivalent is below ¥20,000, it falls in the ¥400 tier.

Q. Is the lodging tax included when I prepay on a booking site?
A. According to Kyoto City, the lodging tax is in principle paid to the property where you stay, but it “may be included in the amount paid to a booking site or travel agency.” Whether it is included depends on the booking channel and plan, so it is safest to check whether the price breakdown on the booking screen lists the lodging tax, and if not, to assume you will pay it separately at check-in.

Methodology and Sources

• Lodging tax rates, effective date, tax base, exemptions and collection method: Kyoto City official page “Lodging Tax” (city.kyoto.lg.jp/gyozai/page/0000236942.html, checked October 23, 2026). The revised rates apply to stays from March 1, 2026 (Reiwa 8).
• Tokyo and Osaka rates: Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Taxation guidance and Osaka Prefecture official page “Lodging Tax” (applicable to stays from September 1, 2025; checked October 23, 2026).
• Listed prices: HotelBank Editorial Team research. Listed prices for stays in November 2026 aggregated from public OTA data: simple average across listed properties of the per-room, tax-inclusive rate for two guests per room, by property type in Kyoto Prefecture (business hotel N=342, guesthouse N=147, city hotel N=65, machiya N=482, ryokan N=169, deluxe hotel N=38; as of October 23, 2026). Listed prices do not include lodging tax. Per-person amounts are estimates divided by 2, and pre-tax equivalents are approximations divided by 1.1; the actual tax tier is determined by the property’s room-only rate (pre-tax).
• Tax as a share: a simple calculation of the flat tax as a ratio of the pre-tax accommodation charge in each case.

■ Data Sources

Tax rates, effective date, tax base, exemptions and collection method are as stated on Kyoto City’s official “Lodging Tax” page (checked October 23, 2026). Prices by property type are listed prices from HotelBank Editorial Team research aggregating public OTA data (Kyoto Prefecture, stays in November 2026, as of October 23, 2026, N=1,243 properties across the six types).

■ Calculation Assumptions

Listed prices are the simple average across listed properties of the per-room, tax-inclusive rate for two guests per room. Per-person amounts were divided by 2 and pre-tax amounts approximated by dividing by 1.1, then applied to Kyoto City’s tax tiers. Tax as a share was calculated simply for five cases of pre-tax accommodation charge per person per night: ¥5,000, ¥10,000, ¥30,000, ¥60,000 and ¥120,000.

■ Limitations

These are estimates based on averages; the actual tier is determined by the room-only rate (pre-tax, including service charge) for the specific property, plan and dates. Listed prices for plans with meals include meal costs, so some properties fall into a lower tier than the estimates in the table. Prices are aggregated across all of Kyoto Prefecture, including properties outside Kyoto City, and vary by stay date and collection date.