Mexico City lodging tax 2026: 3.5 percent on hotels, 5 percent through platforms

Mexico City taxes accommodation at 3.5 percent of the amount charged in 2026, rising to 5 percent where an intermediary or platform collects the payment for an apartment or a house. Both rates are in articles 162 to 164 of the city tax code, in the text published by the city finance secretariat.

What counts as lodging

The code covers hotels, hostels, motels and timeshare, overnight areas for mobile accommodation such as campsites and caravan stops, and apartments and houses let in whole or in part. Lodging at hospitals, clinics, care homes, convents, seminaries and boarding schools is excluded. The code says the taxpayer passes the tax on to the guest, and the return is due by the fifteenth of the following month.

A worked example

Four nights in a hotel at 2,500 pesos a night is 10,000 pesos, and the lodging tax at 3.5 percent adds 350 pesos in 2026. The same 10,000 pesos booked as an apartment through a platform is taxed at 5 percent, or 500 pesos. Mexican value added tax applies separately on top of the room.

What is still unclear

Which rate applies turns on the property type and on whether the platform is the party collecting the money, and a booking page rarely spells that out, so a guest cannot easily tell in advance whether 3.5 or 5 percent is being charged.

Sources: Secretaria de Administracion y Finanzas de la Ciudad de Mexico, lodging tax articles of the city tax code.

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