Kyoto City has charged an accommodation tax on overnight stays since October 2018, and from March 1, 2026 that tax moved to a wider five-tier structure with a considerably higher top rate. If you're budgeting for a Kyoto trip, this is worth knowing before you book — it's charged per person, per night, on top of your room rate, and it applies at hotels, ryokan, guesthouses and registered minpaku (private lodging) alike.
The new rates
The tax is calculated on your room rate per night (before the consumption tax and any service charge), not on the total cost of your stay. Under the revised structure:
- Under ¥6,000/night: ¥200 per person, per night (unchanged)
- ¥6,000–¥19,999: ¥400 per person, per night
- ¥20,000–¥49,999: ¥1,000 per person, per night
- ¥50,000–¥99,999: ¥4,000 per person, per night
- ¥100,000 and above: ¥10,000 per person, per night
The most dramatic change is at the top: the previous system topped out at ¥1,000 a night regardless of how expensive the room was. A guest in a ¥150,000-a-night suite and a guest in a ¥55,000-a-night room used to pay the same tax; now they don't. For most travellers booking mid-range hotels or ryokan, the actual increase is modest — typically an extra ¥200–500 per person, per night compared to the old rates.
Why it changed
Kyoto has been dealing with a well-documented overtourism problem: record visitor numbers straining public transport, footpaths and residential neighbourhoods, particularly around Higashiyama and Gion. The city government has said the additional revenue — expected to roughly double annual collections — goes toward heritage site preservation, transport infrastructure and general tourism management, rather than general revenue.
What this means for your booking
The tax is almost always collected locally at check-in, in cash or by card, rather than charged at the time of booking — though some online travel agencies now itemise it upfront. It's worth checking your booking confirmation, since the terminology varies (accommodation tax, lodging tax, occupancy tax). This is separate from any national consumption tax and separate from Japan's departure tax, which is charged when you leave the country rather than when you check in.