Toronto Hotel Tax and the 8.5% World Cup Rate

Toronto’s Municipal Accommodation Tax, or MAT, was raised from 6% to a temporary 8.5% from June 1, 2025 to July 31, 2026, to help pay for FIFA World Cup 2026 costs. Since August 1, 2026 it is back to 6%. The 8.5% rate did not become permanent, and the higher figure no longer applies to new stays.

What the tax is

The MAT is a percentage charged on the price of a room or rental in Toronto for a short stay. Hotels collect it from guests and pass it to the City. Registered short-term rental hosts collect it too, or the platform does on their behalf if it has signed an agreement with the City.

Guests see it as a separate line. The City says all hotel invoices carry a separate line for the Municipal Accommodation Tax, so it is easy to spot on a bill. If you booked through a platform, the same line usually shows up at checkout.

The rate has a short history. It was 4%, and then it rose to 6% on May 1, 2023. The temporary increase to 8.5% ran for 14 months, from June 1, 2025 to July 31, 2026. On August 1, 2026, the City’s MAT page notes, the temporary rate ended and 6% applied again to stays beginning that day.

Why the City raised it for the World Cup

Council approved the temporary increase as a way to raise money tied to hosting the tournament. The City’s World Cup budget material describes the 2.5 percentage point rise as projected to bring in an extra $56.6 million over the 14 months. That money was meant to support delivery of the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Toronto.

There is a difference between the regular tax and the temporary part. The City says the regular MAT funds Destination Toronto, which supports the tourism industry, as well as programs and services visitors use, such as roads, transit, culture, parks, natural areas and recreation. The extra 2.5 points were pitched separately, as event funding.

We could not confirm on official pages how much of the extra revenue was actually collected, or how it was spent. The $56.6 million is a projection made when Council approved the change. If you see a claim about the final total, check for a City report that says so.

Who paid it

The guest pays. That was true at 8.5% and it is true at 6%. A hotel or host adds it to the bill and remits it, so the business does not absorb it unless it chooses to lower its own price.

The tax applies to the room cost. According to the City, other hotel services are outside the tax if they are itemized separately on the bill. That includes meeting rooms, food and beverage, room service, internet and phone charges. A hotel that lumps everything into a single rate can end up taxing more of the bill, so an itemized invoice helps.

Business travellers paid it just as tourists did. The rule is about the type of stay, not who is staying.

Which stays counted

The threshold depends on the type of accommodation. For short-term rentals, such as a home or room rented through an online platform, the tax applies to rentals of less than 28 consecutive days. The City’s operator page says the same.

For hotels, the City’s guest page describes the tax as applying to continuous stays of 30 days or less. So the cutoff is not the same in both cases. A 29-night stay in a hotel would have carried the tax, while a 29-night short-term rental would not.

That difference is worth checking when you book, because the older article on this topic treated 28 days as a single rule for everything. It is not.

What a stay cost at 8.5% and at 6%

The arithmetic is short. Multiply the room cost by the rate.

A room at $300 a night carried $25.50 a night at 8.5% ($300 times 0.085). At 6% the same night carries $18.00. The gap is $7.50 a night.

For a three-night long weekend at $300, the MAT was $76.50 at 8.5% and would be $54.00 at 6%. That is $22.50 less. For a family staying seven nights, the room total is $2,100. The MAT at 8.5% was $178.50, and at 6% it is $126.00, a difference of $52.50.

Notice how small the gap is relative to the room price. The higher rate added a little over two and a half dollars for every hundred dollars of room cost. The tax was noticeable on a long stay, but it did not change the cost of a trip by much. If you are planning a stay and want to test your own figures, the Toronto short-term rental calculator and the Toronto cost of living calculator can help.

Three rates side by side

Seeing the three rates on the same room helps. Take a $300 night. At the original 4% the MAT was $12.00. From May 1, 2023, at 6%, it was $18.00. During the World Cup window at 8.5%, it was $25.50.

So the temporary increase added $7.50 to that night, while the 2023 increase from 4% to 6% had added $6.00. The World Cup step was a little larger, but it lasted 14 months instead of staying in place.

Now scale it to a year. A business that sends staff to Toronto for 40 room-nights a year at $300 spends $12,000 on rooms. The MAT at 6% is $720. At 8.5% it would have been $1,020, so the extra is $300 for every 40 nights. That is the practical cost of the World Cup window for a regular corporate traveller.

A longer stay, hotel against rental

Suppose a relocating family needs 29 nights in Toronto in the summer of 2026, before August. They compare a hotel at $250 a night with a short-term rental at $220 a night.

The hotel costs $7,250 for 29 nights ($250 times 29). Since the City describes hotel stays of 30 days or less as taxed, the MAT at 8.5% would apply, and it comes to $616.25. That brings the hotel total to $7,866.25.

Next, the rental: $6,380 for 29 nights ($220 times 29). Because a short-term rental of 28 consecutive days or more is outside the tax, there is no MAT. The total is $6,380. That is a gap of $1,486.25, and most of it comes from the nightly rate, not the tax.

The tax part of that gap, $616.25, is real. But two points keep it in proportion. The rental has to be a genuine short-term rental booking of 28 nights or more, and the family should confirm in writing that the operator is not charging the MAT. And other costs, such as cleaning fees, can change the picture. The tax is one input in the decision, and the price per night is often bigger.

Short-term rental hosts and the tax

If you host in Toronto, the rules are more involved than for a hotel. Short-term rentals are allowed only in your principal residence, and you can register one. Registration and the 2026 renewal fee is $390. You can rent up to 3 bedrooms any number of nights, but a whole home is capped at 180 nights a year.

On the tax side, operators collect and remit the MAT on rentals of less than 28 consecutive days. Remittance is quarterly, within 30 days of the end of the quarter. You must file a MAT report for each period, even if you had no bookings, and even if a platform collects and remits the tax for you.

Fines exist for breaking the basic rules. Operating without registration is $1,000. Going over 180 nights is $700. Advertising without a registration number is $1,000.

A host who kept rates at the old 6% level after June 1, 2025 would have been undercollecting for stays in the 14-month window. If you hosted then and are unsure how you did, read the MAT guidance on the City’s site and, if needed, contact the City’s revenue services.

How a host reports it

A host who collects the tax must keep a record of every transaction, including the revenue collected and any exemptions that applied in the reporting period. The City requires a MAT report for each period, even a period with no bookings.

Here is an example of how the maths might look. A host with a registered principal residence rents two bedrooms. In one quarter of the temporary window, the host had 30 nights of paid stays at $150 a night. Revenue is $4,500. At 8.5%, the MAT collected from guests is $382.50. The host sends that amount with the report within 30 days of the end of the quarter.

If that same host had collected only 6% by mistake, $270, the shortfall would be $112.50 for that quarter. That is the type of error a host would want to correct with the City, which is why keeping dates and rates on file matters.

A quarter that straddled the change is trickier. A stay that began on July 30, 2026 was taxed at the temporary rate, since the City ties the 6% rate to stays beginning August 1. The safest approach is to record the check-in date of each booking and match it to the rate that applied that day.

Checking your own bill

If you stayed in Toronto between June 1, 2025 and July 31, 2026, look at the receipt. The MAT line should equal 8.5% of the room cost, not counting separately listed services. If the line looks higher than that, ask the hotel or host for a breakdown before you assume it is an error, because the base may include items the City would not exclude.

For stays that began on or after August 1, 2026, the line should be 6%. If a booking you made earlier straddles the date, the City’s wording is that the 6% applies to stays beginning that day, so a stay that started before it is a question to raise with the operator.

Keep the invoice. If you claim the cost as a business expense, the receipt shows the tax line separately, which helps with your records. The budget calculator is a simple place to fold travel costs into a plan.

What this means after the World Cup

With the temporary rate over, the regular 6% applies again to Toronto hotels and rentals. The City’s MAT page instructs operators to collect 6% on stays beginning August 1, 2026.

Nothing on the pages we opened says the 8.5% rate will return. If Council considers another increase for a future event, it would go through a public report and a vote, and you would see it announced on the City’s site.

For anyone booking a visit now, the practical point is small. Add 6% to the room cost when you compare prices, and check how the host lists other fees. The rest of the bill, cleaning fees and taxes aside, is up to the operator. For your own numbers, try the Rental Property calculator, or browse the Toronto calculators.

Sources

• City of Toronto, Municipal Accommodation Tax
• City of Toronto, Municipal Accommodation Tax for guests
• City of Toronto, Short-Term Rental Municipal Accommodation Tax
• City of Toronto, 2026 Budget Notes, FIFA World Cup 2026 Toronto

Common questions

Last reviewed: September 29, 2026. Figures come from the official sources listed above. How we check the numbers and our editorial policy.