Introduction
Short-term rental revenue in the Texas Hill Country can look simple on the surface: you charge for nights, you add a cleaning fee, and a marketplace sends a payout. The tax side is less simple. Texas has a statewide hotel occupancy tax, and many cities, counties, and special districts add their own local layers. That means one reservation can generate several separate tax amounts even when the guest only sees one total on the checkout screen. This calculator is designed to give hosts, property managers, and analysts a fast estimate of that combined burden before cash-flow surprises show up at filing time.
The tool focuses on the way many Hill Country operators actually think about a year. Instead of assuming a single nightly rate, it separates peak-season nights from off-season nights so you can reflect the premium pricing that often comes with wildflower weekends, festival dates, winery traffic, holiday markets, summer lake demand, or race and wedding weekends. It also includes a cleaning fee input because mandatory cleaning charges are commonly treated as part of taxable occupancy revenue. That detail matters: for a property with frequent short stays, cleaning revenue can be large enough to materially increase the tax bill.
Just as important, the calculator shows more than one answer. A host rarely needs only the grand total. You may want the state share, the city share, the county share, the district share, your post-fee net revenue, and a reasonable escrow target so that quarterly or monthly remittances do not arrive as a shock. By presenting those pieces together, the calculator turns a compliance estimate into a planning tool. It can help you set aside cash, compare listing strategies, or test whether a different average nightly rate leaves enough room after taxes and platform fees.
How to use
Begin by entering the number of peak and off-season nights booked during the period you want to evaluate. A full calendar year is the most common use, but the calculator also works for a quarter, a season, or a custom projection as long as the rates and booking counts match the same time period. Next, enter your average nightly rate for each season and the number of bookings. The bookings field matters because cleaning fees are entered on a per-stay basis rather than per night.
Then enter the cleaning fee charged to each booking, your platform commission, and the tax rates that apply to your property. Texas state hotel occupancy tax is typically 6%, while the local pieces depend on where the property sits. A city may impose its own occupancy tax, a county may add another rate, and some areas have tourism, venue, or emergency-services district charges layered on top. Finally, choose the number of months between remittances. If you file quarterly, use 3. If you file monthly, use 1. If you set aside tax money over a longer annual cycle, use 12.
After you press Compute occupancy tax, read the results in this order. First, check gross revenue including cleaning fees. Second, look at total occupancy taxes due and the jurisdiction breakdown. Third, compare platform fees with taxes so you understand how much of your gross never becomes owner cash. Fourth, use the monthly escrow recommendation as a practical reserve target. The estimate is especially useful when you are pricing a new property, budgeting for a shoulder season, or deciding whether a marketplace payout leaves enough room for taxes that are still your responsibility to remit.
Formula
The calculator builds taxable revenue from two pieces: nightly charges and cleaning fees. Peak nights are multiplied by the average peak nightly rate, and off-season nights are multiplied by the average off-season nightly rate. Those two amounts are added together. Then the tool multiplies the number of bookings by the cleaning fee per booking and adds that figure to the nightly revenue. In plain language, the calculator assumes taxable revenue equals lodging charges plus mandatory cleaning charges.
In that expression, R is taxable revenue, Np is peak nights, Pr is the peak nightly rate, No is off-season nights, Or is the off-season nightly rate, B is the number of bookings, and F is the cleaning fee per booking. Platform fees are calculated separately because they reduce the owner’s cash flow, but they do not reduce the taxable revenue in this model.
Once taxable revenue is known, the total occupancy tax is the taxable revenue multiplied by the combined rate. The page already includes the core tax identity below, and it is preserved here because it captures the layered structure that makes Hill Country compliance feel complicated. The state rate is universal statewide, while the city, county, and district rates depend on the property’s location.
Here T is total occupancy tax due, R is taxable revenue, s is the state rate, c is the city rate, k is the county rate, and d is the district rate. The calculator also computes a monthly escrow target by dividing the total tax by the number of months between remittances. That part is simple but useful because hosts often need a reserve habit more than they need another theoretical number.
In the escrow formula, E is the recommended monthly set-aside, T is total tax, and m is the number of months between remittances. If you remit quarterly, m equals 3. If you remit monthly, m equals 1. The result is not a legal filing amount by itself; it is a budgeting guide that helps smooth cash demands across the year.
Interpreting your result
The first result, gross rental revenue including cleaning, is the top-line revenue implied by your entries. It is the amount guests paid before platform commissions and before any occupancy taxes are remitted. The second result, total occupancy taxes due, is the calculator’s estimate of the full tax generated by that revenue using the state, city, county, and district rates you entered. If a marketplace already collects and remits part of that liability for you, the total is still useful as a benchmark, but you may need to credit the collected portion when deciding what you personally still owe.
The state hotel occupancy tax share is shown separately because it is often the easiest part of the liability to identify, and it is the portion most likely to be remitted by a major marketplace under an agreement. The net payout after platform fees and taxes goes a step further. It subtracts platform fees and the full modeled tax burden from gross revenue so that you can evaluate what remains for mortgage payments, utilities, labor, reserves, repairs, and owner profit. For many hosts, this is the line that answers the practical question: “What do I really keep?”
The monthly escrow recommendation is deliberately conservative and operational. If your total projected occupancy tax for the period is large, dividing it into regular monthly set-asides can make compliance manageable. For example, a property with strong summer bookings and winery-event weekends may feel profitable during payout weeks, but the tax reserve can quietly lag behind if you treat every payout as spendable cash. The escrow line helps convert a seasonal tax obligation into a repeatable savings habit. It is not mandatory accounting treatment, but it is often the easiest way to avoid a deadline crunch.
One subtle but important interpretation point is that platform fees and occupancy taxes affect cash flow differently. Platform fees are a cost of distribution; they are taken as a percentage of gross revenue. Occupancy taxes are generally amounts collected because a taxable stay occurred. Even though both reduce the money left over for the owner, they are not interchangeable. This calculator keeps them separate so that pricing decisions stay grounded. If you are deciding between a higher nightly rate and a lower cleaning fee, or comparing direct bookings with marketplace bookings, that separation gives you a clearer read on the trade-offs.
Example
Suppose a Fredericksburg-area farmhouse has 120 peak-season nights booked at an average of $375 and 80 off-season nights booked at $265. Those nightly charges produce $66,200 in peak revenue and $21,200 in off-season revenue, for a total of $74,300 in nightly revenue. Now add 140 bookings with a mandatory $135 cleaning fee. That creates another $18,900 in taxable charges, so gross taxable revenue becomes $93,200.
Using the default rates already loaded in the calculator, the property applies a 6% Texas state rate, a 7% city rate, a 2% county rate, and a 2% district rate. The combined rate is therefore 17%. Multiplying $93,200 by 17% produces a total occupancy tax estimate of $15,844. Broken out by layer, the state share is $5,592, the city share is $6,524, the county share is $1,864, and the district share is $1,864. If the host also pays a 14% platform commission, platform fees equal $13,048.
After subtracting the platform fees and the full modeled tax amount from gross revenue, the host’s net revenue after taxes and fees is $64,308. If the host remits every three months, the calculator recommends setting aside about $5,281.33 per month for occupancy tax. That example is useful because it shows how quickly the combined tax burden grows once cleaning charges and multiple local layers are included. A host looking only at nightly revenue could underestimate the amount that needs to be reserved.
| Jurisdiction | Rate | Tax due (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| State of Texas | 6% | $5,592 |
| City | 7% | $6,524 |
| County | 2% | $1,864 |
| Tourism district | 2% | $1,864 |
Use the example as a pattern rather than a rule. A property in an unincorporated area may have no city rate. A downtown market with a public-improvement or venue district may have an extra layer. A property that attracts longer stays may have fewer cleanings and a lower tax burden than a weekend-focused wine-tour cabin with constant turnover. The calculator helps you test those differences quickly without rebuilding the math from scratch every time.
Limitations
This calculator is intentionally practical, not exhaustive. It assumes that all revenue entered is taxable occupancy revenue and that all bookings occur in one jurisdiction with one consistent set of rates. If you operate multiple properties across different Hill Country markets, such as Wimberley, Dripping Springs, Marble Falls, and Llano County, run separate calculations for each property. Local rate structures can change from one jurisdiction to the next, and combining them in one estimate can blur the real filing picture.
The calculator also does not automatically subtract exemptions, refunds, or marketplace-collected amounts. If a stay qualifies for an exemption, such as a sufficiently long continuous occupancy period under applicable rules, you should remove that revenue before using the tool or model it separately. The same caution applies to refunds, chargebacks, and optional add-ons that may not be taxable in the same way as room charges. In addition, if Airbnb, Vrbo, or another marketplace collects part of the tax for you, the tool’s total still reflects the full tax generated by the stay. You may need to back out the already remitted portion when preparing an actual filing.
Another limitation is timing. The calculator estimates taxes from revenue totals; it does not determine filing deadlines, registration requirements, permit status, recordkeeping rules, or whether your city expects monthly, quarterly, or annual returns. It is a planning calculator, not a compliance filing service. Always verify current requirements with the Texas Comptroller and the relevant city, county, or district authority. That said, the calculator remains valuable because it turns scattered booking assumptions into a clear estimate of gross revenue, total taxes, fee drag, and escrow needs. Used alongside your marketplace statements and local guidance, it can make Hill Country short-term rental budgeting much less guesswork-driven.
Finally, remember that tax law and platform collection agreements can change. A market that currently has one local rate can adopt another, and a platform that once collected only state tax may later expand or narrow its remittance support. For that reason, it is smart to revisit the numbers when regulations change, when your pricing strategy changes, or when you shift from mostly weekend traffic to longer stays. The calculator is strongest when it is used as a recurring decision tool rather than a one-time estimate.
Mini-game: Remittance Rush
This optional arcade-style mini-game turns the calculator’s tax logic into a quick decision challenge. Tune the combined rate, then file each booking while it passes through the green remittance zone. You will see ordinary taxable stays, gold cards where a platform already remitted the 6% state share, and blue long-stay exemption cards that should be filed at 0%.
Controls: mouse or touch to drag the rate rail on the right; tap the play area or press Space to file. Arrow keys also adjust the rate.