Guest tax up and hotel analytics show mixed occupancy picture; postal training center skews rates

City staff presented hotel- and guest-tax analytics to the Business & Community Affairs Committee on Aug. 6, highlighting a recent rise in guest-tax revenue and nuanced occupancy measures for Norman hotels.

Dan Shim explained the city saw guest-tax collections increase nearly 15% year to date in FY25 and another roughly 12% entering FY26. He also reminded the committee that voters approved raising the guest tax to 10% effective July 1; staff said the new rate will increase future collections and that the city reallocated distributions to a historical 50/25/25 split.

On hotel metrics, staff showed a 12‑month average occupancy of about 41.3% for all Norman hotels but noted the postal training center (NCD) constitutes a large share of room inventory and skews the averages downward. "When you look at our all Norman hotels without NCD, then it starts looking a little bit better," staff said, reporting occupancy around 54.2% and an average daily rate near $124–$150 for comparable properties. Staff cautioned some hotels do not self‑report and the data set excludes a few properties.

Why it matters: Guest-tax revenue funds parks, tourism marketing and other programs; an accurate hotel-market picture affects economic-development outreach to hoteliers and developers. Council members asked staff for peer comparisons (e.g., Oklahoma City occupancy) and further breakdowns by property type.

Staff committed to sharing underlying hotel data and refining the spend-per-trip analysis once the new Datify platform is fully implemented.