![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/img-26-05-09-55CE4.jpg\" "\\"img-26-05-09-55CE4.jpg\\"")
A site plan, updated in 2007, shows amenities planned for North Natomas Regional Park. Kaplan proposes 10 soccer fields for the park. City of Sacramento <\/p>\n
Sacramento\u2019s main hotel tax \u2014 also known as transient occupancy tax, or TOT \u2014 is a 12% percent levy on all stays at hotels, motels or short-term rentals for less than 31 consecutive days. An additional tax \u2014 the rate varies across the city but averages 2.4% \u2014 funds sales and marketing work by the local tourism bureau, Visit Sacramento. That tax is charged to hotels, but the cost can be passed through to the guests. And a 1% tax on gross room rent was created in 2018 to fund the mortgage for a ballroom project at the downtown convention center.<\/p>\n
Kaplan is proposing what she described as a \u201cslight\u201d increase to the tax charged to hotels in North Natomas.<\/p>\n
Hoteliers must agree to the tax. Visit Sacramento would hold the money, and form a subcommittee of hoteliers from North Natomas to oversee spending of the funds, Kaplan said.<\/p>\n
Noureen Rashid, 7, participates in a hula hoop contest during a kite festival at North Natomas Regional Park in 2015. REN\u00c9E C. BYER Sacramento Bee file <\/p>\n
Mike Testa, president and CEO of Visit Sacramento, said newly built soccer fields in Placer County fill up with tourists every weekend. And parents will spend money on youth sports even amid a faltering economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some ways, it\u2019s recession-proof,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
There are no other local hotel tax overlays in Sacramento like the one Kaplan proposed, Testa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a visionary approach,\u201d he said. \u201cIt gives them the ability to drive their own destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n
The park\u2019s aquatic complex is the site of Sacramento\u2019s first Olympic-sized pool. The City Council in March accepted a $500,000 grant from California State Parks for improvements there.<\/p>\n
Kaplan\u2019s proposal calls for building 10 soccer fields, which could host sports tournaments to help fill North Natomas hotels, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoccer is huge all over the city of Sacramento,\u201d Kaplan said. \u201cPeople are going to Davis and Roseville and Tracy, Modesto and Rancho Cordova.\u201d<\/p>\n
She estimated the new tax could raise $800,000 to $1 million per year. There are 10 hotels in the area, according to the proposal.<\/p>\n
North Natomas boasts the highest regional hotel room occupancy, Testa said, partly because of its proximity to Sacramento International Airport.<\/p>\n
Still, the Natomas area has a high concentration of hotels, and the region needs to boost its tourism draws to fill them, said Safal Mengi, the general manager at Aloft Hotel and Wyndham Garden in North Natomas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not selling out,\u201d he said. \u201cI wish I were.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Sheep](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20230502_LS_Sheep_067122.jpg\" "\\"20230502_LS_Sheep_067122.jpg\\"")
Sheep graze at the North Natomas Regional Park in 2023 as part of a weed management program by the city of Sacramento. LEZLIE STERLING Sacramento Bee file <\/p>\n
With even more hotels under construction in North Natomas, Mangi said the area needs a new strategy to attract new tourists and help local restaurants. He said money collected under the current transient occupancy tax at his hotels and others in the area doesn\u2019t return to North Natomas.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of us just sitting here and taking it, I like that we are able to at least do something else about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mangi worried some of his customers \u2014 such as the airlines whose crews rest at his facilities \u2014 might object to the additional cost of a new tax structure. But he still marveled as he thought about the increased tourism new soccer fields could generate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need our own control in Natomas,\u201d he said. \u201cI want those soccer fields. Imagine the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
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