Rent a $200 room in Lakeport and the bill can carry a $5 charge on top of the city’s hotel tax. It’s the Lake County Tourism Improvement District assessment, 2.5% of the room rate. It pays for the marketing that sells Lake County to visitors.
The district took in nearly twice as much money last year as the year before. The nonprofit that runs it, Visit Lake County California, reported $778,495 in revenue for 2025 on its federal tax filing. It reported $399,505 for 2024.
It spent $477,719 in 2025 and ended the year with $378,674 in net assets, the filing’s term for what an organization owns minus what it owes. A year earlier it had $77,898.
The district’s board had forecast less. Minutes of its Jan. 8, 2025, meeting say the board was “forecasting $600,000 in revenue for 2025.” The newest annual report on the district’s website Thursday was the one for 2024.
Who pays
The rate went up. Under the district’s first plan, which began Jan. 1, 2019, the assessment was 1.5% of what a lodging business took in on short-term room rentals. The Board of Supervisors renewed the district on Feb. 7, 2023, for 10 years beginning Jan. 1, 2024. The plan for the renewal sets the rate at 2.5%. Board minutes from Sept. 18, 2024, use the district’s initials: “The increase to 2 ½% TID rate is in effect.”
The lodging business owes the money. The plan says a business “may, at its discretion, pass the assessment on to transients,” its word for guests. If it does, the charge has to be disclosed in advance and listed separately on the bill.
The assessment isn’t charged on stays of more than 30 days in a row, on state park campsites or on places run by a local government.
The hotel tax is separate. Lakeport’s is 10%, according to the State Controller’s Office. Clearlake’s is 9%, according to its municipal code. On the $200 room in Lakeport, the city tax is $20.
The cities are in the district
The plan covers “all lodging businesses, existing and in the future, available for public occupancy within the boundaries of the cities of Lakeport and Clearlake, and the unincorporated areas of Lake County.” The supervisors’ renewal resolution says both cities gave their consent.
The district’s annual report for 2024 shows where that year’s $417,012 came from. A pie chart puts Clearlake at 15.8% and Lakeport at 12.1%. Together that’s 27.9%.
The largest slice, 37.5%, is labeled “County TID.” Another 27.0% is labeled “County of Lake.” Slices labeled Middletown, at 4.8%, and Robinson Rancheria, at 2.8%, make up the rest. The chart doesn’t say what separates the two county slices.
The county also pays the district under a contract. The agreement for the 2025-26 budget year says, “County will forward $112,500 from its Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) revenues.” Transient occupancy tax is the formal name for the hotel tax. The $112,500 is about 27% of the district’s 2024 total.
City and county officials sit on the district’s board. They include Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora; Wilda Shock, the economic development specialist for Lakeport; and County Administrative Officer Susan Parker, whose last day with the county is Dec. 31.
Where the money goes
The renewal plan splits the assessment money four ways: 75% for sales and marketing, 20% for administration, 3% for a reserve and 2% to the county and cities for collecting it.
The district’s 2025 board minutes list its executive director, Brian Fisher, as a consultant. The January 2025 minutes say the board voted 8-0 to raise his pay by $1,000 a month to “$7,000/month” “as a consultant with no benefits.”
Next to its neighbors
Sonoma County Tourism Bureau reported $9,249,872 in revenue for the year that ended in June 2025. Visit Napa Valley reported $9,591,194. Each is about 12 times Lake County’s $778,495.
The Mendocino County Tourism Commission reported $1,146,678, about 1.5 times Lake County’s.
Lake County’s rate can go higher. The plan lets the district’s board raise it by as much as half a percentage point a year, with the supervisors’ approval, up to 5%. On a $200 room, that would be $10. The plan says raising it every year “is not the anticipated course of action.”
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