What a Denver Hotel Actually Costs
The advertised nightly rate is not what you pay in Denver. Add the city's 10.75% lodger's tax, a further 1% Tourism Improvement District surcharge at hotels with 50 or more rooms, state and district sales taxes on top of that, and $50 to $70 a night if you are parking a car downtown. On a three-night stay with a rental car, the gap between the rate you booked and the bill you settle is routinely more than a hundred dollars.
What is Denver's hotel tax?
Denver charges a 10.75% lodger's tax on hotel stays. Hotels with 50 or more rooms add a 1% Tourism Improvement District surcharge, taking it to 11.75%. Colorado state sales tax and district taxes are applied on top of that.
The 10.75% and the 1% surcharge are the figures to plan around. The full combined rate including state and district taxes varies, and Denver Treasury is the authority worth checking if you need an exact number for an expense claim.
Practically: take the nightly rate and add at least 12%, more once state and district sales taxes land. If you need an exact figure for an expense claim, Denver Treasury is the authority.
How much is hotel parking in downtown Denver?
Expect $50 to $70 a night for self-park or valet at a downtown Denver hotel. The Crawford HotelBook publishes valet at $68. Some hotels charge for their own garage while a reserved spot in a lot down the block costs less — it is worth asking which arrangement your hotel uses.
This is the single most common budgeting mistake visitors make in Denver. A $180 room with $65 valet is a $245 room, and a $210 room you can walk away from is cheaper.
If you are driving in for a game or a show, reserving a garage spot in advance locks a rate and guarantees a space rather than circling. Rates at the lots closest to Coors Field and Ball Arena surge on event days and the nearest ones sell out early.
Is it cheaper to stay downtown without a car?
Usually, yes. A walkable downtown or LoDo room plus the A Line from the airport frequently beats a cheaper suburban or airport room plus a rental car, parking and fuel — particularly on trips of three nights or fewer where you would leave the car parked most of the time.
The exception is a trip built around the mountains, Red Rocks or anything in the suburbs. Red Rocks in particular has no transit service at all, so a show there means driving, a private show shuttle, or a rideshare.
- Airport to downtown on the A Line: $10 for a day pass covering the return trip
- Downtown hotel parking: $50–$70 per night
- Rental car: daily rate plus fuel plus that parking, every night of the stay
Where the money you saved could go
Rate, tax and parking is the honest number. Here is what the gap between that and what you budgeted actually buys.
1h 30minVan Gogh: The Immersive Experience Ticket Denver
3hDenver Beer Spa: Colorado's Most Unique Spa Experience For Two
8h 30minPikes Peak and Garden of the Gods Small Group Tour
2h 30minThe Best of Denver: E-Bike & Bicycle Tour of the Downtown Sites
When are Denver hotel rates highest?
Denver rates follow the event calendar more than the season. A citywide convention can double a midweek downtown rate, Rockies home weekends spike LoDo, and the National Western Stock Show fills the I-70 corridor for sixteen days every January.
Overnight visitation is flatter across the year than most people assume — the third quarter is the peak at 28% of overnight visitors and the first quarter the trough at 22%. That narrow spread is why checking what is booked in town beats picking a month.
- Great American Beer Festival — 10–11 October 2026. Note it has moved outdoors to Levitt Pavilion at Ruby Hill in southwest Denver, not the Colorado Convention Center. Guides still sending you downtown for it are out of date.
- CEDIA Expo — 1–4 September 2026, Colorado Convention Center
- Splunk .conf26 — 14–17 September 2026, Colorado Convention Center
- National Western Stock Show — 9–24 January 2027
- Denver March Powwow — 19–21 March 2027, Denver Coliseum
Is downtown Denver getting more expensive?
Rates softened through 2025 and have been recovering since. Downtown Denver occupancy was 69% in March 2026, up from 61% a year earlier, with RevPAR at $150 against $118. The new-supply pipeline is light, which tends to firm rates rather than soften them.
For a visitor the useful read is that discounting is thinning out. Booking further ahead is worth more in 2026 than it was in 2025, particularly around the convention calendar.
See what your dates actually cost
Rates on this page move with the convention and Rockies calendars rather than with weekends, so the only number worth comparing is the one for your dates. Here are the two clusters most visitors end up choosing between.
Downtown
Priced off the Colorado Convention Center calendar. A citywide can double a Tuesday rate, and the weeks either side price nothing like it.
rooftop sunsets with mountain views
RiNo
Cheaper than LoDo and it does not follow the ballpark, which is why the gap widens exactly on the weekends you were going to pay most.
sparkling clean rooms, friendly staff, walkable location
Common questions
What is Denver's lodger's tax?
10.75%, plus a 1% Tourism Improvement District surcharge at hotels with 50 or more rooms. State and district sales taxes apply on top.
Do Denver hotels charge resort fees?
Some do, and they are separate from the lodger's tax and from parking. Check the booking's fee breakdown before comparing two rates, because a lower headline rate with a daily fee and paid parking can land higher than a more expensive room without them.
How much should I budget per night for a downtown Denver hotel?
Take the advertised rate, add at least 12% in taxes — more once state and district sales taxes are applied — and add $50 to $70 if you are parking a car. That total is the number worth comparing between hotels.
Is parking cheaper at hotels outside downtown?
Generally yes, and often free at airport-area and suburban hotels. Whether that saves money depends on how many rideshares into the city it costs you — two a day will usually erase the difference.
Also worth knowing before you book
Still deciding where to book?
The full neighborhood breakdown covers who each part of Denver actually suits, what it costs, and who should skip it.
Where to stay in Denver →How this guide got made
A mix of things: Google ratings and review counts, weighted so a 4.5 with two thousand reviews beats a 5.0 with eleven; walking distances routed over real sidewalks rather than measured as the crow flies; and a decent amount of opinion from someone who lives here and has been in most of these lobbies.
Hotels move, though. Rooftop pools close for the winter. Parking that was free in March costs $50 by June. A dog policy grows a weight limit. Everything here was checked in August 2026, and we go back through it every quarter — but the hotel is the only one who knows what's true today. So if one specific detail is the reason you're booking — the pool, the shuttle at 4am, whether the dog comes — take ninety seconds and call them. Then go enjoy Denver.
Rate links go to Expedia and earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes the order — the ranking is the ranking, and plenty of places we recommend pay us nothing. More about how this site works.
Check your dates
What will it cost on your dates?
Denver rates move with the convention and Rockies calendars rather than with weekends, so the headline number is close to meaningless until you put real dates in.
Affiliate search — booking through it supports this site at no extra cost to you.