Ala. Code § 40-12-115 — Innkeepers and Hotels

Each person keeping a public inn or lodginghouse of five or more bedrooms where transient guests are lodged for pay shall be deemed for the purposes of this title to be engaged in the business of keeping a hotel. A transient guest is one who puts up for less than one week at such hotel, but such a house is no less a hotel because some of the guests put up for longer periods than one week. Every person keeping a hotel, as defined in this section, shall pay an annual license tax as follows: Hotels with five rooms and not over 15 rooms, $.50 for each room; hotels with over 15 and less than 50 rooms, $1 for each room; hotels with 50 rooms and less than 100 rooms, $1.50 for each room; and hotels with 100 rooms and over, $2 for each room. If meals, food or refreshments are served to the general public and charged for, then the additional license required to be paid by restaurants, cafes, lunch counters, and public eating houses shall be paid. Where cottages or annex are operated in connection with or rented by such hotel, this section shall apply to the total of the rooms in the hotel and the cottages and annex.