Council Bluffs Closes Fiscal 2026 Up 4.65 Per Cent
Council Bluffs hotels generated $47,604,342.86 in revenue in the fiscal year ended 30 June 2026, and the city collected $3,332,304 in hotel and motel taxes. Both figures rose 4.65 per cent on the previous fiscal year, according to Unleash Council Bluffs’ fiscal 2026 annual report. The organisation’s own post carries the same two figures. The Daily Nonpareil reported them, bylined Isaac Nielsen.
The Two Figures Reconcile to the State Ceiling
The tax collections are 7 per cent of the revenue. $3,332,304 over $47,604,342.86 gives 0.0700, and 7 per cent of the revenue returns $3,332,304.00.
Iowa Code section 423A.4 lets a city impose a hotel and motel tax at no more than seven percent, in increments of one or more full percentage points. Council Bluffs sits at that ceiling.
Executive Director Mark Eckman said the city receives 72 per cent of the collections and that Unleash Council Bluffs takes a small share to fund promotion. The annual report prints no figure for that split.
Occupancy Slips While the Revenue Line Rises
Council Bluffs hotels ran 60.1 per cent occupancy in calendar year 2025, down from 60.7 per cent in 2024, Eckman said. He said Waterloo, Dubuque, Omaha and Sarpy County all recorded lower rates.
The occupancy figures cover a calendar year and the revenue figures cover a fiscal year. The fiscal 2026 report carries no room count, no average daily rate and no revenue per available room figure for the market, so its 4.65 per cent revenue rise cannot be split between rate and volume.
The Tax Take Reaches Third-Highest
Fiscal 2026 produced the third-highest hotel and motel tax collection in the city’s records. The fiscal 2024 annual report records $3,466,057 for that year and a $34,647 increase on the year before, which puts fiscal 2023 at $3,431,410.
Lodging taxes have provided $16,612,831 in city revenue over the past five years. The organisation’s own post states that collections have exceeded $3.18 million in each of those years.
Marketing Spend Behind the Record Web Traffic
Unleash Council Bluffs began working with Sojern, a digital travel marketing firm headquartered in Omaha, on 1 July 2025. Two campaigns ran inside fiscal 2026. The summer and fall initiative ran 1 July to 31 October 2025 on a $40,000 investment and produced 5,214,370 impressions. The spring and summer initiative ran 10 March to 30 June 2026 on a second $40,000 investment and produced 5,794,258 impressions.
A third window, the winter initiative of 2 January to 28 February 2026, ran on a $20,000 investment with 1,237,041 impressions. The Iowa Tourism Office underwrote that campaign with a $10,000 grant.
UNleashCB.com set a record of 378,490 unique visitors for the year. Monthly visitor totals set records for five consecutive months, February through June 2026, and passed 50,000 in May and in June.
The organisation notes that its fiscal 2026 year-over-year comparisons use updated analytics filters that remove inauthentic traffic, so some fiscal 2025 baselines differ from the figures reported for that year.
Event Demand and Grants
Unleash Council Bluffs sponsored nine tournaments in fiscal 2026. The annual report puts the economic impact at $861,104.67, 7.9 per cent more than the organisation expected.
The organisation received $160,000 in grants in fiscal 2026 against $155,000 the year before. The report lists $75,000 through the Regional Sports Authority District program, $50,000 from the Iowa West Foundation, $25,000 from Union Pacific Railroad and $10,000 from the Iowa Tourism Office.
The Cross-River Demand Pool
Visit Omaha reported on 1 October 2026 that Omaha tourism produced $2.6 billion in total economic impact in 2025. The study, by Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company, counted 14.8 million travellers, up 0.7 per cent on the year, split into 8.2 million day-trippers and 6.6 million overnight guests. Visitor spending reached $1.6 billion, of which lodging took $374 million, or 22 per cent.
Unleash Council Bluffs targets travellers within a four-hour drive, including other parts of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas City and the Sioux Falls area. Eckman said Council Bluffs hotels can offer lower rates while giving visitors access to Omaha attractions including the zoo, the Old Market and events at the CHI Health Center.
“We have more to gain by working together than just being competitors,” Eckman said. “At the end of the day, we’re one destination.”
Pottawattamie County’s Share of Iowa Spending
The Iowa Tourism Office reported $334.17 million in direct visitor spending in Pottawattamie County in 2024, on Tourism Economics estimates. Statewide spending reached $7.5 billion that year. Eckman put the county seventh among Iowa’s 99 counties for direct visitor spending.
The annual report cites the US Travel Association and Tourism Economics for $3,054,410,000 in county travel expenditures across 2015 to 2024.
The Day-Use Read
The fiscal 2026 report and the organisation’s own post carry no day-use line: no hourly rate and no property selling a daytime room. The Omaha market carries two Dayuse properties, read on 17 October 2026. Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Omaha West lists four windows from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. at US$100. DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Omaha Downtown lists one window, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at US$125. Dayuse’s Omaha page gives an average day-room price of US$95.81.
What a Revenue Desk Reads
Fiscal 2026 gives a revenue desk a market where the tax take reached its third-highest level at the statutory rate ceiling. Collections of $3,332,304 rest on $47,604,342.86 of hotel revenue.
The marketing line is $40,000 per campaign against 5.2 million and 5.8 million impressions. Across the river, Omaha counted 14.8 million travellers and $374 million of lodging spending, and Council Bluffs competes for those room nights on rate and access inside a four-hour drive radius.
Neither document carries a room count, an average daily rate or a revenue per available room figure for Council Bluffs.