Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay Is Changing Owners After a $2.16 Million Tax Fight

The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay is headed to a new owner after settling a years-long tax fight with the city. Strategic Hotels & Resorts plans to sell the Pacific bluff resort to Regency Half Moon Bay LLC. The sale price has not been disclosed. Days earlier, the hotel paid Half Moon Bay about $2.16 million in delinquent taxes and interest after the City Council largely upheld a city audit covering September 2021 through August 2024. The Ritz-Carlton brand remains; the deed and the tax ledger are what change on the coast of Half Moon Bay.

What was the tax dispute about?

City auditors said the hotel failed to collect and remit taxes on resort fees and on charges billed when groups canceled events or room blocks. The consultant's tally landed near $1.6 million in unpaid tax plus roughly $363,000 in interest. Marriott argued that many group cancellation fees were liquidated damages for broken contracts, not payments for occupying a room, and should sit outside the city's lodging tax. Council members disagreed on the main points but did knock about $191,000 of extra interest tied to a communication breakdown. The Sept. 22 vote cleared the path for the payment that followed.

Does a new owner change a stay?

Not on paper yet. The resort still offers cliffside rooms, restaurants, a spa, and two golf courses overlooking the Pacific, the same outline guests have known since the hotel opened in 2001. Strategic bought it in 2004 for about $124.4 million. Closing timing for the Regency deal is not public. Hotel representatives had warned that absorbing the tax bill could squeeze staffing or service levels; Unite Here Local 2 said it had not been told of any cuts. Guests booking autumn or winter weekends should ask whether any cost recovery shows up as higher resort fees or thinner F&B hours rather than assuming the sale itself rewrites the room product.

Why does this matter beyond the tax bill?

Half Moon Bay closed a roughly $1.5 million gap in its 2026-27 budget earlier this year, so the lodging tax fight was never only about one resort's appeal. For travellers, the practical read is simpler: confirm the Ritz-Carlton flag and current fees before you pay a nonrefundable deposit, and treat ownership news as a cue to recheck cancellation terms rather than as a reason to cancel a golf-and-spa weekend that still looks the same from the lobby.