SAN DIEGO & BURLINGAME, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Deckard Technologies, a government-focused tech company that provides software, analytics and insights for communities to create tax fairness, has launched its Rentalscape platform to assist the City of Burlingame, California, in identification of short-term rental (STR) properties and to help hosts become compliant with local regulations.
Rentalscape offers a user-friendly portal for a simplified registration process so STR hosts can gain the permits needed – both a business license and a hosting certificate – to operate an STR in the city. Hosts are able to pay their transient occupancy taxes (TOTs) of 12% through the portal as well, to remain in compliance with city mandates. Deckard has also established a complaint portal for neighbors who wish to report illegally-operating STRs or noise and trash issues. Deckard tracks all rooms being rented out on digital platforms and reports those to the city so the city council has good information to establish appropriate levels and requirements for STRs in its community and also knows what to expect in TOTs.
“Our goal with this portal is to simplify the registration process for hosts, make it easy to pay their transient occupancy taxes, and monitor complaints to keep neighbors happy. The software is quite intuitive, and all the data is there for each listing, including history of rentals and future listings, making enforcement easier for our own staff,” says Kevin Gardiner, Community Development Director for Burlingame. “In the few months since Rentalscape has been deployed, our registrations have increased significantly and those who are properly recorded are paying their TOTs, just like hotel guests do, making online short-term vacation rentals more fair to hotels as well.”
Rentalscape provides detail on STR property addresses and ownership. Violations of STR ordinances alert code enforcement for properties that do not have permits, those that do not include a permit number in advertisements, or where occupancy differs from their permitted levels. In addition to each property detail, Rentalscape can aggregate the number of STRs active in the city, identify aggregate revenue due and average daily rates charged, identify booking trends and the average number of nights booked per reservation, for at least one year past and three months in advance. It also lists the platforms used by STR hosts, including the main ones such as Airbnb, VRBO, and booking.com, as well as several local ones.
Hosts who have not yet registered their properties can check regulations and register on the city’s website at http://Burlingame.org/str. To file a complaint regarding a short-term rental in Burlingame, visit https://burlingame-ca-str-complaints.deckard.com/ or by phoning the 24-hour hotline at 844-234-7371.
Communities wanting additional information on Rentalscape can contact info@deckard.com, call 858-333-7835, or visit: https://www.deckard.com; Facebook; LinkedIn.
