Short Term Rental Tech Solution

The vendor is required to provide technological solutions and direct support that assists the city with the administration of a short-term rental (STR) program.
- This includes address identification and data reporting, compliance monitoring, enforcement, and tax collection support.
- Online Portal, Registration, and Renewals
• Reduction of customer inquiries regarding simple details of their registration.
• Shortened registration review times.
• Attaining a 100% accuracy in calls forwarded from the program-required hotline reaching the emergency contact.
• Increased availability of tracking mechanisms that assist the city to review registration statuses.
• Reduction of the steps and clicks required to update the city’s public facing website on current registration counts and locations.
• Include a self-service online portal to allow the public to register and renew (annually) their short-term rental(s).
• Enable city users to independently update accounts and correct applicant errors, ensuring the city does not need to rely on contractor for assistance with basic administrative functions.
• Allow the city to manually and/or preemptively disallow the submittal of a renewal application for any given individual registration.
• Disallow the submittal of new applications without consent/approval from the city.
• Send automated emails/notifications to short-term rental registrants when submitting payments or applications to the city, as well as when any city approvals or denials are made.
• Include the ability for the public to submit information, documentation, and payment necessary to obtain a registration.
• Include the ability for the public to have multiple sets of contact information for individual registrations, including owner, tenant, property manager, etc.
• Include the ability for the public to export reports for information relevant to their account including, but not limited to, their tax payments.
• Include the ability for the public to access general information about the status of their application or approved registration, including expiration date and registration number.
• Provide a module wherein the city may view all registration records and may filter or change the view of these records without leaving the page.
• Provide the ability for the city to securely enter the account of a portal user to assist/troubleshoot issues.
• Provide a registration process which may be modified directly by the city, upon request by the city to the contractor, or both.
• Provide the ability to automatically withhold a renewal application submittal if the account is delinquent and to notify the registrant.
• Provide for changes to registration statues to be instantaneously reflected across all the affected solution components, including reporting.
• Disallow the ability for an individual person to be registered for more than one nonprimary registration and more than one primary registration. 
• Likewise, an applicant applying as a business entity shall only obtain one non-primary registration.
• Provide the ability to link multiple registrations to a single account.
• Allow portal users the ability to modify details on their new or renewal application prior to city approval, including changing the application type (if application fees are equal in cost).
• Allow portal users and the city to communicate directly within the solution.
• Allow the city to create ad hoc e-mail notifications.
• Allow the city to change automated email notifications upon request.
• Provide the ability to add smart fields/labels to registrations both pre- and post-go live with the solution.
• Provide a waitlist mechanism for when the city reaches a registration cap at a property, group of properties, or on a citywide basis.
- Address identification and reporting
• Provide the ability to correctly match online short-term rental listings to existing properties, with human verification of each listing identified and justification of matching criteria used.
• Scrape/scan STR platforms at regular or randomized intervals, including new platform sites discovered post go-live, and take high resolution screen shots of all listings as well as determine their minimum night stay.
• Include an automated updated live dashboard displaying property totals and listing counts, listing compliance breakdown, and STR location map.
• Include a robust record management system that can export reports in excel or csv format.
• Be able to identify, record and report advertised property details including, but not limited to, the number of bedrooms, host information, maximum occupancy, minimum night stay, property type, type of rental (entire home vs. room rental), nightly rate, etc.
• Be able to document, categorize, and store history related to a property or unit, including the advertisements, registrations, city notes, etc.
• Allow the city full access and editing rights to maintain a list of properties/parcels should such a list be incorporated into the solution.
• The city should have an indefinite number of ways to label individual or groups of properties/parcels and those labels should be contextualized on a map.
• Provide the city the ability to customize compliance statuses or labels as required to meet the city's unique regulations on STR.
• Be able to identify and distinguish between different property types such as condominiums, single-family dwellings, duplex, apartment homes (4+ units), etc. 
• Provide ad hoc reporting features.
• Be able to identify potential audits and underreporting of taxes based on calendar bookings found online.
- Tax collection
• Allow the city to create, edit and schedule email reminders for monthly tax reporting.
• Auto-calculate taxes based on which hosting platform was used and collect payment.
• Provide the ability to waive penalty and interest fees, either for individual accounts, individual registrations or entire taxable periods.
• Provide the ability for registrants to remit taxes for all properties/units they manage in a single upload.
• Allow the tax rates to be updated as needed without the need to engage a development team.
• Provide the ability to automatically request support documentation for an exemption taken on a tax return.
• Provide the ability to write off fees and maintain why the action was done.
• Continue to calculate interest on outstanding tax due resulting from an underpayment.
• Provide the ability to process and track overpayments and underpayments.
• Provide the ability for a taxpayer to remit the remaining amount due as a result of an underpayment or amended return online.
• Provide the ability for a taxpayer to use a credit resulting from an overpayment or amended return online to reduce another filing amount.
• Process amended returns and reflect revenue in the correct reporting periods.
• Provide the ability to create a “payment plan” for payment agreements wherein users are able to remit payment according to the specified schedule and amount due online and the city able to track and report on the payment plan balance. 
- 24/7/365 call service hotline
1. Provide a 24/7/365 (including holidays) live hotline to address neighbor complaints and issues concerning property rentals.
2. Allow the caller to speak with a live person before the call is over.
3. Record each incoming call to the hotline, notify all incoming callers that they will be recorded, and make all recordings available to the city.
4. Create a custom script for each call (developed jointly by the selected firm and the city) and any options, if applicable, as a call progresses onto the next steps.
5. Provide call center agents whom shall cross reference the address given by the hotline caller with all registered short-term rentals with the city and call the emergency contact immediately after completing the hotline call in order to instruct the emergency contact about their requirements to resolve the issue.
• If the call attempts are successful, the emergency contact shall be provided an option to input resolution notes which will be accessible to the city.
• If the calls are unsuccessful, a voicemail shall be left and a text shall be sent, both providing a summary of the issue(s), city requirements to resolve the issue, and an option to provide resolution notes which will be accessible to the city.
• Date and time of the call
• Unique complaint id
• Recording of call
• Type of complaint:
• Noise, trash, unregistered rental, exceeding occupancy, etc.
• Reporting party name (if provided)
• Reporting party address (if provided)
• Reporting party phone number
• STR address as reported
• Confirmed property address
• STR account number (if available)
• Note if the reporting party wants a callback
• Emergency contact name(s) and phone number(s) (provided by the city or the via registration portal)
• Details, including timestamps, for each attempt made by contractor to contact emergency contact
• Emergency contact resolution notes (if provided)
7. Provide a field for each call for the city to assign/edit a compliancy status.
8. Provide a field for each call for the city to enter notes.
9. Provide the city with the ability to directly update emergency contact names and numbers without solution provider assistance.
10. Provide the complaining party and the emergency contact the ability to submit photos/videos as ‘evidence’.
- Contract Period/Term: 2 years
- Optional Virtual Pre-Proposal Meeting Date: July 10, 2025
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: July 24, 2025