Short-term rentals are different than hotels. With hotels, you have an auditable trail. Host Compliance gives us that auditable trail. We can make sure we are collecting taxes fairly.
Nashville’s Finance Department was struggling to collect accurate taxes from over 4,500 short-term vacation rentals (STRs) without an effective system to identify STR addresses and owners. Host Compliance enabled staff to identify STRs and educate hosts about local laws, encouraging them to pay taxes. Staff collected $2.8 million more in tax revenue from STRs in their first year of using the software.
Nashville,
Tennessee
How the Finance Department Increased Tax Collection by $2.8 Million with Host Compliance
Overview
ROI
10x
$2.8
Million
The City increased tax collection in their first year.
90%+
Compliance
Over 90% of Nashville’s STRs hold permits with the City.
Units
Nashville has approximately 10 STR units per square mile.
The increase in taxes pays for the software ten times over.
5,700
Must-have Granicus solution
Want to make sure you’re collecting the proper tax from short-term vacation rentals? Sign up to see Host Compliance solutions in action.
Nashville attracts millions of visitors each year. To support this tourism, Nashville’s short-term vacation rental (STR) market exploded, and suddenly, the famous honky-tonks weren’t the only hosts to late night parties — so were STRs.
The Metro Government of Nashville and Davidson County faced growing public concern for STRs operating illegally. There were accounts of hosts filling STRs with as many beds as possible. The Code Department was quickly met with a backlog of complaints. Over 4,500 rental properties were listed online. Trying to identify addresses and manage compliance manually proved impossible — there are over 60 active rental websites and they keep information like addresses and contact information private.
The Finance Department was also struggling. It couldn’t collect taxes from STRs when they didn’t know who owned them, where they were located, or how many nights they were being rented a month. For a department whose vision is “excellence in the management of public resources,” that was a problem.
“We're not being good stewards of the taxpayer dollar if we're not able to collect ongoing tax revenue,” said Zak Kelley, a Special Project Manager with the Finance Department.
Insight Needed for Tax Collection
Kelley headed up the project to find a solution to Nashville’s short-term rental challenges.
“There was a discussion about why can't we do this internally,” Kelley said. “And the answer is this is not a system that one can get up and running overnight. This is a system and a process that takes time. It takes investment. It takes staffing. And at the time we didn't know what the breadth of the STR market was.”
Metro moved forward with a Request for Proposals (RFP) process to explore available software solutions. Granicus' Host Compliance software addressed all of Nashville's pain points. Not only did it provide high rates of address identification, but it provided an all-in-one solution for communicating with hosts and providing an online portal for them to register and pay taxes.
Data Provides Accurate Numbers for Collection
The Finance Department stated in a Citizen Centric Report that there was a $2.8 million increase in short-term rental revenue collections in their first year of using the Host Compliance software. That increase in revenue is at least ten times the annual cost of the software. As the industry grows and more hosts register and pay taxes, tax collection will continue to increase.
The mission of Metro’s Finance Department “is to provide financial management, information, and business products to policymakers, departments, agencies, investors, and the Nashville community so they can have confidence in Metro Government, make informed decisions, and achieve their results.”
$2.8 Million Increase in Tax Revenue in First Year
How wrexham county council improved citizen experience through integrated communications & service delivery
Overview
The county council knew the first step to improve the citizen experience was to modernise the way they communicated bin removal services. To ensure citizens received relevant, timely and automated communications, Wrexham implemented Granicus’s govDelivery email, mobile message, and social media platform. Now, they have the sophisticated marketing automation and audience segmentation required to deliver personalised waste and recycling bin collection reminders to over 12,000 residents. Targeted email messages from the county empower residents to take the correct action at the right moment.
These reminders — delivered alongside educational messages about what can and can’t be recycled — are positively impacting local recycling rates. For example, more customers know what can and can’t be recycled; the number of bins not being collected due to contamination has decreased by 27% since implementing govDelivery.
With Firmstep, the county’s digital customer services solution, integrated with govDelivery, their communication platform, the customer experience is seamless.
How does it work? When a customer visits the Wrexham website and enters their address in a form, Firmstep automatically looks up the customer’s collection day and calendar, then sends the information into GovDelivery, which automatically signs the customer up for their bin reminder emails. After that, the customer receives relevant, timely, and automated information about their bin collections. This combination has improved sign-up rates and ensured Wrexham reaches more citizens.
How the Firmstep + GovDelivery integration streamlines service
Citizens love the online experience they are receiving
93%
Increasing by 500 new accounts per month
18K
Bin Reminders
12K
Increasing by 800 subscribers per month
The result of targeted, proactive communications
Reduction in Calls
48%
Must-have Granicus product
Could your citizens benefit from seamless and integrated digital experiences? Get in touch with us today to learn more about how Granicus can help!
See It Live
We love govDelivery because it gives us control over information. We can find the answers to our questions, and then form good processes to better interact with the people in our council.
Situation
Solution
Results
Background
Like many local governments in California, the team at the Napa County Election Division has many critical duties in support of local, state, and federal elections. They also must help ensure all required government officials disclose their financial interests.
Designated filing officers must accurately track, manage, and deliver documents related to the disclosure of government employee and elected official Statement of Economic Interest, known as Form 700 in California. The process is regulated by the State of California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC).
Staff at the Election Division have their own goals to increase efficiency and make sure officials file on time. Napa County’s recently updated strategic plan has a priority goal of making government more transparent.
Situation
Solution
The DisclosureDocs implementation team worked closely with Napa County staff to meet their tight deadline. After their kickoff meeting in January 2019, they migrated files, trained staff, and then deployed. In the end, they were able to implement DisclosureDocs by their deadline of April 2.
From Manual to Automatic
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Host Compliance
govDelivery
– Zak Kelley, a Special Project Manager
TMS is definitely a success for our agency. We’re able to reach consumers more quickly and reliably. I would recommend anyone with a similar need or circumstance to switch to govDelivery TMS.
“We definitely worked with Host [Compliance] in the beginning on modifying our language in our letter outreach, getting it to line up with our specific goals in Truckee. More education and compliance focus than enforcement right off the bat.” – Chrissy Earnhardt, Administrative Services Manager
“Nobody had an all in one solution like Granicus’ Host Compliance software.” – Zak Kelley, Special Project Manager
With Host Compliance, the Finance Department can collect taxes accurately. They can know how many nights a unit has been rented and can calculate the appropriate taxes owed. The system also allows Metro to send letters to hosts about unpaid taxes.
“We achieve our mission by maximizing the tax revenue we collect. We're collecting it accurately. We're not over collecting it. We're not under collecting it. To collect those taxes, we're communicating effectively to STR owners about what their obligations are to the City. And we do it all through Host Compliance.”
A Mandate for Transparency & Efficiency
The Host Compliance software found 229 active listings in Garden Grove, and automatically identified the addresses of those listings.
Through the software’s Compliance Monitoring module, which allows users to send letters to hosts with a few clicks, staff provide hosts with educational material. This material gives hosts the chance to come into compliance before staff issue a citation. “I think that’s very important when you’re putting together any type of enforcement program. Educate the public first, and then follow through with proper enforcement,” said Roque.
The City also opted for the software’s 24/7 hotline to reduce the burden on police; citizens can now file a complaint online or by calling.
“A lot of vacation rental providers are on more than one platform, which makes it more difficult to track. It simply wouldn’t be possible to have an acceptable compliance rate without having an online monitoring tool like Host Compliance because of the sheer effort to identify properties — it does take a lot of time.” – Alex Thumm, Planning and Building Analyst
Million
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