The City of Saratoga Springs will launch an online registration portal for short-term rentals between Friday and Monday after sending about 1,100 letters to potential rental locations, officials said at the Oct. 7 City Council meeting.

The mayor said the letters were sent to properties identified by a monitoring service that cross-checks listing platforms with the city's property database. "The letter we're sending you is just to identify you as a potential location," the mayor said. The city will follow up with instructions about how to register.

Key dates and rules: Officials told the council that registration will be required and that, per state law and the city's implementation plan, operators who have not secured a license before Dec. 31 and who continue to offer short-term rentals will face fines. The mayor said the city is offering a grace period through the end of the year to encourage compliance.

Expected scope and revenue: Staff and council members discussed preliminary projections from the registration effort: the city noted an estimate of roughly 1,300 active short-term rental listings seen at times (figures fluctuate as listings are added and removed) and suggested a working projection of about 400 primary-residence listings and about 900 non-primary listings. Officials said they expect approximately 78% compliance within two months of the portal going live and that initial short-term rental revenues could be available to inform the amended budget later this year.

Operational details: Deputy Crocker, who helped finalize payment processing, said the team completed integration work with Stripe and other systems. The city also approved adding credit card acceptance for planning and building through a separate addendum to the ACI payments agreement; applicants will pay card fees, and there is no direct cost to the city for the payment vendor.

Equity and enforcement notes: Officials emphasized that long-term renters do not need to register; the monitoring service identifies likely listings based on platform activity. The city said it will verify registrations and ownership, including additional checks where properties are held by LLCs and mailings are returned. The mayor said penalties will apply to listings that do not obtain a license by Dec. 31 but that the city intends outreach first.

Next steps: The portal will go live this week; city staff will begin processing registrations and report back on revenues and compliance rates. The council discussed possible future limits on short-term rentals based on registration results and neighborhood impacts but did not adopt new restrictions at the Oct. 7 meeting.