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County seeks more detailed transient lodging tax data from state to identify short‑term rentals
Summary
County administrators discussed limitations of state TRT reports (ZIP‑level, firm names only) and recommended contacting the Department of Revenue and peer counties or using third‑party tools to better detect marketed short‑term rentals and lost revenue.
County administrative staff reported that available state transient lodging tax (TRT) reports are limited — typically quarterly ZIP‑level totals and firm names rather than addresses — making it difficult to identify marketed short‑term rentals and assess lost revenue to the county.
The county administrative officer (speaker 4) said the county receives an annual ZIP code report from the state and that many listings come through firms or LLC names, which complicates direct identification of individual property addresses. The officer proposed contacting the Department of Revenue (DOR) and other counties that use third‑party 'lodging sniffer' tools to see whether those methods could be subcontracted or adopted to identify marketed rentals and improve revenue tracking.
Staff and commissioners asked about the costs and frequency of DOR reports, and agreed to pursue further conversations and cost estimates before committing to any data‑purchase option.
