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Accela Strengthens National Short-Term Rental Regulation Leadership with Launch in Oklahoma City and 80% Compliance Rate in Denver

Govtech giant’s short-term rental application deployment in more than a dozen U.S. cities demonstrates commitment to helping local governments leverage SaaS software to adapt to complicated emerging regulatory challenges and generate additional revenue

 

San Ramon, Calif. – Accela, the leading provider of cloud-based solutions for government, today announced the launch of its short-term rental regulation solution in Oklahoma City (OKC), joining more than a dozen cities across the country deploying the application. Denver, Colorado, the first Accela customer to adopt the short-term rental solution, also announced the achievement of an unprecedented short-term rental compliance milestone. When Denver first went live with Accela, the city’s compliance rate for its 3,760 short-term rental properties hovered around 14%. Today, the city has hit a new milestone at 80% compliance. Accela’s Civic Application for Short-Term Rental Registration (STR) is an easy-to-use SaaS solution that allows hosts to register easily, governments to issue licenses quickly, and tax revenue to be captured efficiently.

 

As platforms like Airbnb, VRBO, and HomeAway continue to expand their footprints, the proliferation of short-term rentals has presented state and local governments with substantial regulatory challenges including property rights, neighborhood impacts, taxation and revenue, and liability concerns. Lack of regulation is largely attributed to the rental registration process remaining unnecessarily complex. According to a poll at the 2019 Smart City Policy Summit, 92% of the policymakers, city regulators, and short-term rental industry leaders surveyed said short-term rental operators would be more likely to register their property if the process was easy and online.

 

“The issue of unregulated short-term rentals presents a delicate balance of encouraging tourism while also enforcing procedure, which can be challenging to hit,” says Lawrence Harrold, Systems Analyst II at Oklahoma City. “We selected Accela to help achieve that balance because of our positive experience with their licensing solution, which we have used for over 10 years. The ease of implementation was exemplary. We are looking forward to continuing to leverage the solution to empower our local community and encourage high host compliance with registration requirements.”

 

Oklahoma City is Accela’s latest customer to implement its STR application to help meet these challenges and modernize the rental registration process. Oklahoma City was focused on enforcing correct licensing procedures and creating a streamlined registration process for short-term rental owners. The entire implementation process of the Accela system was completed in just a few days.

 

Denver, Accela’s first short-term rental customer and one of the first cities in the world to offer streamlined and customer-friendly online STR registration, has experienced significant improvements since first implementing the technology. With the STR solution, Denver has been able to create a convenient and user-friendly digital registration process to encourage citizen participation and save valuable time and staff resources.

 

“We wanted to ensure the safe, efficient, and responsible operation of short-term rentals and foster community engagement. Because we work with such a tech-savvy constituency, we needed to meet them where they are — online,” says Dominic Vaiana, Denver’s Deputy Director of the Department of Excise and Licenses. “We are proud to work with Accela as a long-term partner to continuously improve the services we offer our citizens, boost compliance rates, and create a thriving, forward-thinking community.”

 

“Governments of all sizes are grappling with how to regulate the complex and ever-evolving ‘wild west’ of short-term rental regulations and do what is best for their communities,” said Brian Wick, Vice President Product Marketing at Accela. “We are proud to support Oklahoma City and Denver as they pave the way for others across the country in taking advantage of the enormous benefits of the shared economy while also protecting neighborhoods.”

 

To learn more about Accela’s solutions for short-term rental registration, please visit: https://www.accela.com/solutions/short-term-rental/

 

About Accela

 

Accela provides market-leading solutions that empower state and local governments to build thriving communities, grow businesses and protect citizens. Powered by Microsoft Azure, Accela’s fast-to-implement Civic Application suite provides customers with robust yet flexible software to address governments’ most common and pressing needs and build thriving communities. Accela is headquartered in San Ramon, California, with additional offices around the world. For more information, visit www.accela.com.