Trying to balance the benefits of short-term rentals with the interests of the community can be challenging, especially once ever-changing market trends, legislations, regulations, and consumer-tastes are added to the equation. The value of digitizing these processes is obvious to most organizations, yet the work involved with doing so can seem a bit daunting.
However, it doesn’t have to be. The key to successfully implementing a short-term rental solution is to keep both the people and the nature of the market as the focus.
The people of short-term rentals
The people involved with short-term rentals can be broken down into four groups:
- Those who utilize short-term rentals.
- Those who own or manage short-term rentals.
- Those who regulate short-term rentals.
- Those who live in communities where short-term rental properties exist.
Within these groups lies a variety of different interests, many of them overlapping. At their core, however, all want a solution that makes co-existing easier. Whether it is reporting, registration, compliance monitoring, or other factors, these groups all desire processes that ensure their voices are heard, their experience is positive, and their needs get met.
When choosing to digitize the short-term rentals process, it is essential to select a solution that addresses these priorities. The new solution should be as accessible as it is easy to use, providing logical and clear steps for usage for each of the groups mentioned above. Keeping this in mind will enable those using the solution to play their part in upholding a sense of community and safety while making the regulation process much easier.
The nature of short-term rentals
The short-term rentals market is dynamic. Most jurisdictions update regulations annually. Travel trends are often created by social media influencers. New job opportunities or tourist attractions can see even small communities experiencing a major boom in short-term rental activity.
Using a modernized process makes meeting these changes much easier. Digital process change can be made almost as quickly as market trends change. The crucial element to this is to begin with a process that is just as dynamic as the market is. This may require even more upfront change; however, shifting to a more technology-driven approach is the perfect time to create improved processes, workflows, and habits among those tasked with regulating the short-term rental market. In this situation, change is just as much a tool of improvement as the solution you are implementing.
Bringing people and policy together with flexible digital solutions
A dynamic approach to implementation offers the opportunity to analyze which areas of the process should change in order to create the very ease and adoption the jurisdiction is seeking. This will also offer a solid foundational process to which future changes can be easily made with as little disruption as possible.
From ordinance consulting, STR enforcement tools, and online payments for hosts, learn more about how Granicus helps local governments with short-term rental solution.
