{"id":2448801,"date":"2019-09-16T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=312936"},"modified":"2019-09-16T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T03:00:00","slug":"new-city-software-to-scrape-internet-for-short-term-rentals-in-aspen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/new-city-software-to-scrape-internet-for-short-term-rentals-in-aspen\/","title":{"rendered":"New city software to scrape Internet for short-term rentals in Aspen"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A screenshot of available properties for rent in the Aspen area for Tuesday, Feb. 27 through March 5.<\/strong>
Courtesy of airbnb<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

In what has been a yearslong effort<\/a> to regulate and collect taxes on residents who use their properties for short-term rentals, the city of Aspen is switching to a more effective software system.<\/p>\n

The city had been using a company called Innoprise for its sales and lodging tax software, but it\u2019s unstable and has caused major disruptions to the government and taxpayers, according to City Finance Director Pete Strecker.<\/p>\n

Innoprise shared space on a server with the city\u2019s financial and permitting software, Eden.<\/p>\n

Last year, the server crashed and Innoprise was down for multiple weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt prevented folks from filing their monthly tax (payments), or applying for business licenses,\u201d Strecker said.<\/p>\n

In response, the city migrated the two software servers to minimize the burden on the server.<\/p>\n

But now Strecker and the finance department will use a Durango-based software package that provides a business license and tax remittance portal, as well as a new application that can track short-term rentals that are not complying with city laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to wait for the next problem,\u201d Strecker said.<\/p>\n

He estimated that there are more than 2,000 short-term rentals in Aspen, and many of them do not have business licenses or pay the 2% lodging and 2.4% city sales taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis software helps us get our arms around the VRBO world,\u201d Strecker said, adding that the new software scrapes the internet where properties would be listed for rent.<\/p>\n

Strecker said the finance department can recoup the $38,000 cost for the software solutions, MuniRevs and LodgingRevs, both through departmental savings and increased revenue when the city captures uncollected tax collections.<\/p>\n

The city solicited bids last year for other systems, which came back at around $78,000, but those options were not as robust as what MuniRevs and LodgingRevs offer, according to Strecker.<\/p>\n

Snowmass Village also uses that system to collect on short-term rentals.<\/p>\n

Strecker said he hopes to have both systems in place this fall for a full roll out at the beginning of 2020.<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A screenshot of available properties for rent in the Aspen area for Tuesday, Feb. 27 through March 5.Courtesy of airbnb In what has been a yearslong effort to regulate and collect taxes on residents who use their properties for short-term rentals, the city of Aspen is switching to a more effective software system. The city […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2448801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 21:05:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}