The Village selected Host Compliance due to its ability to help with safety concerns and the neighborhood impacts that stem from STRs. While revenue recovery was not a key consideration in the decision, it was a bonus.
The Village of Ruidoso faced growth in short-term rentals (STRs), which brought increased safety concerns from residents. The Village staff also needed a more efficient system for handling registrations and taxes. They found a solution in Host Compliance, now a part of Granicus, which surpassed their expectations.
Ruidoso,
New Mexico
How One Village Increased STR Compliance by 38%, Leading to $673k Collected in Taxes
Overview
Collected
$673k
7x
More Fees Collected
In first 6 months, Ruidoso collected 23K in permitting fees
92%
Compliance — Year One
A strong compliance rate achieved in the first year.
Compliance Increase
Compliance improved rapidly in the first 6 months.
Ruidoso collected a substantial sum in lodgers’ tax in first year.
31%
Must-have Granicus solution
Find out what Host Compliance can do for your community. Request your complimentary assessment today!
The Village of Ruidoso, New Mexico, rewrote its short-term rental (STR) ordinance in 2012. The ordinance required hosts to self certify and pay lodgers’ tax. For years, the Village ran on an honor system, trusting hosts to certify and pay taxes on their own.
As the STR market grew on online platforms, like Airbnb, Ruidoso more than doubled the amount of lodging rooms they could offer tourists, who were a main driver of the mountain resort town’s economy. However, Village staff faced growing complaints and concerns regarding the impacts of STRs on their neighborhoods, parking, noise, safety, fire pit regulations, and workforce housing.
The largest challenge for Village staff was ensuring their growing population of STRs pay a monthly lodger's tax. The Village wanted to provide a customer-friendly solution to hosts. Nearing 1,000 STRs, the Village’s in-house system was no longer viable. “We needed to upgrade to a system that would allow us to handle tax payments effectively and efficiently,” said Stephanie Warren, a short-term rental administrative assistant with the Village.
Honor System Can’t Keep Up
Village staff held public hearings to find a solution. They began an RFP process to find a technology partner. After comparing other companies, analyzing workflows, and identifying resources, the Village selected Host Compliance, now a part of Granicus.
A Safe, Efficient Solution & a Bonus
It used to take weeks for the Village to issue permits. It now takes minutes. In their first six months of using Host Compliance, the Village increased STR compliance from 54% to 85%. Since implementation, the Village has processed 601 business registrations from STRs. Today, 92% of STR properties are compliant.
The Village had budgeted $3,000 in STR permit and fee revenue for their first year of use. During their first six months, the Village collected $23,360 — over seven times what they had budgeted. The increase in compliance leads to an increase in taxes as hosts are educated on what they need to do to operate legally.
Since implementation, the Village has collected $637,000 in lodgers’ tax, 70% of which was collected in the Host Compliance system. The Village has seen a 60% increase in the number of hosts paying gross receipts tax. And six months after their new fiscal budget was released, the Village has already collected 75% of the lodgers’ tax for the full year.
30% Increase in Compliance & More Tax Revenue
How wrexham county council improved citizen experience through integrated communications & service delivery
Overview
The county council knew the first step to improve the citizen experience was to modernise the way they communicated bin removal services. To ensure citizens received relevant, timely and automated communications, Wrexham implemented Granicus’s govDelivery email, mobile message, and social media platform. Now, they have the sophisticated marketing automation and audience segmentation required to deliver personalised waste and recycling bin collection reminders to over 12,000 residents. Targeted email messages from the county empower residents to take the correct action at the right moment.
These reminders — delivered alongside educational messages about what can and can’t be recycled — are positively impacting local recycling rates. For example, more customers know what can and can’t be recycled; the number of bins not being collected due to contamination has decreased by 27% since implementing govDelivery.
With Firmstep, the county’s digital customer services solution, integrated with govDelivery, their communication platform, the customer experience is seamless.
How does it work? When a customer visits the Wrexham website and enters their address in a form, Firmstep automatically looks up the customer’s collection day and calendar, then sends the information into GovDelivery, which automatically signs the customer up for their bin reminder emails. After that, the customer receives relevant, timely, and automated information about their bin collections. This combination has improved sign-up rates and ensured Wrexham reaches more citizens.
How the Firmstep + GovDelivery integration streamlines service
Satisfaction Rate
Citizens love the online experience they are receiving
93%
Increasing by 500 new accounts per month
18K
Self-Service Accounts
Bin Reminders
12K
Increasing by 800 subscribers per month
The result of targeted, proactive communications
Reduction in Calls
48%
Must-have Granicus product
Could your citizens benefit from seamless and integrated digital experiences? Get in touch with us today to learn more about how Granicus can help!
We love govDelivery because it gives us control over information. We can find the answers to our questions, and then form good processes to better interact with the people in our council.
Situation
Solution
Results
Background
Like many local governments in California, the team at the Napa County Election Division has many critical duties in support of local, state, and federal elections. They also must help ensure all required government officials disclose their financial interests.
Designated filing officers must accurately track, manage, and deliver documents related to the disclosure of government employee and elected official Statement of Economic Interest, known as Form 700 in California. The process is regulated by the State of California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC).
Staff at the Election Division have their own goals to increase efficiency and make sure officials file on time. Napa County’s recently updated strategic plan has a priority goal of making government more transparent.
A Mandate for Transparency & Efficiency
Situation
Solution
The DisclosureDocs implementation team worked closely with Napa County staff to meet their tight deadline. After their kickoff meeting in January 2019, they migrated files, trained staff, and then deployed. In the end, they were able to implement DisclosureDocs by their deadline of April 2.
From Manual to Automatic
Host Compliance
govDelivery
“The Village selected Host Compliance due to its ability to help with safety concerns and the neighborhood impacts that stem from STRs. While revenue recovery was not a key consideration in the decision, it was a bonus,” she said.
During this time, the Village also improved their registration process and revamped their STR ordinance, aiming for an educational approach to gain compliance. The new ordinance eliminates self certification, ensuring that hosts meet requirements for safety and business registrations. The ordinance also incorporates new processes developed in partnership with the Host Compliance team.
The Village uses Host Compliance to identify properties and send hosts letters that educate them and encourage compliance. This is an important step to ensuring that every host is registered and knows how to pay taxes. The Mobile Registration and Tax Collection module provides an easy platform for hosts to pay monthly lodgers' taxes. It also makes it easier for staff to process the payments, solving their largest STR-related challenge.
Unlike traditional email messages, which sends one message to many recipients, TMS delivers personalized one-to-one messages. And it can deliver them at extremely high volumes. For NHTSA, TMS would be particularly valuable as a consumer could sign up to receive information for their specific make and model of vehicle or brand of child car seat.
Rajanala’s first impression?
“After showing RecorderWorks and ClerkDocs to my staff, they asked me, seriously, ‘What are we going to do with all our free time?’ I told them that’s a great problem to have! There are countless other improvements and initiatives we could set to work on.”
Stephanie Warren, Short-Term Rental Administrative Assistant, Village of Ruidoso
TMS is definitely a success for our agency. We’re able to reach consumers more quickly and reliably. I would recommend anyone with a similar need or circumstance to switch to govDelivery TMS.
“We’ve been very fortunate with the success of our STR program, thanks to Host Compliance. The system helps us pursue our goals of educating hosts and providing a customer-friendly registration process to encourage compliance,” said Stephanie.
“The Village selected Host Compliance due to its ability to help with safety concerns and the neighborhood impacts that stem from STRs. While revenue recovery was not a key consideration in the decision, it was a bonus." –Stephanie Warren, Short-Term Rental Administrative Assistant
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