What is a short-term rental?
Cities and counties usually define an STR as a dwelling offered for fewer than 30 consecutive nights (sometimes 29). The stay may be a room or an entire home. Platforms make advertising easy; they do not issue your community's permit. Listing-monitor vendors publish similar definitions in their public glossaries. STAyTUTE uses your ordinance, not a vendor default.
What does compliance mean for local government?
A host is compliant when they hold the license or registration the ordinance requires, stay within zoning and caps, file lodging tax when due, and can be reached when a resident files a problem on that property. Listing monitors estimate the gap between advertisements and licenses. A permitting file answers the question staff are asked in a hearing: who did you license, on which parcel, and what happened after.
Why listing identification is not the same as an issued license
Granicus Host Compliance and Deckard Rentalscape sell address identification across many booking sites. That is useful when staff cannot see the market. It is not the same as an application tied to the assessor roll, a public directory of licensed stays, or a case file with letters and evidence. Deckard's marketing now also describes registration portals and public maps; those still sit on a vendor tenant. STAyTUTE keeps the license on a system your community runs.
How STAyTUTE estimates a permit gap
The planning worksheet can start from published Washington city listing and lodging-tax figures, then multiplies an estimated gap by occupancy, available nights, nightly rate, and your special hotel/motel tax. Occupancy is booked nights divided by nights listed as available, not divided by 365. Boston (59% unmatched) and Toronto (about 10% non-compliant transactions) are labeled examples from public studies, not STAyTUTE collection figures.