By David Volz
Short term home rentals have been a challenge for the City of Hollywood and residents who live near the properties. These rentals have become more popular in recent years but they have create difficulties for some neighborhoods.
Granicus, a leading provider of cloud-based civic engagement technologies and services, has announced a partnership with the City of Hollywood to help manage short-term rental (STR) compliance. Hollywood will leverage Granicus’ Host Compliance product to improve registration and enforcement for its booming vacation rental market, create revenue to fund enforcement, and reduce impacts to the quality of life for Hollywood residents.
Hollywood is a popular vacation destination. Many tourists choose to stay in vacation rentals listed on sites like VRBO and Airbnb, rather than local hotels. This creates a variety of challenges for the City, including concerns from the hotel industry and neighborhood impacts that can flourish without strict short-term rental enforcement. These impacts range from parking issues to overflowing garbage carts and noise complaints—straining Hollywood’s response resources and impacting the quality of life for its permanent residents, according to City information.
To address these challenges, the Hollywood City Commission recently approved changes to the existing Vacation Rental License Program Ordinance, requiring all vacation rentals city-wide to be registered with the City, in addition to obtaining a state license, and compliant with requirements like parking and occupancy limitations, trash collections, and liability insurance. The City also strengthened its noise ordinance and now requires all vacation rentals be equipped with noise level detection devices. When only a small fraction of the City’s thousands of rentals registered accordingly, Hollywood’s local government knew they needed a technology solution to improve compliance. Already a Granicus customer of nine years, Hollywood turned to the Granicus Civic Engagement Platform to meet this emerging challenge.
Host Compliance works by using artificial intelligence (AI) to scan more than 60 STR sites—including VRBO, Airbnb, and FlipKey—to identify property addresses. This provides cities with full visibility into their local vacation rental market, prevents owners from bypassing local regulations, and ultimately streamlines compliance and tax collection. Granicus also offers a 24/7 non-emergency hotline to allow residents to report concerns, like excessive noise, without tying up emergency resources.
“Tourism is a vital industry for our City—but it can’t come at the expense of quality of life for our permanent residents,” said Andria Wingett, Assistant Director of Development Services, which includes code compliance. “We have a robust, and growing, short-term rental market in Hollywood; monitoring its growth and fluctuation month-to-month is a gargantuan undertaking. We needed a solution that could do the heavy lifting, and help us create a welcoming and safe environment for both visitors and permanent residents. With its unparalleled experience, AI-powered solution, and 24/7 hotline, Host Compliance delivered on all fronts.”
Prior to working with Granicus, just 250 of Hollywood’s vacation rentals were registered with the City. Host Compliance has now identified more than 4,000 rental units—an increase of more than 3,750 units. Looking ahead, the AI-powered solution will monitor Hollywood’s STR market to boost registration, ensure compliance, streamline tax collection, and protect quality of life.
