Frequently Asked Questions

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How customizable is this platform? Is it one-size fits all?

Every jurisdiction is different, so we’ve designed our platform to be customizable to your needs, including reports, the permitting process, notifications, workflows, etc.

When we implement LODGINGRevs for your jurisdiction we work with you to ensure that your iteration is tailored to your community, staff and ordinances.

Is this a service we host locally or access online through the cloud?

LODGINGRevs is a fully-encrypted  cloud-based solution, so your staff and community members can access it from their devices, 24/7.

You will always be using the most updated version of our platform.

Will we need to increase staff to implement LODGINGRevs?

We know that your staff is already busy and we have heard horror stories of jurisdictions choosing other providers who then require them to carry the added burden of providing support to confused property owners.

Our registration portal, custom notifications and community support are all built to ensure that LODGINGRevs can help you achieve 98% compliance rates with the staff you already have.

General

What makes LODGINGRevs different from its competitors?

We have been delivering vacation rental compliance since 2011, much longer than other providers.  In that time we have built features and processes that have proven to support our client communities long after the sales cycle has concluded.

Plus, our support team is here not just for you and your staff, but for your community members as well.  That means that when a property owner gets a branded letter informing them how to become compliant, our support team is available to assist them, instead of your staff.

Additionally, we don’t give access of your data to third-party developers.  Our platform is proprietary, which means we own who gets access to it and how features get developed.

Is LODGINGRevs built on a 3rd party platform?

Our platform is built using industry standard programming methodologies and technologies, including SSL encryption, remote backups and other security protocols.

The key difference form other providers is that we own our platform.  We control who develops our features and how they develop them.  What that means for you is more highly customizable features at the level of security your community’s data requires.

What kind of reporting does LODGINGRevs provide?

When you access LODGINGRevs you will see an interactive map where you can filter by various listings, property and compliance types and actually click through the map to see the information behind it. There are also a number of other reports on your dashboard, all of which you can fully click through to access a drill down to the data you want to see.

Additionally, our report builder allows you to create and save virtually any type of report you may need to understand and support your community’s compliance efforts.

Do we need to use all of LODGINGRevs features or can we select only those that we need?

Some of our clients use LODGINGRevs just to monitor listings, determine compliance, and issue notifications without using our tax remittance service or our registration portal. Others do need an integrated one-stop-shop. It’s up to you and the best way to discuss your specific use case would be to walk through a live demo.

How can we trust that LODGINGRevs will be around in 3 years?

Our company has been delivering since 2011 and with new clients every month our ability to reinvest in our company continues to grow.  Our advisory board includes several technology and investing experts who have helped to secure an even higher equity capital fund going into 2018.

Additionally, our proprietary platform means we can scale our features to support more and more clients without incurring the financial burden that often comes with relying on third-party solutions.

Support

Is support available 24/7?

Our online portal, including registration and complaints is available 24/7, from anywhere. You have the option to select 24/7 or standard business hour phone support. We find that most communities only need to provide non-emergency support, which means 24/7 phone support is an unnecessary expense, while other communities do require that availability. By letting you choose we provide you an additional way to control the cost of our services.

Either way, our support team is available to you and your staff AND community members who may need help becoming and staying compliant.

Who will help property owners and managers use LODGINGRevs?

A key benefit of partnering with us is that we will provide support directly to property owners and managers.  If they need help going through the permitting steps or following up on a notification or other compliance-related needs, they can contact our support team.

What will implementing this service impact our staff's capacity?

LODGINGRevs is designed to function with very limited work on your staff’s end. Chances are you are already working to solve some of the problems and needs that arise from the vacation rental market in your community. In that case, LODGINGRevs can actually alleviate the work required form your staff.

We will setup LODINGRevs to support the requirements of your community, we will review the listings for compliance, we will issue the appropriate notifications and we will provide support directly to the community.

You control the process while we do the vast majority of the work.

Online/Mobile Permitting

Are LODGINGRevs' features, including permitting, available 24/7?

Our online platform, including a permitting system which is available 24×7, is so easy to use that over 22,000 properties and businesses use it for our compliance.  And, our jurisdictions are over 95% paperless – meaning that over 95% of their property owners utilize our self-service portal to handle all permitting needs.

Our support team contact information is easy to locate so that any property owner questions can immediately be handled by our expert support specialists.

Our dynamic workflows allow jurisdicitons to customize permitting requirements based on property type, and also allow for nimble changes in the future.

  • Need to collect a copy of their liability insurance?  No problem – use our document upload task to present that requirement.
  • Need the fee to be calculate based on the number of bedrooms or pillows? Our calculating fees do it automatically.
  • Whether it is an information form, a calculating fee or tax form, a document upload or just an informational message, our workflow tools allow you to create and adjust workflows as needed.

Our approval process allows for easy to use inter-departmental collaboration, including inspections and customized property owner outreach throughout the approval and inspection process.

Is there an ability to validate inputs whenever required to minimize data-entry errors?

Our system’s validation ensures that required fields are completed and validated against other requirements (i.e. must be numeric, etc.) Each jurisdiction chooses which fields they would like to require validation during the implementation process. In addition, each keystroke in the system is audit logged and stored so your team can review each and every entry by user.

Is electronic signature capability supported?

Absolutely. Electronic signature capability is included as a way to ensure the entire permitting process can be 100% paperless.

Can all data be downloaded into csv format via the website?

You can access all data and records we collect. This includes all permitting data as well as property advertisement data. All data can be exported as csv or excel using our robust reports.

Is the site designed to be mobile adaptive?

Absolutely. Our thousands of business and property owners file online on any type of device: iPhones, tablets, Android devices, PC – any device they choose.

Is the platform compatible with our jurisdiction's website?

Each of our portals are branded and customized by jurisdiction. Your customized URL can be any web address you choose (i.e. https://[JURISDICTION].lodgingrevs.com). This information can be included in your website.

How secure is the site? Is it SSL encrypted?

The entire site is SSL encrypted. Additionally, all data we store is always secure behind our firewall. Our code is proprietary, and we do not grant 3rd party developers access to our databases as may be the case with other provider platforms or reporting tools.

Will all data be available through an online website?

Our website is unique in that your staff can view and click through to all data. We make sure that reports are not just easy to understand, but that you can also intuitively drill down to the information that matters to you.

Physical Address Identification

Will you provide up to date data on active listings in our jurisdiction?

Each listing will have its own unique page in our system where you can view a range of pertinent information and easily click through to the live listing.

Do you provide full address and contact information for all identifiable listings in our jurisdiction?

We reverse geocode the address from each listing and cross-reference that with our records and Town records to ensure the address of the property is accurate, as well as the contact information for the owner/manager of that property.

Do you provide screenshots of active listings?

Live listings are linked within the advertisement page so you can always view the actual listing.

Do you provide full address and contact information for all non-identifiable listings in our jurisdiction?

Our identification rate for listings with our existing clients is 99%. For that remaining 1% we work with the jurisdiction to use utility records and other means to identify contact information for the owner of the property for each listing.

Compliance Monitoring

Do you offer continuous monitoring of listings for compliance along with outreach to non-compliant properties?

Our system generates emails and PDF’s with your jurisdiction’s branding. There are various included templates for each compliance status and you can easily edit or create your own.

In addition, our best practice includes utilizing our support team contact information so our specialists can assist with any questions on permitting or compliance just as we do for over 20,000 other businesses or property owners.

Will you send pro-active and systematic outreach to illegal short-term rental operators (using jurisdiction's form letters)?

Our notifications system allows you to send branded, customized and dynamically populated emails and pdfs. You can see who opened what email, when and whether they’ve received notifications before. You can batch send notifications or send individual notifications. You can choose from a number of notifications templates and create your own. Our notifications are also designed to minimize the number of touch points that go out to owners and managers by dynamically batching multiple notifications to the same property into one message.

Will reports show us up-to-date list of properties operating illegally or without the proper permits?

You will always be able to see the up-to-date list of non-compliant listings and/or properties and filter that list by types of non-compliance. You can see where they are and drill down to each individual instance, with notes, audit logs and other key information.

Can you monitor properties for zoning and permit compliance?

Our system allows you to define what compliance means for your jurisdiction and our automation and manual review determine whether each listing is complaint, or it belongs to a variety of non-compliance types. Your staff can filter a map on your dashboard to see locations for each type of compliance and click through to the listings and properties. You can also click through tables, charts and indexes to see them.

Will there be monthly staff report on jurisdiction's zoning and permit compliance?

You have access to real-time reports on compliance, permitting, problem properties, and much more, always with the ability to click through to the data behind the numbers.

Do you provide full case history for non-compliant listings?

All listings, whether compliant are not, have their own page in our system where you can view audit logs, notes, compliance status, notifications sent and click through to the property associated with that listing, where you can find even more information, including complaints, permit history, etc.

Property Complaint Form and Hotline

Can incidents be reported by community members via phone or email?

Incidents or complaints can be reported by the public through a simple online form or by calling our hotline. Our hotline is staffed by US-based agents and you have the option to offer the community 24/7 access or business hours only. Both the form and hotline update our database immediately so that reporting and outreach can happen in real-time. In addition to the incident hotline, we provide phone support to both your staff and the public on how to use the LODGINGRevs platform to become / remain compliant.

Are all called-in complaints digitally recorded and transcribed?

All calls are recorded and transcribed and available to your staff as needed.

Will there be real-time outreach to owners of problem properties?

As soon as an incident or complaint is reported, the associated property is tagged and an email is sent to the property owner. The owner also receives a phone call during standard business hours. We will consult with you during deployment to ensure that outreach with property owners supports your specific requirements.

Are all complaints fully documented?

Each complaint is logged on the relevant property as an archived record, and our automation system runs a nightly job to flag properties that have had multiple complaints for easy review by your team. For example, your jurisdiction could choose to have a property flagged, or permit revoked, after 3 complaints within a 30 day period. Our automation system would handle that entire function for you, including notifying the property owner and staff as well as revoking the permit in the system.

Real-time reports allow your staff to see the properties that are receiving complaints and how many complaints they’ve received in a given period of time.

Is there an ability for neighbors to include photos, video footage and sound recordings to document complaints?

The online complaint form allows neighbors the ability to submit text, images, videos and other files formats. Emails are automatically sent to owners/managers of any properties identified by a complaint. In addition, the email can also be submitted to staff members.

Will there be reporting on the number and types of complaints received?

As with other reporting we provide, you can easily adjust filters to see the specific data you are looking for, whether that be number and types of complaints, properties with multiple complaints, etc. Because complaints are logged in the system immediately, these reports are always up to date.

There are over a dozen data points you can filter when reporting on hotline-related activities, including type of complaint, when and where they occur, the properties associated with those complaints, etc.

Deployment

Will you provide complete turnkey on-site implementation and project management support?

If desired, on site deployment is readily available. Costs for an on-site deployment / training are included in the pricing as an optional item.

However, the majority of our communities do not select the on-site training and implementation as we are able to deploy and train via our user-friendly webinar and training resources.

The implementation process begins with a “kick off” meeting with your team to review your permitting and compliance requirements. Our team understands that what ‘Compliance’ means varies by jurisdiction and that the permitting/inspection workflow will need to be tailored to your community. We will work closely with you to ensure the system is customized to your compliance and permitting requirements so your staff can use the full power of LODGINGRevs.

Can you provide future software releases and updates to all applications as part of regular software maintenance fees?

Our programming team regularly releases new features and we manage those updates on our end. We will let you know when features come out and how you can make the most of them.

Will there be training for end users and IT staff?

Absolutely. And, since our team performs all of the property matching to each advertisement, your team is not bogged down with “property validations” and an extra workload. Our initial census identifies 98.5% of properties, and during training, we can readily direct your team to any properties we may need assistance reviewing before we perform outreach. We are committed to your success, as our references can attest to. As owners and managers run into questions, they can contact our support team, so your staff does not have to carry an extra workload for those needs.

Is there technical documentation for support staff including system overviews, design, flowcharts, and file layouts?

We have robust documentation inside LODGINGRevs, including videos and text. We can also utilize easy-to-use webinar tools to walk your team through specific questions.

Resources

Resources & Articles

Dallas Selects LODGINGRevs for Compliance & Online Tax Remittance

In early 2019, LODGINGRevs was chosen in a competitive bid process as the vacation rental compliance and tax remittance system for the City of Dallas, TX. LODGINGRevs identifies short term rental properties, notifies property owners and is the system of record for all...

New Braunfels, TX Replaces Vacation Rental Compliance Provider

New Braunfels, known for it's water park attractions and Natural Bridge Caverns attractions near San Antonio, has selected LODGINGRevs as it's new vacation rental compliance provider after just six months using a major competitor. The City was not happy with the...