Press release

Deckard Technologies Introduces FutureCast To Help County, City Governments Plan for Tourism

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Deckard Technologies, a data mining company that provides software, analytics and insights for communities to create tax equity and fairness, introduced a new module for its Rentalscape program that identifies future short-term rental (STR) bookings to help cities and counties plan for tourism. Rentalscape provides local governments with information on properties utilized for short-term rentals; the FutureCast module helps governments forecast usage levels of STRs with pinpoint accuracy, including where, when and the number of people who will be in the area for the next 3-6 months.

FutureCast helps tax collectors know what to expect in transient occupancy tax (TOT) collections, sometimes known as hotel taxes or short-term accommodation taxes. Often, TOT monies are used by tourism development authorities for marketing and services supporting tourism, including traffic control, trash collection, public transportation, parking and police. Local tourism bureaus like to anticipate tourism volumes to work with area restaurants, attractions and vendors to project staffing and revenue. Typically, these projections were educated guesses based on past performance, but the pandemic has skewed that ability. Minimal data exists from 2020; no one knew when tourism would regain previous highs, nor where growth would be, in city or rural areas.

“With the sharing economy and as a result of the pandemic, short-term rentals have grown in popularity – astronomically – and are proving to be much more dynamic in numbers, as the population can ebb and flow more readily than with a static number of hotel rooms,” says Nick Del Pego, CEO, Deckard Technologies. “STRs are here to stay. As far as we know, Deckard is the only company that can forecast how many rentals are upcoming. By offering both future and past performance information we help governments make better policy decisions and collect the TOT fees mandated.”

Deckard’s Rentalscape platform identifies both trends and specifics: the number of STRs active in the community, daily rates charged by property, aggregate revenue due and the number of nights booked per reservation, via all platforms used by STR hosts. Additionally, it identifies, by parcel, violations of STR ordinances, including properties that don’t have permits, don’t include a permit number in advertisements, don’t meet zoning laws or that offer occupancy differing from permitted time periods.

FutureCast also allows cities and counties to proactively identify and address future rentals with owners before guests arrive, thereby reducing neighbor complaints and violations, something they were unable to do before. To solve issues, Deckard offers application and licensing within its user-friendly platform; it makes accessible a mobile application and collection portal for STR property owners and management companies to bring accounts current in real-time.

For additional information contact info@deckard.com, call 858-333-7835 or visit Deckard Technologies; LinkedIn.