(a) No person, including, but not limited to, an owner, operator, manager, or employee shall engage in, conduct, or carry on, or permit to be engaged in, conducted or carried on, in or upon any premises in the Village of Boston Heights, the operation of a short-term rental in a calendar year without obtaining a permit in accordance with this chapter. It shall be prima facie evidence of a short-term rental operation if a short-term rental guest is found to be occupying or using a short-term rental or if a residence has been placed on any hosting platform for short-term rental purposes.
(b) An application for a new short-term rental permit may be submitted at any time to the Village Zoning Inspector, or his/her designee. If the application is approved and a permit is issued, the short-term rental permit shall take effect on the day of issuance and shall expire on December 31st of the year in which it was issued.
(c) A permit to operate a short-term rental shall be renewed by the applicant before the end of each calendar year. The deadline for submitting an application for renewal shall be the first Monday of November of the year in which the permit is set to expire. Failure to renew shall result in expiration of the short-term rental permit on December 31st. If a short-term rental permit is successfully and timely renewed, it shall be in effect for one calendar year, beginning on January 1st and expiring on December 31st of the same year.
5 The only other definition of transient guest is in VBH CO Chapter 181, as follows:
181.02 DEFINITIONS.
The following definitions shall govern the construction of the provisions of this chapter:
(a) "Person" means any individual, firm, partnership, joint venture, association, social club, fraternal organization, joint stock company, corporation, estate, trust, receiver, trustee, syndicate or any other group or combination acting as a unit.
(b) "Hotel" or "transient accommodation" means every establishment kept, used, maintained, advertised or held out to the public to be a place where sleeping accommodations, sample, display or meeting space is offered for the use of the public, or a person, as defined herein, for a consideration, such establishment having five or more rooms, whether such rooms are in one or several structures and including operations known as hotels, motels, inns or any other designation of a like kind.
(c) "Transient guest" means any person who uses any such hotel or transient accommodation and shall be subject to and pay the tax hereby levied. (Ord. 9-1991. Passed 3-13-91.)
(d) "Rent" means the consideration received for occupancy of any room for lodging valued in money, whether received in money or otherwise, including all receipts, cash, credits and property or services of any kind or nature, without any deduction therefrom.
(e) "Operator" means the person who is the proprietor of the hotel or transient accommodation whether in the capacity of owner, lessee, mortgagee, licensee or any other capacity charged with the duties of managing or operating the hotel or transient accommodation. Owner and managing agent shall have the same liabilities as the principal. Compliance with the provisions of this chapter by one shall be considered compliance by both.
(f) "Fiscal Officer" means the fiscal officer of the Municipality who shall receive all income by virtue of this tax. (Ord. 35-1970. Passed 8-12-70.)
(d) Bed and Breakfast 6 establishments lawfully operating within the Village, as defined by the Village of Boston Heights Planning and Zoning Code, 7 shall not be subject to the requirements of this Chapter 729 provided that such establishments were in operation prior to the effective date of Ordinance 2023-2-10 and have not ceased operation for more than ninety consecutive days. (Ord. 2023-2-10. Passed 2-28-23.)