For the purpose of this subchapter, the following definitions shall apply.
BOOKING SERVICE. Any reservation and/or payment service provided by a person or entity that facilitates a short term rental transaction between a host and a prospective occupant, and for which the person or entity collects or receives, directly or indirectly through an agent or intermediary, a fee in connection with the reservation and/or payment services provided for the short term rental transaction. BOOKING SERVICES include directly or indirectly accepting, receiving or facilitating payment, whether or not the person or entity is the ultimate recipient of the payment, including through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) or other computerized devices where third party providers receive information about a transaction and collect funds for the transient lodging occupancy from an occupant.
HOST. The owner or person who resides at the short term rental or has been designated by the owner or resident of the short term rental and who rents out the short term rental for transient lodging occupancy either directly or through the use of a hosting platform.
HOSTING PLATFORM. A person or entity that participates in the short term rental business by collecting or receiving a fee for booking services through which host may offer a transient lodging facility. Hosting platforms usually, though not necessarily, provide booking services through an online platform that allows a host to advertise the transient lodging through a website provided by the hosting platform and provides a means for the host to conduct a transaction by which prospective occupants arrange transient lodging and payment, whether occupant pays rent directly to the host or to the hosting platform.
LOCAL TAX TRUSTEE. The operator or hosting platform or designee thereof that accepts, receives or facilitates the payment directly from the occupant, whether or not the operator or hosting platform is the ultimate recipient of the payment.
OCCUPANCY. The right to the use or possession of any space in transient lodging for dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes for less than 30 days.
OCCUPANT. Any individual who exercises occupancy or is entitled to occupancy in transient lodging for a period of 30 consecutive calendar days or less, counting portions of calendar days as full days.
OPERATOR.
(1) Any person who provides transient lodging for occupancy to the general public for compensation. Furnishing accommodations can be done via employees, contractors, agents or any other person allowed to process reservations and accept payment for the transient lodging on behalf of the transient lodging provider;
(2) Any person who facilitates the reservations of an accommodation and collects the payment for the transient lodging reservation from the occupant; or
(3) Any transient lodging provider, transient lodging intermediary or Transient Lodging Tax collector as defined in O.R.S. § 320.300.
PERSON. Any individual, firm, partnership, joint venture, limited liability company, corporation, limited liability partnership, association, host, social club, fraternal organization, fraternity, sorority, public or private dormitory, joint stock company, estate, trust, business trust, receiver, trustee, syndicate, or any other group or combination acting as a unit.
RENT. The consideration paid or payable by an occupant for the occupancy of space in transient lodging valued in money, goods, labor, credits, property, or other consideration. If a separate fee is charged for services, goods or commodities and the fee is optional, that fee is not included in rent.
SHORT-TERM RENTAL. A house, duplex, multi-plex, apartment, condominium, houseboat, trailer or other residential dwelling unit where a person rents guest bedrooms or the entire residential dwelling unit for transient lodging occupancy. Generally, a short term rental is zoned residential or has a building occupancy that only allows for residential use.
TAX ADMINISTRATOR. The City Manager of the City of Forest Grove or the City Manager's designee, which could be someone employed by an entity other than the City of Forest Grove.
“TLT” OR TAX. The Transient Lodging Tax.
TRANSIENT LODGING OR TRANSIENT LODGING FACILITIES.
(1) Hotel, motel and inn dwelling units that are used for temporary overnight human occupancy;
(2) Spaces used for overnight parking of recreational vehicles during periods of human occupancy; or
(3) Houses, cabins, condominiums, apartment units or other dwelling units, or portions of any of these dwelling units that are used for temporary human occupancy.
(Ord. 2017-13, passed 11-27-2017)