As used in the following sections of the City of Portsmouth Motel/Hotel Excise Tax Chapter:
(a) "Council" means the City Council of Portsmouth, Ohio.
(b) “Auditor” means the City Auditor and any of his assistants designated to assist in administering and enforcing the collection of the Motel/Hotel lodging excise tax herein levied and imposed, who are hereby assigned all of the duties and authority of the Board to administer and enforce the collection of such tax, including the power to administer oaths, as provided by Section 305.30 of the Ohio Revised Code.
(c) “Person” means individuals, partnerships, corporations, receivers, assignees, trustees in bankruptcy, estates, firms, associations, joint ventures, clubs, societies, and combinations of the foregoing in any form.
(d) "Motel/Hotel" means every establishment kept, used, maintained, advertised or held out to the public to be a place where sleeping accommodations are offered to guests, in which more than five (5) are used for the accommodation of such guests, whether such rooms are in one or several structures.
(e) "Transient guests(s)" means person(s) occupying a room or rooms for sleeping accommodations for less than thirty (30) consecutive days.
(f) “Lodging” means one (1) or two (2) or more connecting rooms in which sleeping accommodations are provided for a transient guest(s).
(g) "Vendor" means a person who is required to have an Ohio Retail Sales Tax Vendor License and to operate a business pursuant to Ohio R.C. 5739.17, and who operates a Motel/Hotel, short term rental and/or bed & breakfast which furnishes lodging to guests and includes the agents and employees of such person who perform the functions of the vendor on his behalf. “Vendor” also includes the owner, lessee, mortgagor in possession, of the real estate upon whose premises the vendor operates or has operated a Motel/Hotel, short term rental and/or bed & breakfast when the vendor is or becomes a non-resident of Ohio or conceals his whereabouts or his property.
(h) "Premises" means a parcel or contiguous parcels of real property upon which a motel/hotel is operated.
(i) "Consumer" means the person, whether or not a guest, who pays or is obligated to pay the rent for the lodging of transient guest(s) in a Motel/Hotel, short term rental and or bed & breakfast.
(j) "Rent" means the aggregate value in money or anything paid or delivered, or promised to be paid or delivered for Motel/Hotel, short term rental and or bed & breakfast lodging, without any deduction for the cost of labor, service, property used, interest, discount paid or allowed after the price is paid or agreed to be paid, or any other expense. “Rent” does not include:
(1) Amounts refunded for lodging not used when the full rent and tax are refunded by cash or credit; nor
(2) Cash discounts allowed at the time the lodging is furnished or contracted to be furnished.
(k) "Tax" means, unless otherwise specified, the tax levied and imposed hereby.
(l) “Convention and Visitor’s Bureau” or “Tourist Council” means The Greater Portsmouth Area Tourist and Convention Council, or its legal successor if its name is changed, or if it ceases to exist.
(m) “Short term rental” means a dwelling unit or portion thereof, that is offered or provided to a guest by a short term rental owner or operator for a fee for fewer than thirty consecutive nights. They are commonly referred to as vacation rentals. They are a form of tourist or transient accommodations. Short-term rental units may be whole house rentals, apartments, condominiums, or individual rooms in homes. For the purpose of administration and enforcement of this title, the terms “overnight rental”, “nightly rental” and “vacation rental” are interchangeable with short term rentals. Subleasing or subletting of units for short term rental is prohibited if the underlying zone prohibits such use.
(n) “Bed and breakfast” means a private residence that offers sleeping accommodations to transient tenants in 14 or fewer rooms for rent, is the innkeeper’s residence in which the innkeeper resides while renting the rooms to transient tenants, and serves breakfasts, or other meals at no extra cost to its transient tenants.
(Ord. 2022-114. Passed 12-12-22.)