Except where the context otherwise requires, the definitions given in this section govern the construction of this article:
"Guest receipt"means the final statement of account, rental activity report, or other document, whether in paper or electronic format, listing the summary of charges incurred by the transient or guest which separately itemizes the amount of tax paid as required by Section
4.16.050.
"Hotel"means any structure, or any portion of any structure which is provided by the operator and occupied, intended, or designed for occupancy by transients for dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes and includes any hotel, inn, tourist home or house, motel, studio hotel, bachelor hotel, lodging house, rooming house, apartment house, dormitory, public or private club, mobile home or house trailer, tent, teepee, or yurt at a fixed, temporary or semi-permanent location or other similar structure or portion thereof.
"Hotel" does not mean any of the following: any hospital, sanitarium, medical clinic, convalescent home, rest home, home for the aged people, foster home or other similar facility operated for the care or treatment of human beings; any asylum, jail, prison, orphanage or other facility in which human beings are detained and housed under legal restraint; any housing owned or controlled by an educational institution and used exclusively to house students, faculty or other employees and any fraternity or sorority house or similar facility occupied exclusively by students and employees of such educational institution and officially recognized or approved by it; any housing operated or used exclusively for religious, charitable or educational purposes by an organization having qualifications for exemption from property taxes under state or federal law; and housing owned by a governmental agency and used to house its employees or for governmental purposes; any camp as defined in the State Labor Code or other housing furnished by an employer exclusively for employees. |
"Managing agent"means a third party who is not the owner of the hotel, but who acts as an operator on behalf of the owner. A managing agent includes property management companies, online platforms, or any other person or entity acting on the owner's behalf.
"Occupancy"means the use or possession or the right to the use of any room or rooms or portion thereof, in any hotel for dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes.
"Operator"means the person who is proprietor of the hotel, whether in the capacity of owner, lessee, sublessee, mortgagee in possession, licensee or any other capacity. Where the operator performs its functions through a managing agent of any type or character other than an employee, the managing agent shall also be deemed an operator for the purposes of this article and shall have the same duties and liabilities as his or her principal. Compliance with the provisions of this article by either the principal or the managing agent shall, however, be considered to be compliance by both, unless the principal collects rent outside of the managing agents' defined agreement in which case said principal shall be subject to all the provisions of the uniform transient occupancy tax ordinance of the county of Placer.
"Person"means any individual, firm, partnership, joint venture, association, social club, fraternal organization, joint stock company, corporation, estate, trust, business trust, receiver, trustee, syndicate, or any other group or combination acting as a unit.
"Rent"means the consideration charged, whether or not received, for the occupancy of space in a hotel valued in money, whether to be received in money, goods, labor or otherwise, including all receipts, cash, credits, property and services of any kind or nature without any deduction therefrom whatsoever. Rent does not include any additional items not related to occupancy that are included in a special package rate such as ski passes, other recreational activity, or additional non-room related services. All room-related items and non-room related items must be separately itemized in the operator's accounting records. If additional benefits or services are not separately itemized as indicated above, the entire amount paid by the transient shall be presumed to be rent. Required and collected amounts for room-related fees and services are subject to transient occupancy tax.
"Tax administrator"means the manager of the Placer County division responsible for collection of transient occupancy taxes. The tax administrator shall have the authority to adopt procedures and schedules for the collection and payment of the tax and issue guidelines to clarify this article. All procedures and guidelines issued by the tax administrator shall be made available to all operators on the county website.
"Tourist home or house"means a house or condominium unit which is, or within which rooms are, available for rent to transients.
"Transient"means any person who exercises occupancy or is entitled to occupancy by reason of concession, permit, right of access, license or other agreement for a period of 30 consecutive calendar days or less, counting portions of calendar days as full days. Any such person so occupying space in a hotel shall be presumed to be a transient until the period of 30 days has expired.
To avoid being presumed to be a transient during any 30 consecutive-day-period, the person exercising occupancy rights must, prior to occupancy, enter into a written agreement with the operator. The written agreement shall obligate the person to pay market rate for the occupancy for a period of at least 31 consecutive days. If the written agreement requirements are satisfied, the person exercising said occupancy rights shall not be considered a transient under this article and, therefore, shall not be subject to the tax imposed pursuant to Section 4.16.030 of this article. In the absence of said written agreement prior to the commencement of occupancy, the person shall be presumed a transient and subject to the transient occupancy tax until the qualifying period (30 consecutive days) for nontransient status has been satisfied. On the thirty-first (31st) consecutive day, and on each consecutive day thereafter, the transient occupancy tax shall not apply. |
(Prior code § 21.2; Ord. 5006-B, 1999; Ord. 5466-B § 1, 2007; Ord. 5721-B § 1, 2013; Ord. 5934-B § 1, 2018)