Has anyone rented to the Forest Service? I ask because there’s a market for it in my area and our STR is one block behind the FS office. My mom manages a STR that’s not on any platform and the Forest Service stay there often but she has to fill out a tax exempt form, is that possible thru Airbnb? I’m having a hard time finding answers. The best answer I could find was a 2017 article that said the Fed Gov was not allowed to rent thru Airbnb, which is the only platform our STR is on. We’re new and just started ours before Xmas, any input would be great, thanks!
I would make a visit to the Forest Service office and ask to talk to the person who makes arrangements for housing visiting or seasonal personnel. If they can’t answer your question , I’m sure that they can tell you who should know. The tax you were talking about — if your local govt charges sales or room taxes, the Federal Government is exempt from paying them. It would be your local sales tax authority that should be able to answer any questions. In my case when I file quarterly sales taxes with my city I have to report exempt sales and the reason.
One thing I do know from having once worked as a Federal contractor (small computer programming jobs for NOAA) is that the Federal government takes a looooooong time to pay invoices. But many govt personnel get a per diem travel allowance, so they should be able to pay for themselves and get reimbursed. In that case they may qualify for a sales tax exemption. The other thing is that the government will want your employer number. If you have no employees, you can use your Social Security Number as your tax ID as you would when filing Federal income tax.
My federal government agency would reimburse for Uber but not Airbnb. Presumably our overlords were satisfied with Uber’s insurance coverage, but not Airbnb’s – or concerned that an Airbnb would not meet fire and other safety requirements for lodging for feds.
My experience with Forest Circus people, especially during the busy fire season, is that they are horrible guests…esp. the fire crews. Since they aren’t the ones paying for the lodgings they tend to be disruptive and destructive, and then getting money for damages or whatnot is a lengthy annoying process.