Municipalities usings third parties to find illegally booked STR?

[Frank Borzen]

The municipality where our STR is located us sent us a code violation for renting less than the allowed 7 continuous nights. The dates were between 8 and 12 months ago. We explained to the code officer that the dates were blocked out for personal use. The code officer said they "have software that allows us to see past dates and distinguish between rentals and personal use."

Is anyone aware of vrbo or airbnb providing personal data to municipalities? Or third party companies that do? On our calendar you cannot go back to look at previous dates, only forward. We are confused and concerned as to how they saw these blocked out dates. They are saying the only way out of possible fines and violations is to provide financial data for the time period. We have been renting this home out for 25 years and have never had this issue.

[John Underwood]

I can't see how they can tell if days were blocked for personal use or a rental. I seriously doubt the OTAs are sharing this without a court order.