Wood County commissioners approved the purchase of a data-mining program Tuesday morning to assist the Wood County Economic Development Commission (WCEDC) with tracking down short-term rental owners who are not paying their fair share of the hotel-motel tax.

WCEDC Executive Director Christine Thomas  said the county is receiving no more than 30% to 40% of its expected revenue from short-term rentals, and the program will help the county to identify those facilities, such as AirBNBs and VRBOs.

Thomas said the additional funds created by the program can be used by the county to increase support for tourism.

She noted that the missing funding could be just a matter of educating the owners of short-term rentals (less than 30 days) of the requirement that they collect  and submit the hotel-motel tax.