Connecting citizens with city hall
Accela creates online systems for accessing government services
People nowadays conduct much of their business online. But when they interact with their hometown — whether to get a marriage license or a remodeling permit — often they need to trek to city hall.
The San Ramon company Accela creates software for state, county and municipal governments “to streamline interactions with citizens by meeting them where they are, which is online,” said CEO Ed Daihl. The 500-person company has created “citizen access over the Internet” for more than 2,200 local governments to handle everything from pet licenses to restaurant inspections.
So far those have all been custom installations. But this week Accela is rolling out its first off-the-shelf products —
and it’s serving markets that have emerged from the sometimes fraught relationship between the Bay Area’s rule-breaking entrepreneurs and rulemaking governments.
It’s starting with Accela Civic Application for Short-Term Rentals, an online system for hosts on Airbnb, HomeAway and other vacation marketplaces to register their properties. Another is a system for cannabis vendors to apply for licenses, a bureaucratic hurdle that has slowed the newly legalized recreational market.
As with other cloudbased services, subscription fees vary depending on client size; Accela declined to share any pricing details.
“Accela was a pioneer coming up with a technology solution for holiday homes,” said Ahmad Khalifa AlFalasi, the CEO of Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, which hired Accela to create an online permitting system for vacation rentals about two years ago. That system and one Accela created for Denver were the impetus for the standardized software now being released.
Dubai, which hopes to boost its international tourism from 14 million visitors a year to 20 million within two years, sees vacation rentals as part of that strategy, AlFalasi said. Homes on Airbnb and similar services can help meet extra demands for accommodations, especially when Dubai hosts Expo 2020, a world’s fair. But it wanted to ensure a level playing field for hotels and ensure safety. So it created a registration system that includes a personal inspection of the vacation properties, many of which are high-end homes rented by celebrities, he said.
The Accela software simplifies compliance, and hosts appreciate having “a very stable portal” online, AlFalasi said.
Once Dubai decided to implement registration two years ago, “His highness issued a decree which allowed holiday homes to be a legal and regulated business,” AlFalasi said, referring to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, who is also vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. Dubai also signed an agreement with Airbnb for the company to cooperate on informing its hosts about Dubai’s rules.
San Francisco’s route to an online registration system — which the city ended up coding inhouse — was far more convoluted, marked by years of protests from people both for and against tourist rentals in homes, contentious City Hall meetings, a ballot initiative and a lawsuit.
The city’s vacationrental registration system originally required hosts to make in-person visits to the planning department, which Airbnb and hosts called cumbersome. Eventually Airbnb, rival HomeAway and the city devised online registration systems after a judge ordered the companies — which had sued San Francisco — to work with the city on getting guests registered.
Airbnb has also created online registration systems in conjunction with the cities of Chicago and New Orleans.
“Each city has unique priorities it seeks to address and the steps they take vary,” Airbnb spokeswoman Molly Weedn said in an email. “In some cases, online registration has been a tool that makes sense, while other cities have pursued alternative strategies.”
Denver also hired Accela to create an online vacation-rental registration system in 2016. The system was moderately challenging to implement, said Ana Bia Campbell, a city spokeswoman, in an email.
“Feedback from hosts has mostly positive,” she wrote. “They like the ability to submit their applications online. That said, some find the website a bit challenging to navigate. With that feedback in mind, we are actively working to streamline the system to make it even more user friendly.”
Investors are enthusiastic about Accela’s focus on disrupting government with “govtech in the cloud.” The company raised about a quarter billion dollars in backing, and was acquired in September by Boston private-equity firm Berkshire Partners for an undisclosed sum.