The Roane County Commission, in their meeting on Monday night, approved spending an estimated $5,000 for a company to examine the AirBnBs in Roane County. The county feels like it’s losing funds as they only have 14 listed as AirBnBs, but there could be an estimated 250 operating in the county presently.

The study should cost around $5,000, which will be paid to Deckard Technologies LLC. to examine the short-term rentals that are operating in Roane County. Commissioner Ben Wilson made a statement stating he had seen the company give a presentation through the property assessor’s office and was amazed at how they could find how many short-term rentals are operating in the county.

This company would locate them and report back to the property assessor’s office. County executive Creswell estimated the revenue loss right now for those who are operating without paying their licenses and fees is around $40,000, which could be added to the general fund.

The county commission approved this unanimously.