The City of Deadwood has reached 100% compliance

17 Oct, 2025

Overview

Deadwood, South Dakota is a National Historic Landmark city set in the Black Hills. Renowned for its Western heritage, gaming industry, and vibrant events calendar, the city attracts thousands of visitors annually.

 

Alongside this tourism growth came a dramatic increase in short-term rentals (STRs), raising concerns over compliance, enforcement, and community balance.

 

To protect neighborhood character and maintain fairness for STR operators and residents, the city passed a new Ordinance 2023 — regulating how, where, and under what terms STRs can operate. This ordinance became the backbone of Deadwood’s compliance strategy. 

Challenges

Despite the new ordinance, enforcing STR regulations proved difficult. Key challenges included:

  • Identifying unlicensed or non-compliant rentals
  • Verifying resident complaints
  • Enforcing zoning laws and permit conditions
  • Supporting actions with verifiable evidence

City staff had limited visibility into live listings on platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo and resident complaints such as illegal operations were hard to confirm without substantial investigation. 

solution

To address these issues, the City of Deadwood partnered with Deckard Technologies and adopted Rentalscape, for short-term rental identification and monitoring. The city now benefits from:

  • Real-time listing detection across major STR platforms
  • Booking history and pricing data, supporting court cases and enforcement
  • A powerful, user-friendly map feature for visualizing rental activity and zoning conflicts
  • Automated tracking of complaints and annual permit reviews

The city reviews permit compliance annually, using Rentalscape data and logged complaints to determine whether conditions should be added or permits revoked. 

Results

The implementation of Rentalscape has significantly improved Deadwood’s STR oversight and enforcement capabilities. Measurable outcomes include:

  • 100% compliance among licensed STRs
  • Multiple cease-and-desist letters issued to non-conforming operators
  • Streamlined annual permit reviews with embedded Rentalscape insights
  • Better-informed zoning decisions using map-based visualization
  • More efficient and legally sound enforcement processes

Rentalscape has become an essential part of the city’s planning and enforcement infrastructure, enabling Deadwood to uphold its ordinances and ensure STRs contribute equitably to the community. 

IMPACT

GovTech Strategy Delivering Real, Localized Impact

SECTION_3 (1) (1)
0
%

compliance among licensed STRs

 

Through ongoing monitoring and enforcement powered by Rentalscape, the City of Deadwood has achieved full compliance from all permitted short-term rental operators — reinforcing fairness and legal accountability

Proactive enforcement with data-backed cease-and-desist actions

 

The city now identifies non-compliant properties quickly and sends targeted legal notices based on verified platform data and booking history — saving staff time and strengthening legal standing. 

Kevin_Kuchenbecker_blueBG

“The most valuable features were the ease of the map feature as well as the historical information.

It’s a tool in the toolbox for us to continue to conduct the enforcement necessary to ensure that our rules and regulations, our ordinances, are in place and that property owners are compliant with their conditional uses.”

Kevin Kuchenbecker

Director of Planning and Zoning, City of Deadwood

BEGIN YOUR JOURNEY

Discover the GovTech platform built for smarter oversight and measurable impact.

get in touch
book a demo