7.36.020 Definitions.
Except where the context otherwise requires, the definitions given in this section govern the construction of this chapter.
A.
1. "Hotel" means any structure, or any portion of any structure which contains one or more rooms which have, for a majority of the days that any such room was occupied during the most recent calendar year, been occupied for periods of thirteen consecutive days or less by the same occupant(s).
2. Subject to the foregoing sentence, "hotel" may include, but is not limited to, any hotel, inn, tourist home or house, motel, studio hotel, bachelor hotel, lodging house, dormitory, public or private club, mobile home or house trailer at a fixed location, or other similar structure or portion thereof.
3. "Hotel" does not include any of the following: any hospital, sanitarium, medical clinic, convalescent home, rest home, home for aged people, foster home to other similar facility operated for the care or treatment of human beings; any asylum, jail, prison, orphanage or other facility in which human beings are detained and housed under legal restraint; any housing owned by or controlled by any educational institution and used exclusively to house students, faculty or other employees; any housing owned by any governmental agency and used to house its employees or for governmental purposes; or any other housing furnished by an employer exclusively for employees.
B. "Occupancy" means the use or possession, or the right to the use or possession of any room or rooms or portion thereof, in any hotel for lodging or sleeping purposes.
C. "Operator" means the person who is proprietor of the hotel, whether in the capacity of owner, lessee, sublessee, mortgagee in possession, licensee, or any other capacity. Where the operator performs their functions through a managing agent of any type or character other than an employee, the managing agent shall also be deemed an operator for the purposes of this chapter and shall have the same duties and liabilities as their principal. Compliance with the provisions of this chapter by either the principal or the managing agent shall, however, be considered to be compliance by both.
D. "Person" means any individual, firm, partnership, joint venture, association, social club, social organization, joint stock company, corporation, estate, trust, business trust, receiver, trustee, syndicate, or any other group or combination acting as a unit.
E. "Rent" means the consideration charged, whether or not received, for the occupancy of space in a hotel valued in money, whether to be received in money, goods, labor or otherwise, including all receipts, cash, credits and property and services of any kind or nature, without any deduction therefrom whatsoever, except for charges passed through to a Transient to pay for the Berkeley Tourism Business Improvement District established on September 18, 2012, by Resolution 65,899-NS, as well as any successor thereof, as long as such charges are: (1) separately stated and identified as such on the bill; and (2) do not exceed the amount of the assessment attributable to that Transient’s Occupancy.
F. "Tax administrator" means the director of finance or their designee.
G. "Transient" means any natural person who occupies a room in a hotel for less than 30 days. (Ord. 7269-NS § 1, 2012: Ord. 6404-NS § 1, 1998: Ord. 5963-NS § 1, 1989: Ord. 4077-NS § 2, 1965)