Sandy,
I received a similar letter from my Commissioner of the Revenue too just the other day. Since registering with my town to legally rent our home, the county apparently now considers me a "business owner." I called their office yesterday for clarification and was told that because I am a business owner that I need to register with the county, and provide a list of all personal property (and an "assessed value") that is used in the "business", of which we will be expected to pay a personal property tax on. She said I should include things like the beds, furniture, kitchen appliances, TV (ie. anything our guests use) plus my computer since I use it to create the airbnb listing. This sounds a bit absurd to me, especially considering that we only rent our house out about 10 days a year. However, I have no issue with paying the lodging tax from Airbnb income we receive. But this business personal property tax is a bit much.
I think we will get out of the Airbnb business if I have to write a mile long list of every single item our guests use in our home for 10 days out fo the year.