Florida Short-Term Rental Laws (2026): State Rules, City Limits and Taxes

Short-term rentals are legal across Florida, and the state, not your city, decides whether they may exist: Section 509.032(7)(b) of the Florida Statutes bars any local government from prohibiting vacation rentals or regulating how long or how often they are rented, with one exception for ordinances adopted on or before June 1, 2011. Everything else that matters to a host, from the state lodging license to the county tourist tax to the registration program at city hall, sits on top of that sentence.

This guide is for owners and managers who rent a Florida condo, house or duplex for stays under 30 days, whether through Airbnb, Vrbo or a direct booking site. It is one of ten state guides that hang off our short-term rental laws by state roundup. Reviewed October 13, 2026. It is general information, not legal advice; confirm anything you rely on with the agency named.

Key facts

• Florida preempts local bans and duration or frequency rules under Fla. Stat. 509.032(7)(b), but the bar "does not apply to any local law, ordinance, or regulation adopted on or before June 1, 2011," which is why Miami Beach and Key West can still restrict rentals that Orlando cannot.
• A vacation rental (a condo or co-op unit, or a one- to four-family house, rented more than three times a year for stays under 30 days or regularly held out as rented) needs a license from the Division of Hotels and Restaurants at the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR).
• The state taxes transient rentals of six months or less at 6 percent, plus a county discretionary sales surtax of 0.5 to 1.5 percent, plus a county tourist development tax that Airbnb's Florida tax page puts at 2 to 5 percent, administered by the Department of Revenue for 23 counties and by the county itself elsewhere.
• Governor DeSantis vetoed SB 280, the statewide registration and preemption bill, on June 27, 2024, and no comparable bill became law in the 2025 or 2026 sessions, so the 2011 framework still governs.
• The City of Miami's August 11, 2026 order to the 643-unit Club at Brickell Bay to stop rentals under 30 days shows the limit of preemption: the Building Code and Fire Prevention Code inspection powers that Section 509.032(7)(a) preserves can reach a whole building.

Statewide rules

Florida's preemption statute does two separate things. Paragraph (7)(a) preempts the regulation of public lodging establishments to the state and, in the same breath, preserves local authority to inspect for Florida Building Code and Fire Prevention Code compliance. Paragraph (7)(b) then bars local governments from prohibiting vacation rentals or regulating their duration or frequency. A city may still require registration, charge a reasonable fee, set parking and noise standards and inspect for life-safety compliance. It may not say "no rentals under 30 days" unless it said so before June 1, 2011.

The grandfather clause is narrower than it looks. In Attorney General Opinion 2019-07 (August 16, 2019), the state concluded that a grandfathered city keeps provisions "essentially unchanged" from its pre-2011 ordinances but loses the exemption for new duration or frequency rules, even ones less restrictive than what they replace. A grandfathered city can hold its line; it cannot move it. We walked through the Miami enforcement case that tests the inspection exception in Florida STR preemption: when your building is a hotel.

Licensing is state-level. Chapter 509 treats a vacation rental as a public lodging establishment, so an owner licenses with DBPR's Division of Hotels and Restaurants before advertising. Advertising alone can trigger the requirement, and the division licenses condominium units and dwellings separately, with single, group and collective license options for multi-unit operators.

There is no statewide registry, no state occupancy formula and no state platform data-sharing mandate. All three were in SB 280 (2024), which the Legislature passed and the Governor vetoed on June 27, 2024, saying it would stop local governments from enforcing existing ordinances or adopting new ones that apply only to vacation rentals. Some 2026 articles still describe a July 1, 2026 platform license-display rule; it came from the vetoed bill and does not exist.

Private restrictions are untouched. A condominium declaration or HOA covenant that limits rentals binds you regardless of Section 509.032, and Florida's condominium statute adds consent rules for rental-restricting amendments. What courts have actually held about short-term rentals surveys that record.

Major cities and counties

The pattern is the calendar: cities that wrote restrictions before mid-2011 still enforce them, and everyone else regulates through registration, occupancy and nuisance rules because a ban is off the table.

Taxes

Three layers apply to a Florida stay of six months or less. The state transient rental tax is 6 percent of the total charge, cleaning fee included. Counties add a discretionary sales surtax of 0.5 to 1.5 percent, reported with the state tax on Form DR-15. And counties levy a tourist development tax that the Department of Revenue collects for the counties shaded on its DR-15TDT chart and that the county tax collector collects everywhere else, including Miami-Dade, Brevard, Lee, Alachua, Lake and Leon.

Airbnb's Florida page says it collects and remits the 6 percent state tax, the surtax and the tourist development tax in the counties it lists, and that hosts remain responsible for anything else. Vrbo runs its own list. Neither platform files for a direct booking: a guest who reserves on your own website owes the same taxes, and you remit them through your DOR sales tax account and your county's tourist tax account. Hosts who take direct bookings in several counties find the county list is the part that bites; Haven's tax and accounting tooling stores state, county, city and district rates per property with cited AI rate suggestions, so the right combination lands on each reservation.

A county that collects its own tourist tax can audit you directly, even when a platform remits the state portion.

What changed in 2025 and 2026

• June 27, 2024: SB 280 vetoed, setting the baseline for both sessions that followed.
• 2025 session: No vacation rental preemption or registration bill became law.
• March 13, 2026: CS/CS/SB 658, a water safety bill that would have added pool and drowning-prevention duties for vacation rental properties, died in House messages, per the Florida Senate's bill record.
• August 11, 2026: The City of Miami ordered the Club at Brickell Bay association to halt rentals under 30 days, citing lodging-use approvals for 30 units against more than 300 operating; the association disputes the count.
• October 1, 2026: CS/HB 1293 (Chapter 2026-143), Florida's rental fraud law, took effect. It targets tenancy fraud under the landlord-tenant act and, as we explain in Florida rental fraud law: do vacation rentals count?, a transient vacation rental guest sits outside it unless your lease states the unit is the guest's sole residence.
• January 1, 2027 (reported): Hillsborough County's registration ordinance for unincorporated areas is slated to begin; confirm with the county.

How to stay compliant

1. License with DBPR before the first listing goes live, and keep the license current through renewals. Advertising an unlicensed unit is itself a violation.
2. Open a Department of Revenue sales tax account and a county tourist tax account where the county self-collects, and file zero returns when the account requires them.
3. Check whether your city has a pre-2011 ordinance. If it does, the zoning district decides whether you can rent at all; if it does not, look for a registration or certificate program and a business tax receipt.
4. Match the building to the use. Condo towers need a lodging-use approval for the units that operate as rentals; a mismatch is how Miami reached Brickell.
5. Read the condo declaration or HOA covenants and any rental-amendment history before you buy.
6. Carry liability coverage; Florida sets no statewide minimum, but several city programs do.
7. Post what the city requires inside the unit and display any local registration number on every listing, including your direct booking site.
8. For direct bookings, collect the same taxes the platforms collect and keep the written lease language transient unless you intend a residential tenancy.

FAQ

Is Airbnb legal in Florida?

Yes. State law bars cities and counties from banning vacation rentals or limiting how long or how often they rent, unless the local rule was adopted on or before June 1, 2011. In grandfathered cities such as Miami Beach and Key West, the zoning district and, in Key West, an existing transient license decide.

Do I need a state license to rent on Airbnb in Florida?

If you rent an entire condo unit or a one- to four-family house more than three times a year for stays under 30 days, or advertise it as regularly available, you need a vacation rental license from DBPR's Division of Hotels and Restaurants. Renting a room in a home you occupy generally falls outside the vacation rental definition; confirm your situation with the division.

What taxes do I pay on a Florida short-term rental?

The 6 percent state transient rental tax, a county surtax of 0.5 to 1.5 percent and a county tourist development tax that typically runs 2 to 5 percent, on stays of six months or less. Airbnb and Vrbo remit some or all of these for platform bookings; you remit everything for direct bookings.

Can my Florida city ban short-term rentals?

Only if its ban or duration rule dates from June 1, 2011 or earlier, and only in the form it had then. Other cities are limited to registration, fees, inspections, occupancy and nuisance standards; building and fire code enforcement is local everywhere.

What changed in 2025 and 2026?

Nothing at the state level, deliberately: SB 280 was vetoed in June 2024 and no successor passed. The notable 2026 items are local and adjacent: Miami's Brickell enforcement order in August, the rental fraud statute effective October 1 and Hillsborough County's registration program reported for 2027.

Sources

• Florida Senate — CS/SB 280 (2024) final bill analysis (accessed October 2026)
• Florida Senate — CS/CS/SB 658 (2026) bill history (accessed October 2026)
• Florida Department of Revenue — Local option transient rental tax rates, Form DR-15TDT (accessed October 2026)
• Airbnb — Occupancy tax collection and remittance by Airbnb in Florida (accessed October 2026)
• ShortTermRentalz — Florida governor DeSantis vetoes vacation rental bill (accessed October 2026)
• Coastal Breeze News — Florida Governor vetoes bill regulating vacation rentals (accessed October 2026)
• Awning — Key West short-term rental regulations: 2026 host guide (accessed October 2026)
• Lodgify — Florida Airbnb laws in 2026 (accessed October 2026)
• RedAwning — Hillsborough County vacation rental registration 2027 (accessed October 2026)