Florida defines a short-term rental as any lease under six months.

Overview

TL;DR

• Defining a Short Term Rental in Florida: Florida defines a short-term rental as any lease under six months — longer than most states, making monthly stays viable.
• Compliance: Compliance happens on three levels: state (DBPR license + 6% sales tax), county (local transient rental tax, often 2–6%), and municipality (zoning, business tax receipts, resort taxes).
• Miami Beach Example: Renting a Miami Beach condo short-term requires up to seven separate registrations, licenses, and tax accounts before listing.
• Top Cities: Top cities for short-term rental ownership by traveler demand: Naples, Tampa, Venice, Hollywood, and the Florida Keys.
• Tax Collection: Airbnb and VRBO collect state-level taxes automatically, but owners are still on the hook for county and city taxes — or can hand it all off to a property manager like Rove Travel.

Defining a Short Term Rental in Florida

The definition of a short term rental varies from state to state. In Florida, a short term rental is defined as ‘any individual lease agreement that is less than six months in duration.’ That’s a long duration compared to other popular tourist states like New York (30 days) or California (also 30 days), allowing for monthly rentals and making Florida even more appealing to vacation rental ownership.

Florida State Laws Governing Short Term Rentals

No matter which Florida destination your short term rental is in, in order to be legally operating a vacation home as a short term rental in the state of Florida, property managers or hosts must first acquire a license through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) based on their categorization as a dwelling or a condo, and then as a Single, Group or Collective registration within their category.

State Lodging Taxes and Collection

Once you acquire the license, you can register with the Florida Department of Revenue. As the owner of the property, you’re responsible for collecting lodging taxes from guests and filing lodging tax returns with the state. As of January 2023, the state sales tax in Florida is 6% for short term rentals.

Registration and Taxes at the Local Level

Florida state law allows local governments to pass rules to control negative effects of vacation rentals in their area. While they can’t ban short-term rentals entirely, they have been actively attempting to control the short term rental market in recent years.

Working Through Your Florida County as a Short Term Rental

The first step in working through your local requirements is to identify which county your vacation rental is in. Let’s use a condo unit in Miami Beach as an example.

Adhering to Additional Municipality Guidelines

With the county regulations and registrations covered, we head to the final layer – the municipality, which in the case of our example is Miami Beach.

Which Counties in Florida allow for short term rentals?

In 2011, the state of Florida passed legislation restricting counties and municipalities from banning short term rentals outright, but if a local statute was already in place, they were grandfathered in.

Which cities in Florida are most attractive for Short Term Rental Ownership?

As real estate prices skyrocket in cities like Cape Coral, picking a Florida destination for your short-term vacation rental can be guided instead by traveler trends and opportunity in the current short term rental market.