Southwest Florida property management — Airbnb, short-term & long-term rentals

Inside the City of Sarasota, every vacation rental must keep a minimum stay of seven full days and seven full nights, and one- to four-family homes in residential zones need a city certificate and a yearly inspection. On Sanibel, a dwelling may not be rented for less than four consecutive weeks unless resort housing is a permitted use there. The City of Naples tells owners that single-family homes must rent for 30 days or longer, with three shorter stays allowed each calendar year and no advertising of stays under 30 days.

Fort Myers Beach limits its restricted residential districts to one rental a month of at least a week, while Gulf-front land and land directly on the bay side of Estero Boulevard can rent weekly. Cape Coral states a six-night minimum for short-term rentals on its registration page. Venice allows no new short-term rentals in its RE and RSF single-family districts.

Many addresses in the region carry a city name without being inside that city. Siesta Key and Englewood have no city government, and large parts of what people call Naples, Fort Myers and Venice are unincorporated county land. On Siesta Key and the Sarasota County side of Englewood, the county code treats a dwelling rented for less than a month as a transient accommodation, allowed only where zoning lists it, but lets RMF-zoned dwellings on the barrier islands rent for less than 30 days.

Because the answer to "can I rent this nightly?" depends on the parcel, Florida Hosts confirms the jurisdiction, the zoning district and any condominium or homeowners' association rules before setting a minimum stay or writing a listing.

Several cities run their own programs on top of the state DBPR license. Cape Coral registers every rental each year, at $350 for a short-term rental and $35 for a long-term one. Fort Myers Beach requires town registration with the number shown in every advertisement. Sanibel issues an annual dwelling rental license, and Bonita Springs requires a rental permit renewed every three years with an inspection.

All four counties collect their own tourist development tax, on top of the 6% state sales tax on rentals of six months or less: 6% in Sarasota County and 5% in Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties, according to the Department of Revenue's DR-15TDT. Monthly winter rentals are still under six months, so they owe both taxes.