Tampa Bay property management — Airbnb, short-term & long-term rentals

Every stay of six months or less owes Florida's 6% sales tax under §212.03, plus any applicable county discretionary sales surtax. On top of that, the Department of Revenue's DR-15TDT chart (R. 10/26) lists a 6% tourist development tax in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Manatee counties, each marked as collected by the county rather than the state.

That means two filings for most rentals: state tax to the Department of Revenue and tourist tax to the county. Monthly furnished stays are not exempt, since the six-month line in the statute is what matters.

St. Pete Beach bars transient occupancy in its RU and RLM residential districts and allows three short stays a year in RM and the Pass-a-Grille overlay. Treasure Island permits tourist dwellings in its RFM-30, RFH-50 and CG districts. Madeira Beach bans rentals under six months in R-1 and under three months in R-2, and lists vacation rentals as a permitted use in R-3.

Indian Rocks Beach takes the opposite approach: short-term rentals are permitted in its residential districts, with yearly registration, inspection, a one-hour complaint response rule and an occupancy cap of 10, or 12 in the CT district. In unincorporated Pinellas, a county certificate of use has been required since March 25, 2025.

Holmes Beach requires a vacation rental certificate for every rental property, renewed every two years, with minimum stays of 30 days in R-1 and R-1AA and seven days in R-2 through R-4. Bradenton Beach does not set minimum stays; it requires a DBPR license, a business tax receipt and a city TPLE license, and caps occupancy at the certificate of occupancy or DBPR license.

Manatee County's free Anna Maria Island Trolley runs Gulf Drive between the Anna Maria City Pier and Coquina Beach every 20 minutes, linking both cities' beaches.

In St. Petersburg, mainland Clearwater and Dunedin's residential neighborhoods, the legal furnished option is a stay of 30, 31 or 90 days or more. Hospitals give those stays a real market: Tampa General Hospital and Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Johns Hopkins All Children's and St. Anthony's in St. Petersburg, and Morton Plant in Clearwater.