INDIAN ROCKS BEACH, Fla. (WFTS) — With great weather, great beaches, and so many things to do, it's hard to avoid short-term rentals in Pinellas County.
"We had never had a bad experience with tourists. No, I mean, we're surrounded by AirBnB's," said Gaby Antoni.
Antoni lives in Indian Rocks Beach. It's a city that dealt with a lot of back and forth surrounding their short-term rentals.
"A year and a half ago, they put up a house, it didn't even one day," she said. "It was on the market one day and then it all turned into AirBnB, and it was advertised quite often. Cash cow, you know, you can make money and all that."
Antoni believes that the slowdown is because of recent local changes.
Just to name a few:
- Pinellas County recently capped occupancy in short-term rentals to 10 people
- a limit on the number of cars allowed
- a noise ordinance
On Thursday, County Commissioners looked at launching a registration for all short-term rentals in the county.
"They scrub every one of these host platforms on a two day basis and are able to pick up through documentations of listings and other forms of evidence, whether or not they're compliant. They're able to in turn, largely automate, notices of violation on to these properties," the county reported.
The county believes there are almost 18,000 short-term rentals in Pinellas, and the number has grown by 25% over the past year.
While it can't all be connected to short-term rentals, the county also points out a 300% increase in code enforcement complaints based on the first quarter of 2024.
But one thing is keeping them from moving forward with their next plan: Senate Bill 280, which Governor Ron DeSantis could sign into law. The state statute would preempt local municipalities from regulating the frequency and duration of stays associated with short-term rentals.
This means that short-term rentals will be governed by state law, not most of the existing and proposed laws on the local level.
What the county does next will all rely on what happens if that bill gets signed.
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.
