Airbnb hosts in South Florida raked in $160M in 2016

Airbnb’s Florida hosts raked in $273 million in 2016, with hosts in Miami-Dade earning the most of any county at $113 million and the tri-county area bringing in $160 million, according to a new report released by Airbnb.

Broward hosts earned the second most of any Florida county with $28 million, and Palm Beach the sixth most with $9.5 million.

In 2016, 1.5 million people used Airbnb in Florida, an increase of 114 percent from the previous year. The fastest growing demographic of Florida’s 32,000 hosts was senior women.

The city of Miami, especially, saw a big boost in Airbnb activity. Neighborhoods like Midtown Miami and Little Haiti, both currently lacking hotels, experienced big growth. Earlier this month, Airbnb issued a report on Miami, which highlighted Wynwood and Little Haiti, where hosts averaged between $3,800 and $3,900 in rental income from November 2015 to November 2016.

The city of Miami Beach hasn’t been as easy for Airbnb. The city tightened regulations for condo owners and condo-hotels in zoning districts where short-term rentals are currently allowed, passing an ordinance earlier this month that says properties rented to visitors and tourists on Airbnb and other short-term rental services will be classified as “transient short-term rentals.” Any owners who want to rent those properties will first have to notify the city to determine if the property is located in a district where short-term rentals are legal.

And the fines for violating the city’s short-term rental laws are steep. For that measure, violators of the ordinance would receive an initial fine of $1,000 followed by fines of $5,000, $7,500 and $10,000 for subsequent violations. About a year ago, the commission voted to increase fines for single-family homeowners who rent their properties on a short-term basis. Those fines start at $20,000 for first-time violators.

While Airbnb collects and remits bed taxes statewide (6 percent) and as well as in 31 Florida counties, those don’t yet include Miami-Dade, Broward or Palm Beach counties. This year, it collected more than $20 million in taxes in Florida. The company has said that it’s working closer to collecting local taxes in Miami-Dade.

Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 counties ranked by income in 2016:

1. Miami-Dade: $113 million
2. Broward: $28 million
3. Osceola: $18.3 million
4. Orange: $14.3 million
5. Pinellas: $12.3 million
6. Palm Beach: $9.5 million
7. Monroe: $8.5 million
8. Lee: $6.7 million
9. Sarasota: $6.7 million
10. Hillsborough: $5.1 million

– Katherine Kallergis