Miami Beach may be the most popular destination for Airbnb guests in Miami-Dade, but the hosts raking in the most are not where you would think.
The two top-earning hosts were in Hialeah, earning about $20,000 over the last year, according to the Miami Herald. After that, Olympia Heights’ 33165 zip code, where hosts earned about $14,200; and in Kendall’s 33175 and 33185 zip codes, where hosts earned roughly $12,000.
Meanwhile, in Miami Beach, the hosts raked in about $11,900 over the period from September 2015 to September 2016, the fifth most in Miami-Dade, the Herald reported.
The short-term rental giant has made its mark on Miami-Dade County, especially over the last year. In 2015, more than half of Florida’s 16,100 Airbnb hosts were in South Florida, including nearly 8,000 hosts in Miami/Fort Lauderdale. A report released in July shows Airbnb grew by 120 percent in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
Out of the 80 zip codes in Miami-Dade, Airbnb is in 72. Half of Airbnb users between 2015 and 2016 stayed in Miami Beach, which comes out to 185,000 people, or 1 percent of all tourists in Miami-Dade County. The other half were in other zip codes, including Brickell, downtown Miami, Wynwood, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables and Doral.
Like in other parts of the country, the hotel industry and local governments want to regulate and tax vacation rentals and platforms like Airbnb, HomeAway and VRBO.
In Miami Beach, the city upped its fines for short-term rental violations, which previously ranged from $500 to $7,500, to starting at $20,000. From March to mid-August, fines issued by Miami Beach code enforcement totaled $1.59 million.
Moody’s Investors Service reported last month that Airbnb is driving down occupancy and revenue at Miami area hotels. Both New York and Miami, which have the highest concentrations of Airbnb listings, also have declining hotel revenue per available room year-to-date through August. [Miami Herald] – Katherine Kallergis