Airbnb announced it collected and remitted $191,000 in tax revenues in Broward County in May.
The short-term rental platform reached an agreement with Broward county officials in April to collect and submit a 5 percent tourism tax on behalf of its 3,200 hosts in the county who booked lodgings such as private homes, apartments and condos.
At the current pace, Broward would receive about $2.2 million in annual taxes from Airbnb. District four commissioner Chip LaMarca had said Broward could see more than $4 million in tourist tax revenue annually from short-term rental platform sites, according to the Sun Sentinel.
Airbnb reported about 1.5 million people rented properties last year in Florida through their site, spending $273 million at about 32,000 different properties.
Fort Lauderdale was one of the first cities in Broward to tweak its rules with the short term rental site, in 2015. The last revision, which the city commission approved in April, reduced the city’s registration-renewal fee for owner-occupied vacation rentals to $80 from $500.
Last year, Airbnb hosts generated $28 million in revenue in Broward, the Sun-Sentinel reported. Statewide, the county fell second behind Miami Dade, whose hosts brought in $113 million to the short-term rental site. Palm Beach County was sixth with $9.5 million.
In May, Miami-Dade collected and remitted $522,000 in tax revenues, after reaching a similar agreement with Airbnb. The country collected a 6 percent tourist tax on all short-term rentals, excluding Miami Beach. Miami-Dade mayor Carlos Gimenez said he expects the tourism taxes to generate about $6 million a year.
Airbnb has now secured tourist tax agreements with 39 of Florida’s 63 counties. Currently, there is no agreement with Palm Beach County.