Airbnb is legal in Miami Beach, but only under narrow conditions: your property must sit in a zoning district that allows transient lodging, your building’s governing documents must permit short-term rentals, and you must hold a city business tax receipt, a state vacation rental license, and a certificate of use before taking a single booking. Get any piece of that wrong and the city’s first-offense fine starts at $20,000.
Where Short-Term Rentals Are Allowed
Miami Beach defines a short-term rental as any lease shorter than six months and one day. Whether you can legally operate one depends entirely on where the property sits on the city’s zoning map.1City of Miami Beach. Vacation Short-Term Rentals The city’s Resiliency Code flatly prohibits vacation rentals in all single-family home districts. The ban also extends to most multi-family apartment buildings in residential zones that aren’t specifically approved for transient use.
Permitted zones cluster in high-tourism corridors like South Beach and Collins Avenue. The city lists authorized buildings across more than a dozen zoning codes, including RM-1, RM-2, RM-3, CD-2, TC-1, and TC-3, among others.1City of Miami Beach. Vacation Short-Term Rentals Before buying a property or signing a lease with hosting in mind, check the official zoning map on the city’s website. A building one block from a permitted zone can still be off-limits.
Condo and HOA Restrictions
Zoning is only the first filter. Many condo associations in Miami Beach have amended their governing documents to prohibit short-term rentals outright or to require minimum lease terms of six months and one day. If your building’s declaration or bylaws include that kind of restriction, it overrides the city’s zoning permission. Florida’s state preemption statute limits what local governments can do to regulate vacation rentals, but it does not touch private contracts between owners and their associations.2Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Chapter 509 Section 032
Pull a copy of your building’s declaration of condominium, bylaws, and any recent amendments before you spend a dollar on licensing. Look for language about minimum lease terms, transient occupancy, or rental restrictions. If the language is ambiguous, get a legal opinion before investing in permits you may not be able to use.
The Three Licenses You Need
Once you’ve confirmed the zoning and your building’s rules, three separate authorizations have to be in hand before you list the property.
City Business Tax Receipt
The City of Miami Beach requires a Vacation/Short-Term Rental Business Tax Receipt. You apply through the city directly, and approval confirms that your property has the proper zoning authorization for short-term rental activity.1City of Miami Beach. Vacation Short-Term Rentals
State Vacation Rental License
Florida law requires every vacation rental to hold a license from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation before accepting guests.3MyFloridaLicense.com. Hotels and Restaurants – Guide to Vacation Rentals and Timeshare Projects You’ll apply for either a Vacation Rental – Dwelling license (for houses) or a Vacation Rental – Condo license. The application carries a $50 application fee, a $10 Hospitality Education Program fee, and a license fee based on the number of units and time of year. For a single dwelling unit, the full-year license fee is $170, bringing the initial total to $230.4MyFloridaLicense.com. Hotels and Restaurants – Lodging Fees
Certificate of Use
A Certificate of Use is also mandatory. The city’s short-term rental requirements page lists an approved Certificate of Use among the required documents.5City of Miami Beach. Short-term Rental Requirements A Certificate of Occupancy is a prerequisite, so make sure your property has one before applying.6Miami-Dade County. Certificate of Occupancy and Certificate of Use All three authorizations must be active before you advertise or accept any bookings.
Taxes You Must Collect on Every Booking
Four separate taxes apply to each short-term rental night in Miami Beach, adding roughly 14% to the guest’s nightly rate.
- Florida state sales tax: 6% on the total rental charge, collected by the Florida Department of Revenue.7Miami-Dade County. Tourist and Restaurant Taxes
- Miami-Dade discretionary sales surtax: 1% on top of the state sales tax.8Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research. 2026 Local Discretionary Sales Surtax Rates
- Convention Development Tax: 3% collected countywide by the Miami-Dade Tax Collector.7Miami-Dade County. Tourist and Restaurant Taxes
- City of Miami Beach Resort Tax: 4% on all transient rentals of six months or less, remitted directly to the city.9City of Miami Beach. File/Pay Resort Tax
Each of those requires its own registration: the Florida Department of Revenue for state sales tax and the surtax, the Miami-Dade Tax Collector for the Convention Development Tax, and the City of Miami Beach Finance Department for the Resort Tax. Airbnb and other platforms sometimes collect and remit certain taxes for hosts, but it’s your job to confirm which ones are covered and to handle any that aren’t. Failing to collect these taxes creates liability with the tax authorities and can also jeopardize your local licenses.
Advertising and Occupancy Rules
Every listing must prominently display both your city Business Tax Receipt number and your Resort Tax certificate number.1City of Miami Beach. Vacation Short-Term Rentals That applies to Airbnb, Vrbo, your own website, social posts, and any other marketing channel. Listings without those numbers are an immediate red flag for city investigators.
Hosts also have to comply with residential standards for noise, parking, solid waste disposal, and pets. Before each guest checks in, you must provide written notice of these rules, and the same information has to be posted inside the rental. Miami-Dade County caps overnight occupancy at two people per bedroom plus two additional guests per property, up to 12 total, excluding children under three.10Miami-Dade County. Short-Term Vacation Rentals
What Illegal Hosting Costs
Miami Beach pursues unlicensed listings aggressively, using data mining and in-person inspections. Under City Code Section 142-1111, penalties for operating a short-term rental in a prohibited zone or without proper licensing start at $20,000 for a first offense and escalate: $40,000 for a second violation, $60,000 for a third, $80,000 for a fourth, and $100,000 for each offense after that. An appellate court has questioned whether those amounts are constitutionally excessive, so the exact penalty structure may evolve, but the city’s enforcement posture remains aggressive.
Miami-Dade County can separately fine owners who operate without a Certificate of Use. The county schedule starts at $100 for a first offense, $1,000 for a second within 24 months, and $2,500 for a third and each subsequent offense within 24 months. Unpaid fines can become a lien on the property. The county also adds a violation fee of $231.90 plus double the CU certificate cost if you try to get permitted after being cited.11Miami-Dade County. Short-Term Vacation Rentals – Section: Enforcement
Insurance Your Homeowners Policy Won’t Cover
A standard homeowners policy almost certainly won’t cover short-term rental activity. Most include a business activity exclusion that voids coverage when you’re earning rental income. Damage caused by a guest, liability for a guest’s injury, and theft from the rented portion of your home would all go unprotected.
Dedicated short-term rental policies replace standard homeowners coverage and typically add commercial general liability protection. Airbnb’s Host Protection program exists, but relying only on a platform’s coverage leaves gaps, particularly for damage to your own property, claims involving amenities like pools or hot tubs, and situations where a guest is injured outside a platform booking. A dedicated policy generally runs from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a year depending on property value and location.
Federal Income Tax on Rental Income
Short-term rental income is taxable at the federal level, with one narrow exception. If you rent the property for fewer than 15 days in a calendar year, you don’t report any of the rental income and can’t deduct rental expenses.12Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 415, Renting Residential and Vacation Property Most Miami Beach hosts clear that threshold quickly.
Past 14 days of rental activity, all rental income becomes reportable on Schedule E. You can deduct expenses like mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities, cleaning fees, platform commissions, and depreciation, but only the portion attributable to rental use if you also live in the property.12Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 415, Renting Residential and Vacation Property
For 2026, the Form 1099-K reporting threshold for third-party platforms like Airbnb has reverted to $20,000 in gross payments and more than 200 transactions in a calendar year.13Internal Revenue Service. IRS Issues FAQs on Form 1099-K Threshold Under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Even if you fall below that threshold and don’t receive a 1099-K, you still have to report the income. The IRS penalty for underreporting rental income is 20% of the underpaid tax, plus interest.