Hillsborough County is adding new rules for short-term vacation rentals.
The rentals are a growing part of Florida’s tourism economy, but they’ve also got some neighbors concerned about noise, trash, parking and who’s accountable when they become a problem for the people who live next door.
In 2025, the Pinellas County Commission voted to amend a land development code for unincorporated areas and imposed a fee schedule for rentals.
The amended code would keep the maximum occupancy at 10 people and children under 12 count toward the max. It also imposed 10 p.m. to 9 a.m. quiet hours and required owners to report sexual predators to the sheriff’s office.
But some residents argue the county needs to impose more restrictions on rental property guests.
ALSO READ: Pinellas commissioners approve a new ordinance for short term rentals
A new ordinance going into effect in January will require owners to register their properties with the county, pay a fee, and have someone who can respond to potential problems.
Hannah Schultze, owner of Property Solutions — which manages short-term vacation rentals — and Mark Kiddo, Hillsborough County resident who helped develop the ordinance, join "Florida Matters Live & Local" to discuss Airbnb, Vrbo and other short-term rentals that may be in your neighborhood.
The interview below was edited for clarity and brevity.
We hope it solves problems of things getting out of hand. In the recent past, many short-term rentals would have parties and the residents would end up cleaning up after them. There would be cars all over the place blocking the streets. If there was an emergency, with some of the elderly people living in these neighborhoods, the ambulance or the fire department could not get through.
For me, the biggest thing is this ordinance is going to collect in year one about $600,000, and it's going to affect 3,000 properties across Hillsborough County, and there has been no released allocations for those funds. And I think it's fair for people like myself and my clients that I'm advocating for to know where that money is going towards.
I understand Mark's point completely, and I agree that there needs to be accountability for people that are breaking the rules. However, I worry that these new ordinances are then going to punish everybody instead of the folks that are repeat offenders and are doing these things that are clearly unnecessary.
It's going to fund the actual ordinance and inspections. It's going to fund the different things that have to be in place; it will be self-sustaining. There's not going to be an extra tax that's going to be put out there that every taxpayer will have to pay. But our biggest problem is a neighborhood shouldn't have to manage a business next door with no accountable manager.
It gives residents what we need, and that's a clear, accountable process when a short-term rental creates reoccurring problems in a family neighborhood. It's not about treating every rental as a problem. It’s about closing the gap when there is no reliable registry, no known local contact, no timely way to address repeated noise, parking, trash, occupancy, safety, or code concerns.
Part of the ordinance is there will be a hotline that residents can call directed to the appropriate county agency that would have to respond for whatever problem there is.
The good news about the way Hillsborough County operates is we actually have metrics that we can measure that by. Hillsborough County does not allow you to file a report with the commissioner's office or the county anonymously. You actually have to provide quite a substantial amount of information.
In my opinion, what would give it more teeth is I'd like to know what ZIP codes are we noticing? What specific neighborhoods? Are these first-time offenders, or are they repeat offenders? And there actually is kind of an unofficial registry because Airbnb properties are not homesteaded properties. So we're able to pull and see which properties are being used as Airbnbs, so we'd have a way to see how many properties a person owns. So these are all really good measurable things that we can look at that I think would have been helpful in the process.
ALSO READ: Redington Beach's mayor says a vacation rentals bill would have hurt his community
It's not to say that I haven't had neighbors say things they have noticed, but the difference in the approach that I take with my business is it's important to be a good neighbor. I can't tell you how many times I've had neighbors next door to me that I've offered up during the holidays and said, "Hey, we have this open block of time. I know that you have family from out of town. We'll run it to you at a discounted rate, so that way you can have your family right next door.”
So, there are good and responsible short-term rental owners out there. I just feel that this ordinance was maybe a little too aggressive, because there are tons of people that I represent and like myself that take pride in being a responsible manager.
It will require an annual registration, a $200 fee, a responsible person be available 24 hours a day who can respond within one hour to any any situation that may be occurring, and clear guest information about local rules such as noise, parking, trash, and recycling that will educate guests on what is available to them, and make them a safer guest.
For neighbors, it means there's a name, a contact, and a process. It doesn't mean that every complaint results in a penalty, but at least there's a framework there that provides for the problem as it is occurring.
Hillsborough County alone for Fiscal Year '25 collected $72.5 million in the Florida Tourist Development tax (TDT), also known as the bed tax. I don't understand why, from that discretionary fund, we want to talk about making things affordable. Why can't we pull funds from that?
And furthermore, for Fiscal Year '26, we're on track to have a record-breaking year with TDT. So, instead of putting that onto homeowners and investors that are bringing money into local Tampa businesses, why aren't those funds being utilized?
This story was compiled from interviews by Matthew Pettie for "Florida Matters Live and Local."
