Like many Florida cities, Key West is heavily dependent on tourism. To keep the city an attractive home base for its 25,000 permanent residents and to continue presenting a certain low-key flair to visitors, the city closely regulates the number of tourists welcome on the island, whether they stay in hotels or come via cruise ships. The city also limits vacation rental licenses in private homes at 1,041.
Because the city wants to keep making decisions about the Key West population, they object to state attempts to mandate rentals and possibly decrease the minimum stay to less than the 28 days that Key West has required since 2002.
Fighting Short Term Rentals On The Local Level
Just because the city wants to avoid state interference does not mean that Key West has no short-term rental problems. Violators abound, to the detriment of the city’s housing supply for permanent residents. The city is fighting illegal rentals by hiring a “Transient Rental Specialist” who goes undercover to seek violators.
The first inspector hired in early 2016 has shut down hundreds of illegal rentals. Violators must appear before a special magistrate and possibly pay stiff fines, which are usually waived if the violator will sign an agreement with the city. One flagrant violator paid the city nearly $10,000 in fines in 2016 until he finally stopped renting out his property. The city has been so pleased with the work of the undercover agent that they added another one to their staff.
The city of Key West has had trouble getting Airbnb to stop illegal rentals. The company finally agreed to put a hard-to-find page on city rules on its website, but it does little to enforce the 28-day minimum stay requirement. Monitoring services can be the city’s friend in sniffing out illegal rentals.