Seminole County approves deal with Airbnb

Seminole County commissioners approved a deal Tuesday with Airbnb that will allow the popular home-sharing company to charge and collect the county’s tourist development tax.

The 5-percent tax has long been added to the bill of guests staying at Seminole hotels and resorts.

However, county officials said they were concerned about the loss of tax revenue when visitors use home-sharing sites, such as Airbnb, rather than hotels, thereby skirting the tax.

“Everyone is doing that inadvertently,” Commissioner Bob Dallari said. “People don’t know that” they’re not paying the tax.

He added that Airbnb should have the same standards as other types of lodging.

Seminole’s bed tax brought in about $5.5 million in fiscal year 2017-18 and is expected to bring a similar amount this fiscal year, according to county documents. The county uses the revenue to pay for the $28 million Boombah Sports Complex on East Lake Mary Boulevard, just south of the Orlando Sanford International Airport. Revenue is also used to pay for advertising and promotional efforts by the county to lure visitors.

Under the agreement, Airbnb includes the bed tax on the overall bill its customers pay. Then, on a monthly basis, the company reimburses the county through Seminole’s tax collector’s office with the total amount it collected.

The new tax will take effect on Dec. 1. Seminole joins 39 other Florida counties with similar agreements, including Orange, Brevard and Polk.

In 2017, about 11,000 people used Airbnb in Seminole. Elsewhere in Central Florida, Orange had about 235,000 guests; Osceola, 358,000; and Lake about 30,000, according to numbers provided by the company.

About 300 Seminole residents have shared their homes via Airbnb in the past year. Most of them shared an extra unused room in their homes.

Airbnb also collects state sales tax on all Florida bookings as part of an agreement with the state Department of Revenue.