LOCAL

Reopening Jacksonville: Vacation rentals can reopen in Duval, Clay, St. Johns and Nassau

Andrew Pantazi
Florida Times-Union
Florida Times-Union

Florida approved plans this week from Duval, Clay, St. Johns and Nassau counties to reopen vacation rentals. The plans differ in significant ways, but each sets restrictions on guests and hosts.

The reopening comes as vacation rental hosts have protested Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to allow hotels to keep operating but limited rentals.

Lori Crouch, a St. Johns County real-estate agent who rents out a home her parents own on Airbnb and VRBO, said she didn’t understand why hotels were allowed to keep renting when “in my opinion, it’d be less likely to spread the disease in a vacation rental because it’s a single-family residence versus a hotel where you have multiple people sharing a hotel, eating breakfast in the same lobby together, swimming in the same swimming pool together, having a maid go from room-to-room-to-room-to-room.”

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Gov. Ron DeSantis banned most vacation rentals in March, allowing them to continue only in limited exceptions. As part of his phase one of reopening, he said counties could propose how to reopen vacation rentals, but they’d have to get approval from the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which licenses rentals.

Crouch said the lack of bookings the last two months have made her parents think about selling the home and giving up on vacation rentals.

Jason Kovach, whose full-time job is running two Airbnb listings in Avondale, said he also has considered turning his guest house into an apartment. But he said he’s spent so much money on high-end furniture that he doesn’t want to give up on renting it out on Airbnb yet.

Last year, he said, the guesthouse was booked almost every day of the year.

Still, he said he’s not sure how he’s going to comply with the new regulations, even though Duval County has some of the most libertine regulations in Northeast Florida.

“How am I to police what populations where the person is from?” he said, referring to a requirement that guests don’t come from New York City. “Still, that’s something I’m willing to take on in order to open back up.”

Each county set a 10-person occupancy limit. But the other restrictions varied widely.

Duval County appears to have the least restrictions, telling hosts to provide renters with copies of executive orders, CDC guidelines and state restrictions.

In Nassau, hosts must allow for 18 hours between renters. The county also regulates cleaning supplies and requires hosts post signage about cleaning and provide hand sanitizers in all common areas. Hosts also must send lists of guests to the New York state health department, the Nassau health department and to the Amelia Island Convention and Visitors Bureau. Nassau said hosts could face jailtime if they violate the rules.

St. Johns requires 24 hours between renters.

Clay had few regulations but instead offered a lengthy list of suggestions, saying what hosts “should” do, rather than what they must do. The regulations didn’t limit where visitors could come from.

Nassau banned visitors from New York City and its suburbs in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. It also banned all international visitors.

St. Johns banned visitors from states that have 500 cases per 100,000 residents as of May 18, which would be New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Duval banned visitors from “cities with populations greater than one million located in an area with substantial community spread,” as designated by the governor in orders that defined the New York City tri-state area and Louisiana as places with substantial community spread.

Airbnb spokesman Sam Randall said in a statement that the platform will ban anyone who attempts to throw an unauthorized party and the platform “will be cooperating with local law enforcement in any investigations relating to parties and violations of public health mandates, consistent with our Terms of Service.”

“We’re glad that the Governor has listened to the many voices who have called for the reopening of vacation rentals in Florida. As conveyed, vacation rentals are an important part of Florida’s economic recovery as they remain a key source of income for thousands of hosts, small businesses and local governments across the State. This is a good start and we look forward to continuing to work with the governor as we plan for vacation rentals to be integral to the return of Florida’s tourism industry.”

The governor’s earlier bans allowed vacation rentals to continue for long-term rentals and rentals to those involved in the “military, emergency, governmental, health or infrastructure response.” The order also allowed rentals for "travelers engaged in non-vacation commercial activities,“ though it didn’t define those terms.

It wasn’t clear, for example, if someone booking a rental while a loved one was in a hospital should count as a commercial activity. It’s also possible that someone could claim they were engaged in commercial activities, like observing real estate, that closely mirrored vacation activities.

Nikki Kimbleton, Mayor Lenny Curry’s spokeswoman, said the city received complaints from residents who reported their neighbors were still operating their vacation rentals. She said the city also got "less than 10“ complaints from rental hosts.

Kovach and Crouch both said they felt their cleanliness standards were already better than hotels. “I’m a clean freak,” Kovach said. “My reviews on my property all discuss the cleanliness of my property.”

DeSantis didn’t restrict hotels. Still, Duval’s bed-tax revenue in April was about half of what it was in February, according to the county tax collector’s office, falling from $2.1 million in taxes in February to $1.1 million in April. That revenue covers various tourism-related expenses, including paying off debt for construction at TIAA Bank Field.

“They shot the whole industry in the foot with no short-term rentals,” Kovach said.

The City Council budget assumes the county will collect $25 million in bed-tax revenue for the 2019-2020 fiscal year.

Both Kovach and Crouch said they converted their rentals into long-term rentals and were able to book guests for more than 30 days at reduced rates.

Kovach said he’s been able to survive the loss of income so far, but he’s had to work with his credit union to suspend payments on a loan he took out to renovate his home.

“When the panic set in, everything just stopped. Then you start thinking: How am I going to make money? The Airbnb was my full-time job,” he said. “There’s a lot of unknowns out there.”

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