St. Augustine’s City Commission voted unanimously Aug. 10 to raise annual fees charged to owners of short-term rental properties, one of several fee increases the commission approved as it works toward setting its 2026-27 budget.
Commissioners also approved fee increases for fire assessment, utilities and vehicles for hire.
For short-term rental properties, the resolution raised the base registration charge to $335.75 from $303.03, a 10.8% increase. The base fee is a flat charge per rental unit.
The commission raised a separate per-bedroom fee to $100.20 from $79.30, up 26.4%. That is nearly 2.5 times the rate of the base fee hike.
Both fees recur annually, applying to initial registration and every subsequent renewal, under Ordinance 2019-50, which requires registration and inspection of short-term rentals in the city.
As approved on a 3-0 vote, with commissioners Jim Springfield and Jon DePreter absent, the fees will become effective Oct. 1.
City Finance Director Melissa Burns said the increase reflects the cost to administer and regulate the program.
The resolution also set a $100 late fee for annual registration renewal and a $50 reinspection fee for units that fail an initial code compliance or fire-safety inspection. According to the resolution, the increases are intended to cover the city’s cost of administering the registration and inspection program, with those costs borne by rental unit owners rather than general taxpayers.
Under the adopted rate, guests would pay an extra 26 cents per day for a typical three-bedroom if the full increases were passed along by property owners.
Rabbu, a short-term rental data firm, counted 2,237 active Airbnb listings in its Saint Augustine market as of April 2026. That is close to the 2,310 vacation rentals Airbnb’s own site currently lists for St. Augustine, but far from short-term rental data provider AirROI’s count of 1,178 for the same market. The spread underscores how loosely the three platforms define the boundaries of St. Augustine, with none disclosing whether its borders match the city limits governed by the ordinances.
Restrictions and regulations
Florida Statute 509.032(7)(b) bars cities from banning short-term rentals or regulating stay length or frequency, unless a local ordinance predates June 1, 2011. Registration, inspection and licensing fees fall outside that preemption, leaving them among the primary tools cities retain. A 2024 bill, SB 280, would have shifted more authority to the state before Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed it that June.
City Ordinance 2019-51, which codifies findings from a 2010 city ordinance, applies only to the city’s RS-1 and RS-2 low-density single-family residential zoning districts, setting a one-week minimum stay and requiring approved registration. Nightly rentals are prohibited in those districts.
Other districts zoned for commercial or mixed use allow stays of less than seven days, including overnight rentals.