An overwhelming majority of Floridians support allowing homeowners to rent out their houses through the popular homesharing website Airbnb, a new poll shows.
The Fabrizio, Lee and Associates poll, commissioned by Airbnb, found 80 percent of Floridians are in support of allowing homeowners to rent out their houses on Airbnb, while only 20 percent oppose. (See the poll in the attachment at the bottom of the page).
Over half of those surveyed -- 52 percent -- say renting homes through Airbnb is good for the state, while only 13 percent say it's bad.
A slightly higher number of Democrats believe the homesharing service is good for Florida, with 54 percent of Democrats in favor of Airbnb, while 49 percent of Republicans feel the same way.
"The belief that Airbnb is good for Florida is strong throughout the state, but is even slightly higher with Democrats and those in the northern part of the state," the pollsters wrote.
The majority of Floridians -- 73 percent -- believe the state, not local governments, should have the final say in registering rental properties.
Most Floridians also support changing state law to prevent cities and counties from imposing restrictions on vacation home rentals, with 64 percent in favor of state control.
Other polls have shown even higher numbers of Floridians supporting homesharing sites like Airbnb.
A recent Mason-Dixon survey, not commissioned by Airbnb, but by another vacation rental site, HomeAway, found 94 percent of Southeast Floridians want Airbnb to operate legally in their hometowns.
Homesharing operations have been a booming industry in Florida in recent years. The premise is simple: homeowners can offer their residences for rental purposes and vacationers can nab a better deal on top of a cozier experience than one they’d get at a hotel.
The Fabrizio poll comes on the heels of a contentious battle between Airbnb and the cities of Miami and Miami Beach, both of which have imposed strict regulations on homeowners renting their houses through Airbnb.
The mayors of the two cities, Tómas Regalado and Philip Levine, have railed against the popular company in an all-out war over vacation rentals.
The Miami City Commission recently voted to declare Airbnb rentals an "illegal nuisance" while fines for renting out homes have skyrocketed to $20,000 per violation in Miami Beach.
Meanwhile, a bill to deregulate the homesharing industry is continuing to chug along in the Florida Legislature.
Last week, a House committee approved a bill to ban cities, towns and local governments from encroaching on vacation rental companies like Airbnb and Home Away, effectively requiring municipalities to treat vacation rental homes just like any other home in any given neighborhood.
Beginning in 2011, those protections against regulations used to be available to vacation rental properties. But facing pressure from cities and local government, Florida caved, rolling back those regulations in 2014.
The survey of 1,200 registered voters was conducted from March 9-12 and had a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percent.
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