Skip to content
STR Law Map
City lookup

STR Laws by City · Updated July 26, 2026

Orlando & Kissimmee Short-Term Rental Rules: Where Vacation Homes Are Legal (2026)

RestrictedLast verified 2026-07-23

City of Orlando: whole-home under 30 days is not permitted (home-share only). The 'Orlando' vacation homes are in Osceola/Kissimmee/Polk tourist zones.

Short answer: it depends entirely on which “Orlando” you mean. In the City of Orlando itself, you generally cannot legally run a whole-home Airbnb or Vrbo. The city’s own rules classify renting an entire house for less than 30 days as “Not Permitted” — only owner-occupied home shares, where you live on-site and rent up to half your bedrooms, are allowed in residential neighborhoods. The tens of thousands of vacation homes marketed as “Orlando” — the ones near Disney with private pools — are almost all in unincorporated Osceola County, the City of Kissimmee, and Polk County (Davenport / ChampionsGate). That is where whole-home short-term rentals are actually legal, and only inside designated tourist zones. This page maps who allows what, the permits, and the tax stack that differs county by county.

Key fact Orlando area, FL
Whole-home Airbnb in the City of Orlando? No — a whole-home rental under 30 days is “Not Permitted” in residential zones
What the City of Orlando allows Owner-occupied Home Share only (live on-site, rent up to half the bedrooms), plus Commercial Dwelling Units in non-residential zones
Where “Orlando” vacation homes actually are Unincorporated Osceola County, City of Kissimmee, and Polk County (Davenport / ChampionsGate)
Osceola County (Kissimmee area) Whole-home vacation rentals legal only in designated Short-Term Rental Overlay / tourist zones; county license + state license required
Orlando Home Share fee $275 first year; $100/yr renewal (owner-occupied) or $125/yr (non-owner)
Lodging tax Orange (Orlando) 12.5%; Osceola (Kissimmee) 13.5%; Polk (Davenport) 12% — the three counties differ
Last verified 2026-07-23

This is information, not legal advice, and rules change. Confirm the current rules with the correct city or county before you rent or buy.

The single most expensive Orlando short-term-rental mistake

Almost every guide treats “Orlando” as one short-term-rental market. It is not. “Orlando” spans at least four separate legal jurisdictions with opposite rules, and the difference decides whether your purchase is a legal vacation rental or an illegal one you cannot operate.

Here is the trap. The City of Orlando — the actual municipality — is one of the most restrictive places in Central Florida to short-term rent. Its short-term-rental fact sheet lists renting an entire home for a stay of 1 to 29 days as a flat “Not Permitted” use, and states plainly: “An individual homeowner may not rent the entire home under City of Orlando home sharing law (e.g., Airbnb, VRBO).” The city’s own FAQ answers the question directly: “Can I rent my entire home? Generally, no.”

Yet Greater Orlando is one of the largest vacation-rental markets on earth. Both facts are true because the pool homes you book for a Disney trip are not in the City of Orlando. They sit in unincorporated Osceola County (the Kissimmee area along US-192), the City of Kissimmee, and Polk County (Davenport and ChampionsGate) — jurisdictions that permit whole-home vacation rentals inside designated tourist zones. “Orlando vacation rental” is a marketing region, not a legal address. Before you believe any rule on this topic, confirm which government actually controls the parcel — look the address up on the county property appraiser and check whether it says a city name or “Unincorporated.”

Only in a narrow, owner-occupied form. The City of Orlando defines a short-term rental as a stay of less than 30 days and sorts every rental into categories under City Code Chapter 58. What you may do depends on whether you live in the home and how much of it you rent.

  • Home Share (Ch. 58 Part 5B(19), “Owner-Occupied Home Sharing”): legal. The owner — or a tenant with notarized owner permission — must live on-site, and may rent no more than half the bedrooms. Stays of 1 to 29 days. Requires registration and an annual fee.
  • Renting the entire home for under 30 days: Not Permitted in residential zones. This is the whole-home Airbnb model, and it is prohibited.
  • Commercial Dwelling Unit: a whole-unit rental of 7 to 29 days is allowed — but only in certain non-residential zoning districts, and it requires a Business Tax Receipt. You cannot turn a house in a residential neighborhood into one. (A whole-unit stay under 7 days is classified as a motel.)
  • Bed and Breakfast (Ch. 58 Part 5B(2)): owner lives on-site and rents rooms; capped at two rooms on a residential-district site.
  • 30 days or longer: an ordinary residential lease, regulated by normal landlord-tenant law — not a short-term rental at all.

So the honest answer for the City of Orlando: you can rent rooms in the home you live in, or run a whole-unit rental in a commercially zoned building, but you cannot buy a house in a residential neighborhood and list the whole thing on Airbnb.

What the Orlando Home Share registration costs

If you qualify (you live in the home), register through the city’s home-sharing program before listing. The fee is $275 for the first year, then $100 per year if the owner lives on the property, or $125 per year for a non-owner-occupied registration. Living spaces must pass inspection; do-it-yourself conversions such as an enclosed garage cannot be rented until an inspection is finalized.

Source: City of Orlando Short-Term Rentals fact sheet and Home Sharing Registration page (verified 2026-07-23).

Unincorporated Orange County

If the property appraiser lists your address as “Unincorporated,” the City of Orlando rules do not apply — Orange County’s zoning code (Chapter 38) does, and it is also restrictive. Whole-home nightly and weekly rentals are prohibited in most residential zones. The residential path is a bed-and-breakfast homestay: an owner-occupied accessory use, up to six guest rooms, with the owner residing on-site. Standard investor whole-home short-term rentals are not a permitted use across most of unincorporated Orange County.

This is the engine of the “Orlando” vacation-home industry. In unincorporated Osceola County, whole-home vacation rentals are legal — but only in the right zone. The county’s Land Development Code (Chapter 3, Article 3.6) permits short-term rentals in designated Short-Term Rental Overlay (STRO) districts — a Western District near Disney and US-192 and an Eastern District near Florida’s Turnpike — and in Short-Term Rental Planned Developments and qualifying tourist zones. Standard residential designations (R-1, R-2) treat nightly renting as a commercial use and prohibit it. This is why legal Osceola vacation homes cluster in named resort communities — Windsor Hills, Reunion, Terra Verde, Formosa Gardens, Veranda Palms, Storey Lake — rather than in ordinary subdivisions.

To operate legally in unincorporated Osceola County you need three approvals:

  • An Osceola County Short-Term Rental license through the Community Development Department, which includes a life-safety inspection.
  • A Florida DBPR vacation-rental license under Fla. Stat. Chapter 509 (the state license every Florida vacation rental needs).
  • A local Business Tax Receipt.

The county charges a minimum $160 inspection fee (plus $100 for any re-inspection), and requires a floor plan, proof of $1 million in liability insurance, and a local responsible contact. Property managers report the STR license and annual renewal running roughly $250 and $150 respectively, plus about $30 a year for the Business Tax Receipt — confirm current figures with the county, as fee schedules change.

The City of Kissimmee is separate. If the parcel is inside Kissimmee city limits rather than unincorporated Osceola County, the city’s own land-development regulations control — vacation rentals are allowed in certain tourist-oriented districts, often only after a Conditional Use Permit. And St. Cloud, Osceola’s other city, permits short-term rentals only in hotel and motel zones, which effectively bans them in residential areas. Always confirm which of these four jurisdictions your address is in before assuming any rule applies.

Polk County: the ChampionsGate and Davenport belt

Much of the newest “Orlando” resort-home construction — the ChampionsGate and Davenport corridor west of the parks — is actually in Polk County. Polk permits whole-home vacation rentals in designated tourist and resort zones, and it carries a different tax rate than either Orange or Osceola. If you are comparing pro formas across “Orlando” listings, this matters: two homes ten minutes apart can sit in two different counties with different rules and different taxes.

The tax stack is different in each county

There is no single “Orlando” lodging-tax rate. Each county sets its own tourist development tax and discretionary sales surtax on top of Florida’s 6% state sales tax (Fla. Stat. § 212.03). The result:

County (market) State sales County surtax Tourist Dev. Tax Combined
Orange (Orlando) 6% 0.5% 6% 12.5%
Osceola (Kissimmee) 6% 1.5% 6% 13.5%
Polk (Davenport / ChampionsGate) 6% 1% 5% 12%

Do not assume Airbnb handles all of it. Airbnb and Vrbo collect and remit the state sales tax and county surtax everywhere. But the tourist development tax is administered locally, and the counties treat it differently. Airbnb and Vrbo collect and remit the 6% Orange County tourist development tax under agreement (you remain ultimately responsible, filing with the Orange County Comptroller). Osceola County is not contracted with Airbnb, Vrbo, or similar platforms — the county states that it is “the responsibility of the property owners and agents to collect and remit the 6% tourist tax.” If you host in Kissimmee or unincorporated Osceola County and assume the platform covers your bed tax, you are accruing an unpaid liability every night you rent. The Orange-versus-Osceola split is the clearest example we have found of a rule that applies nationwide — see our transient occupancy tax explainer for how to check, layer by layer, which lodging taxes your platform actually remits and which ones remain yours to file.

Sources: Osceola County Tax Collector; Orange County Comptroller; Florida Department of Revenue discretionary surtax table (verified 2026-07-23).

Enforcement

Operating without the required registration, license, or in a prohibited zone is a code violation in every one of these jurisdictions. In the City of Orlando, running an unregistered home share or an unpermitted whole-home rental is enforced by code compliance. Florida caps code-enforcement fines under Fla. Stat. Chapter 162 at up to $1,000 per day for a first violation, $5,000 per day for repeat violations, and $15,000 for an irreparable violation — the ceiling that applies to local short-term-rental enforcement statewide. The bigger risk for most owners is buying the wrong parcel: a home in a non-permitted zone cannot be made legal after the fact, and no license will be issued for it.

Florida state preemption: the June 1, 2011 line

Florida generally forbids cities from banning short-term rentals or dictating how long or how often you rent. Under Fla. Stat. § 509.032(7)(b), a local government “may not prohibit vacation rentals or regulate the duration or frequency of rental of vacation rentals” — except for any ordinance “adopted on or before June 1, 2011.” Both Orange and Osceola County had short-term-rental restrictions on the books before that date, so their zoning-based limits are grandfathered and enforceable. That is why the City of Orlando can keep whole-home rentals out of residential neighborhoods where a newer city could not. For the statewide picture — the grandfather cliff, the 2024 SB 280 veto, and the state DBPR license — see our Florida short-term rental laws overview.

Primary sources

Compare short-term rental rules in other cities

Frequently asked questions

Can I buy a house in the City of Orlando and put it on Airbnb?

Generally no. The City of Orlando classifies renting an entire home for under 30 days as “Not Permitted” in residential zones. You may register the home you live in as a Home Share and rent up to half the bedrooms, but a whole-home vacation rental in a residential neighborhood is not allowed. Whole-unit short-term rentals (Commercial Dwelling Units) are limited to certain non-residential zoning districts.

Where near Orlando can I legally run a whole-home vacation rental?

In designated tourist / short-term-rental-overlay zones in unincorporated Osceola County (the Kissimmee resort communities along US-192), in tourist-zoned parts of the City of Kissimmee, and in Polk County’s ChampionsGate and Davenport resort corridor. Each requires the correct county or city license plus a Florida DBPR vacation-rental license, and each is zone-specific — an ordinary residential subdivision usually does not qualify.

Does Airbnb collect all my Orlando-area taxes?

Not entirely. Airbnb and Vrbo collect the state sales tax and county surtax, and they remit the 6% tourist development tax in Orange County. But Osceola County is not contracted with Airbnb or Vrbo, so hosts in Kissimmee and unincorporated Osceola County must collect and remit the 6% Osceola tourist development tax directly to the county tax collector.

Is the lodging tax the same across the Orlando area?

No. It is about 12.5% in Orange County (Orlando), 13.5% in Osceola County (Kissimmee), and 12% in Polk County (Davenport / ChampionsGate), because each county sets its own tourist development tax and surtax on top of Florida’s 6% state rate.

Last verified: 2026-07-23. Laws change — confirm the current rules directly with the City of Orlando, Osceola County, the City of Kissimmee, or Polk County before operating.