City Watch
Short-term rental rules in Daytona Beach, FL
How Daytona Beach regulates short-term rentals: the rules that apply, their sources, and pending changes.
Rules here limit which homes may operate as short-term rentals, how many, where, or for how many nights a year.
- residential-zone exclusion of vacation rentals (the 'other accommodations' use is Permitted only in the four Tourist base districts and thirteen Redevelopment districts; blank in every residential base district)
- grandfathered pre-2011 base-zoning prohibition (LDC Principal Use Table §5.2.A Note 1 asserts the use includes vacation rentals grandfathered from the 2011 §509.032(7) amendment; AGO 2022-01 treats the base-zoning ban as grandfathered)
- no numeric cap or quota (Florida §509.032(7)(b) bars local duration/frequency limits post-2011)
- STR registration plus state DBPR vacation-rental license, local business tax receipt, and Volusia County tourist-development tax
Based on: City of Daytona Beach Land Development Code (LDC, eff. 2015-03-01, codified through Ord. No. 2025-501) §5.2 Principal
Summary of the rule
LDC Principal Use Table §5.2.A: 'Other accommodations' (which per Note 1 includes vacation rentals / transient short-term lodging) is a Permitted (P) principal use ONLY in the four Tourist base districts (T-1, T-2, T-4, T-5) and ONLY in the thirteen Redevelopment districts; it is NOT permitted (blank) in any residential base district (SFR-5, MFR-12, MFR-20, MFR-40).
View the ordinance source ↗✓ Verified
Active litigation / open question
Synk v. City of Daytona Beach, No. 2017-31231-CICI (Fla. 7th Cir. Ct. May 14, 2019), aff'd, 300 So. 3d 657 (Fla. 5th DCA 2020) (table) — Seventh Judicial Circuit judgment relied upon by AGO 2022-01 as supporting the premise that the city's base-zoning vacation-rental prohibition is grandfathered under §509.032(7)(b). The DCA affirmance is a table (no written opinion). Source ↗
Property-owner preemption dispute over the 2015 LDC rewrite: owners have alleged the reorganized Code re-zoned some beachside parcels out of an STR-permitting classification (an impermissible post-2011 change under §509.032(7)(b)); if successful this could narrow the grandfathered footprint for specific parcels but does not disturb the citywide residential-exclusion device. Source ↗
Reported as fact only, reflecting the code as currently in effect — not legal advice, and not a prediction of the outcome. Verify current status before relying on it.
Last reviewed Sep 25, 2026 · Sources · Report an error
Pending legislation
Monitoring Daytona Beach · system last checked Oct 25, 2026
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