Which business licenses/permit needed for STR in Polk county

Question

I have ben told to apply for and obtain Florida state business license/permit and a county business license/permit to operate STR in Polk county, FL. Can anyone already in this area help with advising if I need anything else? Thank you!

Josh Green · Answer

To operate legally you will first need to obtain a STR license through the FL DBPR, then, you contact polk county for a license.  See below:

https://www.polktaxes.com/serv...

Bryan Williams · Answer

Adding to Josh's answer with actual data — we just shipped Polk County into our permit registry API. It pulls from the Florida DBPR daily lodging extract (refreshed every 24 hours) and enriches each record with coordinates and parcel ID from the Polk County Property Appraiser GIS layer.

Right now there are 300+ active vacation rental licenses in Polk County. The data shows the exact DBPR licence number, status (Current, Suspended, Voluntarily Relinquished, etc.), expiration date, and the resolved city — Davenport, Haines City, Winter Haven, Lakeland, etc.

If you're trying to figure out whether a specific address already has a licence, or want to see permit density in a neighborhood before you buy, the API lets you pull the full list: civicdataforge.pages.dev/data/str-permit-data

The DBPR licence is step one. After that you need the Polk County Class B business tax receipt and Tourist Development Tax registration, same as Josh said. But the DBPR lookup is the fastest way to see if an area is already STR-active before you commit.

Josh Green · Answer

1) State License through FL DBPR

2) Local county or city license.  You'd need to call your local municipality to find out if its a county or city license...3) there could be additional requirements based on the community the property is in.

Nicholas Burch · Answer

So how many licenses do you need and how long does it usually take, if you happen to know?

Josh Green · Answer

@Dom Radcliffe

Yes typically there is a separate tax you pay the county on a monthly basis.  Try emailing the county and keep calling 👍🏼

Dom Radcliffe · Answer

@Josh Green - Hey, thanks for the info! I came across TDT (Tourism Development Taxes) - Is this a separate tax from county tax and do I need a separate license for this? I tried calling the county office multiple times, but was put on hold for hours :-(

Which business licenses/permit needed for STR in Polk county

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