Pembroke Pines Short Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Pembroke Pines and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that Florida has your back here: no city in the state, Pembroke Pines included, is allowed to ban short-term rentals outright or cap how many nights in a row you can book one. That protection comes from a state law passed in 2011, and it's still standing in 2026, even though Tallahassee has tried more than once to rewrite the framework around it.

Here's the part that trips people up, though. Pembroke Pines, a big Broward County suburb tucked between Miramar and Cooper City, has never written a short-term rental ordinance of its own. That's less neglect than it is simply not needing one: with no specific STR rule on the books, the city runs your rental through the same general business-licensing process it runs a nail salon or a lawn service through, stacked on top of the state license Florida already requires and the taxes Broward County collects on every stay. HOA and condo boards answer to nobody but their own bylaws, though, so a community that bans rentals in its covenants can stop you cold even where the city legally can't.

So let's get into what actually applies: the state license, the city and county paperwork, the tax layers, and how hard anyone actually checks. Every figure below comes from Pembroke Pines' own pages, Broward County's tax offices, or Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation, checked in July 2026, and where a source blocked me from reading it directly, I've said so rather than guessing. If you're sizing up a Pembroke Pines property against other Florida markets, run the numbers through BNBCalc before you commit to anything.

What are short term rental (Airbnb, VRBO) regulations in Pembroke Pines, Florida?

That gap between what the city can't do and what it still makes you do is really the whole story here, so it's worth spelling out precisely.

The "can't" side comes from Fla. Stat. § 509.032(7)(b), which says plainly that "a local law, ordinance, or regulation may not prohibit vacation rentals or regulate the duration or frequency of rental of vacation rentals." That statute has stood since 2011, and it only bends for cities and counties that had a conflicting ordinance already on the books before June 1, 2011. I found nothing showing Pembroke Pines had an STR-specific ordinance predating that cutoff, so the preemption applies to it in full. The city cannot tell you your rental has to be booked for 30 nights minimum, cannot cap how many times a year you rent it out, and cannot ban the practice in a residential zone just because it's a residential zone.

The "still makes you do" side is everything else a city retains under ordinary licensing and zoning authority, since only the ban and the duration/frequency axis got preempted. In practice that means Pembroke Pines treats a short-term rental the way it treats any other business operating inside the city: it needs a Local Business Tax Receipt, and in most cases a Certificate of Use before that receipt gets issued. Nothing on the city's own site mentions "short-term rental," "vacation rental," or Airbnb by name, which tells you the city hasn't built a dedicated compliance program the way Fort Lauderdale or Miami-Dade have. You're filed under the same general rules as everyone else.

Layer the state on top and here's the shape of it: Florida requires its own vacation rental license for the property, Pembroke Pines requires a business tax receipt for operating there, and Broward County requires a second business tax receipt plus its tourist tax registration. None of those three governments is telling you when you can rent. All three want their paperwork and their cut of what you earn.

Starting a Short Term Rental Business in Pembroke Pines

Given all three of those governments want a piece of the process, it helps to know upfront what kind of business you're actually allowed to run before you start filing anything.

Unlike a market such as New York City, where an entire-unit rental is flatly illegal, Pembroke Pines lets you rent a whole single-family home, townhome, or condo short-term, assuming the property itself and its governing documents allow it. That's the more common shape of the business here: buy or already own a house, furnish it, and list the whole thing rather than a spare bedroom. Florida's frequency test even builds a threshold around exactly that kind of operation. Under SB 606, effective July 1, 2025, a rental only counts as a licensable "vacation rental" once you rent it more than three times in a calendar year for stretches under 30 consecutive days, counted in consecutive days rather than calendar months. Rent it out once or twice a year, or only for stays of a month or more, and you may sit outside that state license requirement entirely, though you'd still want to check the current guidance before assuming that applies to you.

The real gatekeeper for most Pembroke Pines properties isn't the city or the state, though. It's the HOA. The city is built out almost entirely as platted residential subdivisions, plenty of them HOA-governed communities and condo associations, and those documents can prohibit short-term rentals outright, cap lease terms at 90 days or a year, or require board approval for any tenant. Florida's preemption law reaches city and county ordinances. It says nothing about a private HOA's recorded covenants, which is exactly why an investor can be completely legal under state and city law and still be in breach of contract with their own community. Read your declaration of covenants before you buy, and if you already own the place, read it again before you list it. Getting fined by your own HOA is a far more common outcome here than getting fined by the city.

Renters face a steeper climb than owners, too. A landlord has to give written permission before a tenant can sublease short-term, and most standard Florida leases already bar it by default. If you're renting the unit you live in, don't assume you can Airbnb it just because the city allows the practice generally.

Short Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Pembroke Pines

Assuming your property and its HOA both clear that bar, three separate licenses stack on top of each other, and the order you get them in actually matters.

Start at the state, since the city's own paperwork asks for proof of it. Florida requires a vacation rental license from the DBPR Division of Hotels and Restaurants under § 509.241, issued as either "Vacation Rental (Condo)" or "Vacation Rental (Dwelling)" depending on your property type. Per the Division's lodging fee schedule, a new single-unit license runs a $50 application fee plus $170 for the full year (or $90 for a half-year), plus a $10 Hospitality Education Program fee that's tacked on every time. Applying through the DBPR guide's online portal is the fast route: online applications are typically processed in one to two business days, and the license gets emailed the moment it's approved. There's no mandatory inspection before that first license issues, though buildings three stories or taller have to file a Certificate of Balcony Inspection every three years, and any fire-safety issue an inspector later spots gets reported to the State Fire Marshal. Broward County sits in DBPR's District 2 (Fort Lauderdale), so your renewal date lands on December 1 every year regardless of when you first applied.

Next comes the city. Pembroke Pines requires a Certificate of Use from the Planning and Economic Development Department before it will issue your Local Business Tax Receipt, a rule that's been in place since January 30, 2023. It costs $25, gets filed online through the city's Development HUB portal, and takes 4 to 8 working days to process. Home-based businesses are exempt from needing one, though a whole-home rental you don't live in generally isn't what the city means by "home-based," so confirm your specific classification with the Planning office (954-392-2110) rather than assuming the exemption covers you. Once you have that certificate, the Local Business Tax Receipt application itself runs through the city's LBTR Division, valid annually from October 1 through September 30 regardless of when in the year you first apply.

Then, only after the city has issued its receipt, comes Broward County. The county requires its own Local Business Tax Receipt, separate from the city's, obtainable at the Broward County Governmental Center or online through the county's BTExpress portal. I couldn't find a single published dollar figure for either the city's or the county's rental-specific fee tier; both offices set the rate by business classification at the time you apply, so budget for a small annual fee at each level rather than expecting to see a number in advance.

Required Documents for Pembroke Pines Short Term Rentals

Since none of those three fees comes cheap to redo from scratch, it's worth having everything gathered before you file the first form.

For the state DBPR license, you'll need your MyFloridaLicense.com online account, proof of ownership or a signed agreement authorizing you to operate the unit, and the license fee itself. For the Certificate of Use, the city's Development HUB wants your business name and address, a description of the operation, the square footage involved, and a floor plan of the unit. For the Local Business Tax Receipt application, which the city and county both essentially mirror, the city's own information sheet lists what has to accompany it:

• Active registration with the Florida Division of Corporations, done at sunbiz.org, including any fictitious "doing business as" name you're using.
• An active Federal Tax ID Number (FEIN), obtainable from the IRS.
• A copy of your lease, if you're operating from a leased or commercial space rather than a property you own outright.
• A copy of your state DBPR vacation rental license, since the LBTR division wants proof the state license is already in hand before it issues the city receipt.
• Your notarized, signed application form, signed by the owner or a corporate officer. The city notarizes it for free on the spot if you sign in front of staff with a valid photo ID.

Don't forget the county leg either: once Pembroke Pines has issued your receipt, Broward County wants a copy of it before granting its own Local Business Tax Receipt. Keep every certificate, license and receipt in one folder, because you'll be asked to produce more than one of them again when tax season and renewal season roll around.

Pembroke Pines Short Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all that and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to deal with, and in Broward County it stacks three layers deep.

Tax	Rate	Collected by
Florida state sales tax	6%	Florida Department of Revenue
Broward County discretionary sales surtax	1%	Florida Department of Revenue
Broward County Tourist Development Tax	6%	Broward County Tourist Development Tax Section

That's 13% total on top of your nightly rate and cleaning fee, before you've thought about anything else. The state's 6% sales tax applies to any rental of six months or less, and the 1% county surtax rides along on the same DR-15 return. Broward's own 6% Tourist Development Tax gets reported separately, straight to the county rather than the state, since DOR's own county rate table lists Broward as county-collected rather than DOR-collected.

Here's the part that actually saves most hosts real paperwork, though: both major platforms handle this automatically in Broward County. Airbnb's own tax page states it collects "6% of the listing price including any cleaning fee for reservations 182 nights and shorter in Broward County," and Vrbo's page confirms the same pattern for its own bookings, collecting the state sales tax, the county surtax, and Broward's Tourist Development Tax on stays under 184 nights. That's worth knowing because plenty of secondary guides claim Vrbo collects nothing in Florida; checking Vrbo's own current help page directly shows that isn't true for Broward County specifically, whatever it might be elsewhere. Keep in mind not every Florida county has this arrangement. Collier County, for instance, has its own separate platform deals, so a rate or collection setup that holds in Broward won't necessarily carry over if you also own a place elsewhere in the state.

If a platform doesn't handle a booking, such as a direct reservation you take yourself, you're on the hook to register with both the Florida Department of Revenue and Broward County's Tourist Development Tax Section and file the returns yourself, due by the 20th of the month following each collection period. And do remember that Florida charges no state personal income tax, so your rental profit still lands on your federal return, but there's no extra state income layer waiting behind the sales and tourist taxes.

Florida wide Short Term Rental Rules

Zoom out from Pembroke Pines and Broward County, and the state-level picture is what actually explains why the city gets to stay this hands-off.

The preemption in § 509.032(7)(b) is the anchor for every city guide in Florida, Pembroke Pines included, and our Florida statewide guide walks through it in more depth than fits here. The short version: no city or county ordinance passed after June 1, 2011 can ban vacation rentals or restrict how often or how long they're booked, though ordinary zoning, noise, life-safety and building-code authority all survive untouched.

Florida came close to rewriting that whole picture in 2024. A bill package, SB 280 and its House companion HB 1537, would have added a statewide vacation-rental registration system and new advertising-platform rules on top of the existing preemption. The House version got tabled in March 2024, and while the Senate version passed both chambers, the governor vetoed it on June 27, 2024. Neither is law today, and going through the 2025 and 2026 legislative sessions, nothing resembling it got refiled, so treat any secondary source describing a "new statewide registry" as out of date.

What did pass is narrower but real. SB 606, effective July 1, 2025, rewrote the test for when a rental counts as a licensable "vacation rental" in the first place, the more-than-three-times-a-year, under-30-consecutive-days standard mentioned earlier, and it dropped the old presumption based on what the operator merely intended, so a stay is now presumed temporary unless a written lease says otherwise. A separate 2026 bill, SB 658 and companion HB 79, would have required water-safety features for licensed rentals within 150 feet of a pool. It passed the Senate 37-0 in February 2026, then died in the House in March. Watch for a refile in 2027 if you're near water on your own property.

Does Pembroke Pines strictly enforce STR rules?

Given how little of that state and federal churn actually reaches Pembroke Pines directly, it's fair to ask whether the city enforces anything at all, and the honest answer is: not in the way NYC or Fort Lauderdale do.

There's no STR-specific enforcement unit here, no registration number required in every listing, and no platform-side block on unlicensed rentals the way New York City has built. What Pembroke Pines does have is its general Code Compliance Unit, which handles violations the same way it would for any other unpermitted business or a noise complaint: someone reports it, an officer investigates, and a citation follows if the complaint holds up. You can reach that office at 954-431-4466 Monday through Thursday or 954-303-6324 on weekends, both 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., or file online through SeeClickFix. One detail worth knowing either way: under Florida's Senate Bill 60, effective July 1, 2021, code compliance can no longer act on an anonymous tip. A complainant has to give their name and address, which cuts both directions, since it also means a neighbor has to be willing to put their name on a complaint before anything moves.

I couldn't find published data on how many short-term rentals Pembroke Pines has cited or fined specifically, which itself tells you something: this isn't a market tracking STR compliance as its own category the way Miami-Dade or Fort Lauderdale do. The practical risk here runs through the business-license side rather than a nightly-booking block. Operate without the Local Business Tax Receipt or Certificate of Use, and you're exposed to the same code-enforcement process any unlicensed business faces, not a rental-specific penalty schedule. And be aware that your HOA, if you have one, is a faster and more common enforcement path than the city ever will be. Boards fine daily in some cases, and they don't need Code Compliance's cooperation to do it.

How to Start a Short Term Rental Business in Pembroke Pines?

Given the order matters as much as the paperwork itself, here's the sequence that avoids the most rework.

1. Check your HOA or condo documents first. This is the step that kills more plans than anything the city or state does, and it costs nothing to check before you spend a dollar elsewhere.
2. Confirm your property qualifies as a vacation rental under the state's frequency test. More than three rentals a year under 30 consecutive days triggers the DBPR license requirement; fewer or longer stays may not.
3. Apply for your Florida DBPR vacation rental license through MyFloridaLicense.com. Expect approval within one to two business days online.
4. Apply for a Certificate of Use through the city's Development HUB. Budget $25 and 4 to 8 working days.
5. Register with the Florida Division of Corporations at sunbiz.org, and get an active FEIN if you don't already have one.
6. Apply for your Pembroke Pines Local Business Tax Receipt, attaching your DBPR license copy, Certificate of Use, and Sunbiz registration.
7. Apply for your Broward County Local Business Tax Receipt once the city receipt is in hand.
8. Register with Broward County's Tourist Development Tax Section and the Florida Department of Revenue to collect and remit the 13% combined tax, unless your booking platform already handles it for you.
9. Diarize your renewal dates. The state license renews every December 1 in District 2, and both business tax receipts run October 1 through September 30.

Who to contact in Pembroke Pines about Short Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Whichever step trips you up, the good news is that each one maps to a specific office rather than a generic hotline.

City Local Business Tax Receipt Division, for the LBTR application itself:

• Address: 601 City Center Way, 4th Floor, Pembroke Pines, FL 33025
• Phone: 954-450-1062
• Fax: 954-517-8402
• Hours: Monday through Thursday, 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

City Planning and Economic Development Department, for the Certificate of Use:

• Phone: 954-392-2110
• Email: [email protected]

City Code Compliance Unit, for a complaint or a compliance question:

• Address: Charles F. Dodge City Center, 601 City Center Way, Pembroke Pines, FL 33025
• Phone: 954-431-4466 (Monday-Thursday), 954-303-6324 (Friday-Sunday), both 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
• Email: [email protected]

Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury (Local Business Tax), for the county receipt:

• Address: Broward County Governmental Center, Room A-100, 115 S. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
• Phone: 954-357-4829
• Email: [email protected]

Broward County Tourist Development Tax Section, for tourist tax registration and returns:

• Address: 115 S. Andrews Avenue, Room 121, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
• Phone: 954-357-8455
• Email: [email protected]
• Fax: 954-357-6524

Florida DBPR, Division of Hotels and Restaurants, District 2 (Fort Lauderdale), for the state vacation rental license:

• Address: 1525 West Cypress Creek Road, 4th Floor, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309-1831
• Phone: 850-487-1395
• Email: [email protected]

Florida Department of Revenue, for state sales tax registration:

• Address: 3301 N University Drive, Coral Springs, FL 33065
• Phone: 954-346-3000

What do Airbnb hosts in Pembroke Pines on Reddit and Bigger Pockets think about local regulations?

I couldn't get a reliable read on Reddit for this one; the platform blocks the kind of automated access this research would need, so I'm not going to pretend to summarize threads I never actually saw. BiggerPockets, though, is open and readable, and the sentiment there lines up with everything above.

On a BiggerPockets thread comparing Broward County to Miami-Dade, one investor wrote that she'd been "advised that Dade county is too restrictive and difficult vs Broward county," pointing specifically at Miami-Dade's neighborhood-by-neighborhood zoning restrictions, permit requirements, and yearly inspections as her worry. That framing matches what the research above turned up directly: Broward, and Pembroke Pines within it, simply hasn't built the kind of dedicated STR compliance apparatus that Miami-Dade and Fort Lauderdale run. BiggerPockets also lists several investor-facing property managers serving Pembroke Pines specifically, including ones that manage short-term rentals end to end, which tells you there's an active enough investor base here for a management industry to have formed around it.

The recurring theme, more than any regulatory horror story, is HOA friction. Investors comparing notes across Broward's suburbs consistently flag the community's own rules, not the city's, as the thing that actually kills a deal. That tracks with everything in this guide: Pembroke Pines the government is quiet on short-term rentals. Pembroke Pines the collection of HOA-governed subdivisions is a different story entirely, and it's worth treating that as the real due diligence step rather than an afterthought.

Once you've confirmed the HOA is fine with it, there's still the numbers to work through. Pembroke Pines sits within the metro area BNBCalc tracks as the Hialeah - Miramar market, and it's worth pulling up that data before you size a mortgage payment around projected Airbnb income rather than after. If your search is widening to other parts of the state, our guides for Osceola County and Orange County cover two of Florida's busiest vacation-rental markets, both with a very different regulatory texture than Broward's.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Pembroke Pines in 2026?

Yes. Florida law preempts cities from banning short-term rentals or capping their frequency and duration, and Pembroke Pines has no ordinance that tries to. You'll need a Florida DBPR vacation rental license, a Pembroke Pines Local Business Tax Receipt with a Certificate of Use, and a Broward County business tax receipt. The bigger risk to check first is your own HOA or condo association, since its covenants can prohibit rentals even where the city and state both allow them.

Does Pembroke Pines require a permit specifically for short-term rentals?

Not a rental-specific one. The city requires the same Certificate of Use and Local Business Tax Receipt any business would need to operate there, plus a copy of your Florida DBPR vacation rental license as part of that application. There's no separate "short-term rental permit" issued by the city, and no listing registration number required the way some Florida cities and New York City require.

How much does it cost to get licensed for a short-term rental in Pembroke Pines?

The Florida DBPR vacation rental license runs about $230 for a new single-unit license in its first year, including the application fee and Hospitality Education Program surcharge. The city's Certificate of Use costs $25. Neither Pembroke Pines nor Broward County publishes a fixed dollar figure for their Local Business Tax Receipts, since both set the rate by business classification at the time you apply, so budget for a modest additional fee at each level.

Do Airbnb and Vrbo collect taxes automatically on Pembroke Pines bookings?

Generally, yes. Airbnb collects Broward County's 6% Tourist Development Tax on reservations of 182 nights or fewer, and Vrbo's own help page confirms it collects the same tax plus Florida's 6% state sales tax and Broward's 1% surtax on stays under 184 nights. If you take a direct booking outside either platform, you're responsible for registering with the state and county yourself and remitting the full 13% combined rate.

Can a homeowners association stop me from renting my Pembroke Pines home on Airbnb?

Yes, and this matters more here than almost anything the city or state controls. Florida's preemption law only reaches government ordinances; it doesn't touch a private HOA's or condo association's own governing documents. A community that bans short-term rentals, caps lease lengths, or requires board approval for tenants can enforce that against you even though nothing in state or city law would otherwise stop you from hosting.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.