Dania Beach Short-Term Rental Regulations: A 2026 Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Dania Beach and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you're allowed to, and Florida law protects that right, because no city in the state can ban vacation rentals outright. Dania Beach is a small coastal city in Broward County, wedged between Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood with the airport on its northern edge, and it runs a real certificate program rather than a quiet prohibition.

The catch comes down to a single date. Dania Beach adopted its vacation rental ordinance on May 31, 2011, one day inside Florida's June 1, 2011 grandfather cutoff, so the city kept a power almost every other Florida city lost: it can tell you how long guests have to stay. Nobody here may rent a home for fewer than five consecutive days, and since February 2025 even advertising a shorter stay draws a notice of violation. Unfortunately, that removes the weekend market entirely.

So let's walk through what it takes to do this properly: what Chapter 16 demands in 2026, what the certificate and inspection cost, the three layers of tax you'll be collecting, how hard the city actually pushes on enforcement, and who to call when something goes sideways. Every figure below comes from the city's own code and application pages, from Broward County, or from Florida's statutes and revenue forms, all checked in July 2026.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations in Dania Beach, Florida?

That five day floor is one clause inside Chapter 16 of the Dania Beach Code of Ordinances, which is where essentially all of the local rules live.

Section 16-1 does the defining. A vacation rental is a unit in a condominium, cooperative or timeshare plan, or a single-family through four-family dwelling, that also counts as a transient public lodging establishment. That second half means rented more than three times a year for periods under 30 days, or held out to the public as regularly rented.

Two boundaries decide whether any of this applies to you. Section 16-2 covers single-family, two-family, three-family and four-family dwellings, and it expressly does not reach vacation rentals inside a multi-family building with more than four units. The same subsection, as amended in 2024, also makes it unlawful to use a mobile living unit, meaning a mobile home or a recreational vehicle, for vacation rental use or for any short or long term rental at all.

Assuming your property clears both of those, the operating rules then get specific:

• Five consecutive days, minimum. Section 16-2(c) prohibits occupancy of a dwelling unit as a vacation rental for fewer than five consecutive days, and advertising a shorter stay is treated as evidence of a violation that results in a notice being issued.
• Occupancy caps at two per bedroom plus two, never more than ten. The February 2025 amendment tied that ceiling to who sleeps there, so daytime visitors may push the headcount higher while no more than ten people stay overnight, and the code now reads the cap against the 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. window.
• A named vacation rental agent, reachable around the clock. The agent must answer the listed phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week, be able and willing to reach the property within three hours of the city calling, receive service of any notice of violation, and physically check the unit at least weekly.
• Parking is fixed at application. Occupants may only park in the spaces drawn on the sketch attached to your certificate, and the rental agreement has to list vehicle tag numbers.
• A posting packet inside the unit. Within ten feet of the front door you need the agent's contact details, the maximum occupancy, the parking sketch, trash pickup days, the nearest hospital and police station, a copy of the certificate, a copy of Chapter 16, the guest agreement and the recycling schedule.
• Noise, spelled out. The 2025 amendment made guests acknowledge section 17-81, which bans sound audible 100 feet from the building and, between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., any sound audible at the property line.

Two further clauses catch people off guard.

The first is proximity. Where the rental sits within 2,500 feet of a school, day care, park, playground or anywhere children regularly gather, the owner and the agent must first obtain written confirmation that the prospective renter is not a sexual offender. That confirmation comes from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Broward Sheriff's Office or another law enforcement agency, and you keep it on file for two years after the stay ends.

The second is shorter and blunter. A separate subsection makes it unlawful to allow human trafficking activity in the unit, and the stated consequence is immediate revocation of the license.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Dania Beach

Read those rules together and the business that survives them looks different from the one most investors model.

You're not selling Friday to Sunday. You're selling five nights and up, which pushes you toward weekly stays, snowbirds, relocating families and anyone parked near the airport for a stretch, and it leaves your calendar coarser than a comparable listing in a city with no minimum.

Before anything else, confirm the building type, because that single fact decides whether Chapter 16 even opens for you. Houses, duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes are in. A unit inside a larger apartment building sits outside the chapter, and a mobile home or RV is out entirely.

Next, read your own paperwork. A condominium declaration or an HOA covenant can prohibit short stays even where the city would issue a certificate, and the city won't referee that fight for you. Commissioner Archibald Ryan made the point from the dais at the February 25, 2025 hearing, noting that Dania Beach isn't known as an HOA community, which is part of why so much of the argument here lands on the city instead.

Then comes zoning, handled through a Certificate of Use. The city's vacation rental page folds a $200 Certificate of Use application into every new vacation rental submission, and that review is what confirms the use is allowed at your specific address with enough parking to support it. Do check that step early rather than after you've furnished the place.

Budget honestly while you're at it. As of July 2026, a first year in Dania Beach runs $875 for the vacation rental certificate, $200 for the Certificate of Use and $100 for the municipal lien search. That's $1,175 before the state license, the business tax receipt, or anything the inspector asks you to fix.

Renewals drop the Certificate of Use and keep the rest, every single year. Before you commit to any of it, run the property through BNBCalc first and see whether five night minimums still leave you with a business.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Dania Beach

Those fees buy an annual certificate, not a permanent right, which is the part that changes how you plan. Section 16-2(d) requires a separate vacation rental certificate for each dwelling unit, renewed annually for as long as the unit is rented, with the fee set by resolution of the city commission.

The clock is fixed rather than rolling. Certificates run October 1 through September 30 and must be renewed before October 1, and the city states plainly that application fees are not prorated.

Buy in June, then, and you're paying full price for three months of certificate. Keep that timing in mind while you're planning a purchase.

Florida's license comes first in the sequence now. Step one on the city's page is a DBPR license, obtained from the Division of Hotels and Restaurants under the Vacation Rental classification, and the city wants to see it alongside your application. The state lodging fee schedule prices a new single-unit license at a $50 application fee plus $170 for a full year, with a $10 Hospitality Education Program fee on top.

Inspection is the step that fails people. Section 16-2(f) requires an inspection for compliance with zoning, building, housing, density, life safety and fire codes before any certificate is issued, and re-inspection every year after that.

The city's own inspection checklist is specific about hardware. It asks for hard-wired, interconnected smoke and carbon monoxide detection, since battery and wireless units are explicitly not acceptable, along with a 2A:10B:C fire extinguisher mounted and visibly marked, an evacuation map on the wall of each bedroom next to the exit door, and UL 2017 exit alarms on every door and window giving direct access to a pool.

Miss the appointment and it costs you.

A no-show when the inspector arrives triggers a fee set by commission resolution. Where an inspector is refused entry or fails three attempts, the city serves notice by certified mail, and you then have ten days to arrange access.

The agent designation is a licensing requirement too, not a formality. Your vacation rental agent has to be someone who either does business at a location inside the city or lives in it, which rules out an out-of-state owner self-managing from a phone. The city manager may suspend agent status for up to three months for minor violations, or revoke it outright for major or repeated ones, and after a revocation nobody can reapply for six months.

Required Documents for Dania Beach Short-Term Rentals

Since none of those fees come back, it's worth getting the paperwork right the first time. The city's application list and section 16-2(e) between them define what a complete submission looks like, and the Planning and Zoning Division takes it in person or by mail, Monday to Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

• The notarized vacation rental application, signed by all owners and all responsible parties, including a sworn acknowledgement that you've read Chapter 16 and understand it.
• A current municipal lien search for the property, at $100, which the city processes in about five business days.
• Your DBPR vacation rental license, plus proof of compliance with Florida Statutes chapters 212 and 509 and Florida Administrative Code rules 69A-43 and 69A-60 where they apply.
• A survey and a site plan showing the location of every parking space, since those spaces are what your guests are limited to.
• A floor plan listing the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, which is what the occupancy cap gets calculated from.
• A Certificate of Use application at $200 for a new rental, which is not required again at renewal.
• The vacation rental property management booklet, carrying the agent's contact information, the occupancy limit, the vehicle limit, the garbage and recycling schedule, the nearest hospital, non-emergency police and fire numbers, Chapter 16, the noise regulations in Chapter 17 Article IV, and a sample lease.
• A check payable to the City of Dania Beach for $1,075, covering the $200 Certificate of Use and the $875 certificate application.

One more filing sits behind all of that. Section 16-2(b) forbids renting without first obtaining a business tax receipt under chapter 15 of the code, and the city routes vacation rentals through a Rental Property Management business tax receipt handled by Customer Service rather than by Planning and Zoning. Remember to renew that annually as well, because the certificate alone doesn't authorize you to operate.

Dania Beach Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all that and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to deal with, and three separate charges stack on every stay under six months. Two of them go to Tallahassee and one goes to Broward County, which is why they never appear on a single return.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
Florida transient rental (sales) tax	6.0%	Florida Department of Revenue
Broward discretionary sales surtax	1.0%	Florida Department of Revenue
Broward County tourist development tax	6.0%	Broward County
Total on a Dania Beach stay	13.0%	Two separate returns

The state layer is straightforward enough. Florida's GT-800034 guidance applies the 6% sales tax plus any county surtax to rental charges for living, sleeping or housekeeping accommodations of six months or less, reported on Line D of the DR-15 return. Broward's surtax sits at 1% for calendar year 2026, and one detail catches out even experienced filers: the $5,000 surtax limitation that applies to most transactions does not apply to charges for transient rentals, so the surtax runs on the whole booking.

The county layer is where the money leaves the state system. Form DR-15TDT lists Broward's local option transient rental tax at 6.0% and marks it as collected by the county, so that return goes to the Broward County Tourist Development Tax Section rather than to the Department of Revenue.

Now, the practical question is who actually remits any of it. Airbnb's Florida tax page says it collects and remits the 6% Florida transient rental tax, the discretionary sales surtax, and Broward County's 6% tourist development tax on reservations of 182 nights or shorter, which covers the full 13% on a typical Dania Beach booking.

Vrbo is where I'd slow down. I couldn't verify its Broward behavior on an official page, so make sure you check your own payout detail line by line rather than assuming the platform is handling it. Get that wrong and you owe the tax personally, and there's no state income tax layer to argue about afterwards.

Florida Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

Those tax layers are statewide, and so is the reason Dania Beach can impose a minimum stay at all. Florida Statutes § 509.032(7)(b) says a local law "may not prohibit vacation rentals or regulate the duration or frequency of rental of vacation rentals," and then exempts any local law adopted on or before June 1, 2011.

Dania Beach landed on the right side of that line by one day, and the city says so itself. The whereas clauses of its 2025 ordinance state that "the City has a grandfathered Vacation Rental ordinance in place, which is found at Chapter 16."

That grandfather status is the whole legal basis for the five day minimum. A neighboring city adopting the same rule today could not enforce it, so do keep that in mind when you compare Broward cities, because their powers genuinely differ.

Three other pieces of state law shape what happens next:

• The 2024 preemption rewrite never became law. SB 280 would have added statewide registration and expanded preemption, and it passed both chambers before being vetoed on June 27, 2024. Its House companion was laid on the table.
• The transient test changed in 2025. Chapter 2025-113, formerly SB 606, effective July 1, 2025, redefines transient occupancy as renting more than three times in a calendar year for periods of less than 30 consecutive days, counted in consecutive days, and presumes a stay is temporary unless a written lease says otherwise.
• The water safety bill died. SB 658 would have required pool safety features and a compliance certificate at licensure for rentals near water. It passed the Senate 37-0 in February 2026 and then died in the House on March 13, 2026, so watch for a refile rather than planning around it.

Above all of that sits the state license itself. Section 509.241 requires every public lodging establishment to hold a DBPR license, renewed annually, and section 509.242 is where the vacation rental classification comes from. For the wider picture, our Florida statewide short-term rental guide maps the framework, while the Sarasota County guide and the Collier County guide show how differently two coastal Florida markets can treat the same statute.

Does Dania Beach Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Yes, and the tools got sharper in 2024 rather than softer.

The city's own agenda materials for the March 12, 2024 commission meeting explain why: staff wrote that Dania Beach "has seen an uptake in criminal activity centered out of vacation rental units, in particular in the Western portion of the City, and involving weapons."

The ordinance that followed was adopted on second reading on March 26, 2024, and it rewrote section 16-3. Two or more reported incidents of misdemeanor or felony activity at the property within a 12 month period, by an owner, tenant or visitor, backed by a police incident report showing the activity disturbed the neighborhood, now provide a basis for suspension or revocation of the certificate.

No conviction is required, mind you. The officer's testimony that the activity disturbed the quiet enjoyment or safety of the neighborhood is enough on its own to support the city manager's decision.

The penalties compound from there:

• Each day of renting without a certificate is a separate and distinct violation under section 16-2(g).
• Continuing to rent after a suspension or revocation is a continuing violation carrying a fine of up to $5,000 per day per violation, which becomes a lien on the property.
• For context on the ceiling, Florida Statutes § 162.09 caps code enforcement fines at $250 per day for a first violation and $500 per day for a repeat, with up to $5,000 where a violation is found irreparable or irreversible.
• Suspension of a certificate can run up to six months, and after revocation an owner cannot reapply for any unit in the city for six months.

Enforcement runs through the Code Compliance Division, which fields six officers across six zones and takes complaints through the Ask Dania Beach portal and app, with contested cases going to a special magistrate appointed by the commission. A city fine schedule updated by ordinance in March 2024 puts Chapter 16 violations on a levelled ladder running from $100 one-time or daily up to $500 for repeat violations and $500 to $5,000 for irreparable ones.

Scale matters here too. The city's own business impact estimate for the 2024 ordinance put the number of businesses affected at roughly 300, which tells you Dania Beach is regulating a real population of rentals rather than a handful.

The political temperature isn't subtle either. Nine residents spoke on a single clarifying ordinance at the February 2025 hearing, and Commissioner Lori Lewellen said from the dais that she believes everyone on the dais would like to get rid of Airbnbs, but that the state does not allow it. So be aware that a complaint from a neighbor lands on receptive ears.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Dania Beach

Given how the enforcement works, the sequence below matters more than it looks, because two of the early steps can end the project before you've spent much. Working through them out of order is how owners end up holding a furnished house they can't legally rent.

1. Check the building type and your own covenants. Single-family through fourplex only, no mobile homes or RVs, and no condo or HOA document prohibiting short stays.
2. Model the calendar at a five night minimum. Price out weekly stays rather than weekends, since the shorter bookings simply aren't available to you.
3. Get the DBPR license. Apply through the Division of Hotels and Restaurants under the Vacation Rental classification and budget $50 plus $170 plus the $10 education fee for a single unit.
4. Order the municipal lien search, at $100, and allow about five business days.
5. Prepare the property for inspection. Hard-wired interconnected smoke and CO alarms, a 2A:10B:C extinguisher, evacuation maps in every bedroom, pool door exit alarms, no permit-less work in the history.
6. Assemble the booklet and the plans. Survey, site plan with parking, floor plan, and the property management booklet with the agent, occupancy, vehicle, trash, hospital and noise information in it.
7. Name your vacation rental agent. Someone who lives or does business in Dania Beach, can be reached 24/7, and can be at the door inside three hours.
8. File everything with Planning and Zoning, Monday to Thursday between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., with a $1,075 check plus the separate lien search fee.
9. Pass the inspection, then get the business tax receipt for Rental Property Management before your first guest arrives.
10. Register for tax and diarize October 1. Set up the state DR-15 and the Broward tourist development tax account, confirm what your platform remits, and renew the certificate before the October deadline every year.

Who to Contact in Dania Beach about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning

Whichever of those steps stalls, three offices handle nearly everything between them, and knowing which one owns your question saves an afternoon.

Applications, zoning and the certificate itself

The Planning and Zoning Division in Community Development runs the vacation rental certificate program, the Certificate of Use and the inspection scheduling.

• Address: 100 W. Dania Beach Blvd, Dania Beach, FL 33004
• Phone: (954) 924-6805, extension 3793
• Email: [email protected]
• Counter hours for submissions: Monday to Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
• Business tax receipts: Customer Service, (954) 924-6800 extension 3666, [email protected]

Violations, complaints and hearings

The Code Compliance Division enforces Chapter 16 and staffs six zones across the city.

• Phone: (954) 924-6810, with the Code Compliance Manager at extension 3718
• Complaints: the Ask Dania Beach portal and mobile app
• Special Magistrate hearing agendas: (954) 924-6810, extension 3790
• City Hall switchboard: (954) 924-6800

County tourist development tax

The 6% county tax is filed with Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury, not with the city and not with the state.

• Address: 115 S. Andrews Avenue, Room 121, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
• Phone: 954-357-8455
• Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

For the state layers, DBPR licensing runs through the Division of Hotels and Restaurants, and sales tax registration runs through the Florida Department of Revenue.

What Do Airbnb Hosts in Dania Beach on Reddit and Bigger Pockets Think about Local Regulations?

Those offices see the friction first, though the clearest public record of how people here feel about vacation rentals isn't a forum thread at all. It's the February 25, 2025 commission meeting, where nine residents queued up to speak on an ordinance that merely clarified three existing rules, and the commission passed it 4-1 after amending it on the floor to cap overnight occupancy at ten.

What follows is my read of the recurring themes rather than a survey, so do weigh it accordingly. I could not verify any Dania Beach specific Reddit thread from a primary source, and I'm not going to characterize discussions I haven't read.

• The five night minimum is the single fact that reorders the investment case. Owners comparing Broward cities keep discovering it late, usually after underwriting a weekend calendar, and it's the reason a Dania Beach listing behaves more like a weekly rental than a hotel substitute.
• Enforcement here is complaint driven, and neighbors are engaged. Residents at the 2025 hearing spoke about noise, headcount and cars, which are exactly the three things the ordinance now measures, so an operator who solves parking and quiet hours removes most of their exposure.
• The 24/7 local agent requirement is the hidden operating cost. A three hour response window from inside the city limits is a real staffing constraint, and it pushes remote owners toward paying a local manager rather than self-managing.
• Commissioners are openly unhappy about the model, and equally open about being preempted. Vice Mayor Marco Salvino, voting no in February 2025, argued the change wouldn't make a difference as long as the state allows short-term rentals, while Commissioner Lewellen urged residents to write to the governor and their legislators.

Take that last point seriously. The pressure in Dania Beach is aimed at Tallahassee rather than at the permit counter, which means the thing to track is a change in state preemption, not a change at city hall.

Going through every published 2026 commission agenda through July, not one of them touched vacation rentals. So the rules described here are the rules as they stand. Before you buy on the strength of that, compare the numbers against the rest of the Florida market, and against markets where a two night booking is still legal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Dania Beach in 2026?

Yes. Dania Beach permits vacation rentals in single-family, two-family, three-family and four-family dwellings under Chapter 16 of its code, provided the owner holds a city vacation rental certificate, a business tax receipt, and a Florida DBPR vacation rental license, and the property passes a city inspection. The one hard limit is duration: no stay may be shorter than five consecutive days, and advertising a shorter stay is itself a violation.

How much does a Dania Beach vacation rental certificate cost?

The city charges $875 for the vacation rental certificate application, both for a new certificate and for each annual renewal. A new application also carries a $200 Certificate of Use fee, and every application requires a $100 municipal lien search. That is $1,175 in the first year and $975 a year afterwards, before the state DBPR license, the city business tax receipt, or any repairs an inspection turns up.

What is the minimum rental period in Dania Beach?

Five consecutive days. Section 16-2(c) of the city code prohibits allowing occupancy of a dwelling unit as a vacation rental for fewer than five consecutive days, and a 2025 amendment added that advertising a shorter period is evidence of a violation and results in a notice of violation. Dania Beach can impose this because its ordinance was adopted on May 31, 2011, one day before Florida's June 1, 2011 grandfather cutoff on local duration rules.

What taxes apply to a short-term rental in Dania Beach?

Three, totalling 13%. Florida charges 6% state sales tax on rentals of six months or less, Broward County adds a 1% discretionary sales surtax for 2026, and Broward County levies a 6% tourist development tax that is filed with the county rather than the state. Airbnb states that it collects and remits all three on reservations of 182 nights or shorter. Owners on other platforms should confirm what is being remitted before filing.

Can Dania Beach revoke a vacation rental certificate?

Yes. The city manager may suspend a certificate for up to six months or revoke it outright, and since a March 2024 amendment, two or more reported misdemeanor or felony incidents at the property within 12 months that disturb the neighborhood are grounds on their own. No criminal conviction is required. Continuing to rent after a revocation is a continuing violation carrying fines of up to $5,000 per day, which become a lien on the property.

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