Expectations for summer slowdown in Sarasota, Florida

[Nigel95]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for some input concerning my particular circumstance here in Sarasota, Florida,. We are relatively new to hosting (about 4 months) and I am new to Sarasota although my wife is a long time resident who owns a small restaurant and so is more in-tune to ther swings of Season & off-Season. 

We have a guest house on our property and since the beginning of November up through mid-April we are booked about 70% of the dates which we think is awesome.

We're looking at making a decison about summer when Sarasota is in a seasonal slow down. Sarasota is a big SnowBird area and so winter time is very heavy but folks from up north and overseas vacation in the summer or so its my experience. Our option is to do one of 3 things:

We can continue to list, while lowering our rates, and hope for the best.

We can pull it off the short term market and try to rent to a local renter for the 4 or 5 months of our off-season.

We can rent to a family member/student who would pay below-market rent but would at least ensure some flow of income and we have someone already who would do this. This rate would be less than half what I believ a local 4-5 month renter would pay. 

I guess my question would be, how busy might I expect the Sarasota (or Florida in general) area to be this coming summer. Should I expect a severe drop in bookings and make alternate plans or do hosts down here generally do ok in the summer?

Thanks so much for any thoughts or input. 

[Mo-and-Don0]

Hi Nigel !

We to are new to the Sarasota Airbnb and have also been wondering about the summer season business. Don't know how it will play out yet, but have decided to block most of August since  wife and kids are getting ready to go back to school, and I will take the time to freshen up and do so some maintenace before the next wave comes in.

Don

[Peter-and-Pearl0]

You may want to consider leaving the first and 2nd week of August open. Those are pretty big vacation months for northerners prior to school starting the 3rd week. It may be a bit late now, but maybe offering lower weeknight rates and higher weekend ones would attract. Just a thought through my experience.

I am in Sarasota as well. 

[Mo-and-Don0]

Thank you, great tip !

Don

[Richard1258]

Make sure to book all your short term renters using the Airbnb website to avoid getting in trouble with the State and County Tax Collectors. As you may aleady know, Airbnb has a contract with both the State and County Tax Collectors. Otherwise you will be audited, maybe fined, and required the fill out long forms to input to both the State and County.

Richard

[Peter-and-Pearl0]

They DO NOT mess around. Also make sure your homestead is in order, because Airbnb'ing sets an alarm for the county to check out your homestead exemption, if you qualify and file.

[Mo-and-Don0]

We looked at other rental platforms and decided because Airbnb does collect all the taxes it wouldn't be that easy to use others.

Thanks

Don

[Mo-and-Don0]

thanks !

Don