Disney attractions in Orlando, Florida bring floods of visitors to the area each year — all of those people who are looking to visit Mickey, Minnie and friends, are looking for the best and most affordable places to stay. Disney hotels can be budget-busters, so some visitors consider short term rentals or Airbnb sublets.
Airbnb Sublets Illegal in Much of Orlando
Orlando is one of many cities that has largely banned short term rentals in most residential communities. Orlando’s zoning rules make a large number of Airbnb sublets illegal, as only property classified as R-3 transient residential can be rented for less than 30 days; only 4.1% of Orange County is zoned this way. While it is possible for Disney visitors to find posted Airbnb sublets within a short drive of the Magic Kingdom and other attractions, not all of these are fully legal.
Although most communities in Orlando and throughout Orange County have banned Airbnb sublets, the city is not really actively enforcing these sublets in the same way as some other municipalities. Rentals of under 30 days are classified as vacation rentals, but there aren’t a lot of enforcement mechanisms in place other than a complaint-driven system.
With that in mind, landlords need a way to keep track of their own properties, and make sure that individual tenants aren’t simply leasing the property by the year, and subletting it out by the week or month on a site like Airbnb. This unscrupulous practice can hurt the character of the community, and it can also be a major liability for a landlord who doesn’t know that illegal subletting is going on. Available digital tools will help monitor properties and make sure that fly-by-night Airbnb sublets aren’t operating under the radar.