Forgotten Coast STR Rules 2026: Clerks You Can Prove
Updated: Aug 27
The most expensive compliance mistake a Forgotten Coast host can make is treating the coast as one rulebook. Franklin County , home to Apalachicola, St. George Island, Carrabelle, and Eastpoint , runs a light-touch, lowest-tax stack, while Gulf County's Cape San Blas and Port St. Joe operate under an inspection-and-trash regime that bites much harder. Mexico Beach, despite sharing the Forgotten Coast marketing brand, actually sits in Bay County under Ordinance 23-18 and follows none of the rules discussed here. These are structurally different jurisdictions, and the difference has real financial teeth: a St. George Island owner who self-remits Franklin's 3% Tourist Development Tax is fully compliant, while a Port St. Joe owner who stops at DBPR licensing without also securing Gulf County's Short-Term Rental Business License is not, no matter how clean the rest of their paperwork looks. This guide walks the jurisdiction-first compliance path for Franklin and Gulf counties as of mid-2026 , covering the statewide spine both counties share, the owner-remits-TDT trap that catches Airbnb and Vrbo hosts alike, the June 2024 SB 280 veto that some outdated guides still get wrong, and the regulatory gradient that makes Gulf County the corridor's clearest case study in where local regulation actually bites.
These are spring-through-fall beach and heritage markets, shaped by summer family peaks, a November seafood-festival shoulder season, and the operating reality of hurricane season, which means compliance has to function as year-round infrastructure rather than a listing footnote you defer until the week before your first guest arrives. Because rates and fee schedules shift, every directional figure flagged below should be re-verified with the Franklin County Tax Collector/TDC, Gulf County (STRLicense@visitgulf.com, ), and DBPR before you rely on it for a closing or launch decision.
The Statewide Spine: Florida Statute §509, DBPR, and Preemption
Every host on the Forgotten Coast operates under the same statewide foundation before any county rule ever applies. Florida Statute Chapter 509 defines and regulates vacation rentals statewide through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), Division of Hotels and Restaurants, and that statute determines whether a property qualifies as a vacation rental under state law. A dwelling rented to guests more than three times per calendar year for periods of less than 30 days , or advertised as regularly rented to transients , is a vacation rental requiring DBPR licensing, full stop, regardless of which county the parcel sits in.
Above the county layer sits a preemption rule that shapes everything Franklin and Gulf can and cannot do. Florida Statute §509.032(7)(b) preempts local governments: a local law may not prohibit vacation rentals or regulate the duration or frequency of rental of vacation rentals. There is one narrow carve-out , this prohibition does not apply to local laws adopted on or before June 1, 2011 , which matters because it's the hinge that determines whether an older local ordinance survives. Franklin and Gulf counties did not carry pre-2011 STR bans at the unincorporated level, so state preemption governs duration and frequency at the county level in both places. What that leaves county and city governments free to do is build rules around the edges: registration, safety, trash, noise, parking, and occupancy , not outright prohibition, and not minimum-night mandates imposed by government after 2011.
It's worth being direct about a piece of legislation that keeps resurfacing in outdated advice: SB 280 is not law. Governor Ron De Santis vetoed SB 280 on June 27, 2024, and no statewide STR registry or expanded preemption ever took effect as a result. Treat any guide claiming SB 280 changed Franklin or Gulf County filing requirements as outdated, because it didn't , as of mid-2026, the existing §509.032(7) framework, plus each county's own registration layers, still govern everything discussed in this guide.
Regarding the licensing mechanics, DBPR issues two license types depending on the property: Vacation Rental-Dwelling for single-family homes and duplex-to-quad configurations, or Vacation Rental-Condominium for condo/co-op units in qualifying buildings. The single-unit application fee is commonly cited at roughly $230 (some sources also cite ~$220, so it's worth verifying the current DBPR fee schedule directly before you budget for it), and licenses require annual renewal along with life-safety compliance, including balcony and railing requirements where applicable. None of this varies by county , it's the same statewide floor whether you're on St. George Island or in Port St. Joe.
The Tax Stack and the Owner-Remits-TDT Trap
The first layer is the Florida state sales/transient rental tax, set at 6% under §212.03, F.S., and remitted to the Florida Department of Revenue regardless of the county in which the property is located.
The second layer is the County Tourist Development Tax, or TDT, and this is where Franklin and Gulf diverge meaningfully.
Franklin County:3% , DOR-administered (filed on DR-15 with state tax per DR-15TDT schedule)
Gulf County:5% , county-administered (remitted directly to Gulf County)
Once you add the two layers, the combined guest-facing totals tell the true story of the corridor's tax gradient.
Franklin: ~9% (6% state + 3% TDT) ,lowest in the Forgotten Coast corridor
Gulf: ~11% (6% state + 5% TDT)
Franklin's Tourist Development Council is explicit about this positioning: it notes that neighboring counties mostly levy 5-6% in TDT, which makes Franklin's 3% rate (itself raised from 2% effective July 1, 2021) a modest but real operator cost advantage on St. George Island and Apalachicola stays , a detail worth foregrounding in direct-booking marketing rather than burying in fine print.
The trap hiding in all of this is how booking platforms handle collection, and it catches hosts who assume the platform is doing more than it actually does. In Franklin and Gulf counties, Airbnb collects the 6% state tax statewide but does not collect county TDT , hosts must self-remit Franklin's 3% and Gulf's 5% on every Airbnb booking. Vrbo is even less hands-on: it collects nothing in Florida , no state tax, no surtax, no TDT , which means Vrbo hosts always self-remit all layers on every single booking. Direct-booking sites also shift the full collection responsibility onto the owner, so the assumption that "the platform handles taxes" simply doesn't hold anywhere in this corridor.
The registration pathway itself is straightforward but easy to skip: obtain a Florida DOR sales-tax certificate, register separately with the Franklin County Tax Collector/TDC for Franklin parcels or with Gulf County for Gulf parcels, and file monthly returns (typically due by the 20th of the following month, though current deadlines should be verified). Failure to register is a common audit trigger precisely because platform 1099-K income does not satisfy the county TDT obligation , the state and the county are tracking two different things, and a clean 1099-K says nothing about whether you've actually registered and remitted at the county level.
Franklin County: Apalachicola, St. George Island, Carrabelle, Eastpoint
Franklin County's compliance stack covers all its parcels, including unincorporated St. George Island and Eastpoint, the incorporated City of Apalachicola, and the incorporated City of Carrabelle , though as the next section makes clear, incorporated status can add its own wrinkle.
Franklin's overall posture is best described as light-to-moderate and STR-friendly. The county formally permitted countywide vacation rentals on May 19, 2020, and research found no confirmed dedicated unincorporated-county STR registry separate from the state license plus TDT registration, nor any STR count cap. AirROI regulatory data backs this up, showing low in-platform licensing friction specifically for St. George Island. The one wrinkle worth flagging for buyers is the gated Plantation community on St. George Island, which imposes HOA-level rental rules beyond county compliance , anyone considering that community should verify POA covenants before acquisition, since those private rules aren't preempted by anything discussed above.
The incorporated-versus-unincorporated distinction matters more than it might first appear.
St. George Island (unincorporated):County rules only , DBPR license + Franklin TDT registration + standard safety/responsible-party expectations. No dedicated city overlay.
Apalachicola & Carrabelle (incorporated):County stack plus possible municipal business-license or local layers , a dedicated City of Apalachicola STR ordinance wasnot confirmedin research (DATA GAP , verify with city hall before operating). Do not assume city and county checklists are identical.
Putting that into a working checklist, Franklin County unincorporated hosts (SGI, Eastpoint) should follow these steps in order:
Step | Action |
1 | Obtain DBPR Vacation Rental license (Dwelling or Condo) |
2 | Register Florida DOR sales tax account |
3 | Register Franklin County Tourist Development Tax with Tax Collector/TDC |
4 | Self-remit 3% Franklin TDT monthly on all Airbnb, Vrbo, and direct bookings |
5 | Maintain 24/7 responsible party contact; comply with state safety standards |
6 | Verify HOA/POA rules if applicable (Plantation, condo regimes) |
For Apalachicola and Carrabelle city limits, the checklist is the same five steps above, plus one more: verify municipal business license or registration requirements with the city clerk, since incorporated towns can layer local requirements on top, even where the county itself stays light-touch.
Specifically regarding filing mechanics, Franklin's 3% TDT is DOR-administered and reported on DR-15 alongside the 6% state tax. Airbnb does not collect the 3% county portion, and Vrbo collects nothing at all , so both figures land squarely on the host's own filing.
For hosts thinking about how to merchandise this on a direct-booking site, there's a genuine advantage worth stating plainly: display the DBPR license number and the transparent ~9% combined tax at checkout. Franklin's lowest-in-corridor tax rate is a real guest-cost advantage, and it's worth stating accurately rather than leaving guests to discover it only after booking.
Gulf County: Cape San Blas, Port St. Joe, Indian Pass , The Strict County Stack
Gulf County's jurisdiction covers Cape San Blas, Port St. Joe, Indian Pass, St. Joe Beach, and the Wewahitchka-area tourist-corridor STRs , and the compliance posture here shifts noticeably from Franklin's lighter touch.
Gulf County is the strictest county regime in the Forgotten Coast corridor covered here, and it's strict in a specific, verifiable way: it requires a genuine local Short-Term Rental Business License under Ordinance 2020-04 in addition to DBPR licensing. That license runs through an online portal at citizenserve.com/gulfcounty, comes with its own inspection checklist, and the county's contact for questions is STRLicense@visitgulf.com or. It's important to be precise about what this is and isn't , this is a registration and safety regime that is fully compliant with state preemption, not a ban or a frequency cap, so it doesn't conflict with §509.032(7) even though it clearly adds friction beyond what Franklin requires.
Gulf County adds a second requirement that Franklin doesn't have: Ordinance 2019-10 mandates twice-weekly garbage pickup for tourist-corridor STRs rented for less than six months. This is a real operating cost, not a formality, so it needs to be budgeted into the pro forma and disclosed in the house rules so guests understand and comply with it.
Put together, the Gulf County compliance checklist runs longer than Franklin's:
Step | Action |
1 | Obtain DBPR Vacation Rental license |
2 | Apply for Gulf County Short-Term Rental Business License (Ord. 2020-04) via online portal |
3 | Complete county inspection checklist |
4 | Arrange twice-weekly trash service (Ord. 2019-10) for qualifying tourist-corridor STRs |
5 | Register Florida DOR sales tax account |
6 | Register and self-remit 5% Gulf County TDT directly to county |
7 | Self-remit 5% TDT on all Airbnb and Vrbo bookings (Airbnb does not collect Gulf TDT) |
8 | Maintain 24/7 local contact; post required safety documentation |
Regarding tax filing mechanics, Gulf's approach is structurally different from Franklin's: the 5% TDT is county-administered and remitted directly to Gulf County, while the 6% state tax still goes to the FL DOR on the DR-15 as usual. There is no Airbnb TDT collection agreement in Gulf County, meaning that 5% is entirely the host's responsibility to track and remit.
The marketing upside to all this extra friction is real, though: Gulf's compliance load is heavier than Franklin's, but in a professionalized Cape San Blas / Port St. Joe manager market, merchandising "fully licensed Gulf County STR" alongside completed inspection status is a genuine trust signal to guests who are comparison-shopping against less-compliant listings.
Franklin vs. Gulf: Side-by-Side Operator Comparison
Factor | Franklin County | Gulf County |
County TDT rate | 3% | 5% |
Combined state + TDT | ~9% | ~11% |
TDT administrator | DOR (DR-15) | Gulf County directly |
Dedicated county STR license | Not confirmed | Yes , Ord. 2020-04 portal + inspection |
Trash mandate | Standard county service | Twice-weekly for tourist-corridor STRs (Ord. 2019-10) |
Airbnb collects county TDT | No | No |
Vrbo collects any FL tax | No | No |
Typical towns | Apalachicola, SGI, Carrabelle | Cape San Blas, Port St. Joe |
Regulatory gradient | Light-touch | Strictest in corridor |
Mexico Beach Warning: Bay County Is Not in This Guide's Checklist
It bears repeating because the marketing overlap causes real confusion: Mexico Beach markets itself under Forgotten Coast branding, but it sits in Bay County , not Franklin, not Gulf. Bay County Ordinance 23-18 (effective August 1, 2023) governs it instead, and that ordinance requires a Short-Term Vacation Rental Certificate, a mandatory Fire & Life Safety inspection, posted certificate display, liability insurance, a 24-hour local contact, and safety-equipment documentation , a checklist that doesn't map cleanly onto either Franklin's or Gulf's requirements. The tax math is different, too: 5% Bay TDT plus 6% state tax equals ~11% combined, the same combined rate as Gulf County, but administered under an entirely separate ordinance. Hosts marketing a Mexico Beach property should see our Mexico Beach how-to-market sibling for merchandising context and verify the Bay County Clerk GovOS portal for certificate filing , and should not, under any circumstances, apply Franklin's 3% rate or Gulf's Ordinance 2020-04 portal to a Mexico Beach parcel.
Listing Display, Platform Posting, and Multi-Property Host Errors
Regardless of county, every advertisement , Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, a direct site, Google Vacation Rentals , should reflect the accurate jurisdiction and licensing for that specific parcel:
Franklin:DBPR license number; transparent ~9% tax on direct checkout; county TDT self-remit acknowledgment in owner operations
Gulf:DBPR license + Gulf County STR Business License; twice-weekly trash compliance for qualifying properties; transparent ~11% tax on direct checkout
The most common multi-property host error in this corridor is exactly the kind of mix-up this guide is built to prevent: a St. George Island listing citing Gulf County rules, or a Port St. Joe listing stopping at DBPR without adding the county business license. Either mistake fails guest trust and fails county inspection review, and both are entirely avoidable once you've correctly identified which county your parcel sits in.
Operational Rules That Apply Across Both Counties
Beyond the county-specific licensing and tax layers, a handful of operational standards apply no matter which side of the county line a property sits on. Florida expects a reachable 24/7 responsible-party contact for guest and authority complaints , this is an operational standard regardless of county, not a Gulf-only or Franklin-only requirement.
On life safety, DBPR licensing already carries state safety requirements, and Gulf adds its own county inspection checklist items on top of that baseline. Balcony and railing rules apply to multi-story properties in either county.
There's also a private layer that sits above all public regulation: HOA and condo documents can impose minimum-stay covenants and rental caps that are not preempted by §509.032, since that statute governs government action, not private contracts. Reading governing documents before acquisition matters especially for SGI condo regimes and the Plantation gated community's rules, both of which can be stricter than anything the county itself requires.
Finally, hurricane exposure is simply part of operating in Franklin and Gulf counties, and insurance coverage, along with honest cancellation policies, should be treated as operational requirements, not marketing optionalities that can be softened for the sake of a better-looking listing page.
Master Decision Framework: Identify Parcel, Then Follow One Checklist
Step 1: Confirm county and municipal boundaries via the property appraiser's GIS , a mailing address of "St. George Island" is Franklin, unincorporated; "Port St. Joe" is Gulf; "Mexico Beach" is Bay.
Step 2: Apply the correct county TDT rate and administrator , Franklin's 3% is DOR-filed, while Gulf's 5% is county-filed directly.
Step 3: Determine whether a county STR business license applies at all , Gulf requires one, while Franklin's unincorporated area has no dedicated county license confirmed.
Step 4: Verify the incorporated-city layer specifically for Apalachicola and Carrabelle parcels, since incorporated towns can add requirements that county rules alone won't reveal.
Step 5: Configure platform tax settings with the platform realities firmly in mind , Airbnb collects state tax only, and Vrbo collects nothing , so the owner remits county TDT everywhere covered in this guide.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why can't Forgotten Coast hosts use one compliance rulebook across the whole coast?
Franklin County (Apalachicola, St. George Island, Carrabelle, Eastpoint) runs a light-touch, lowest-tax stack, while Gulf County (Cape San Blas, Port St. Joe) runs a stricter inspection-and-trash regime. Mexico Beach, despite sharing the Forgotten Coast marketing brand, actually sits in Bay County under its own separate Ordinance 23-18 and follows none of the rules that apply in Franklin or Gulf. Confirming the exact county before publishing anything is the first compliance step, not an afterthought.
What Tourist Development Tax rate must a Franklin County host self-remit?
Franklin County's TDT is 3%, DOR-administered and filed on the DR-15 alongside the state's 6% sales/transient rental tax, for a combined guest-facing rate of about 9%, the lowest in the corridor. Airbnb collects the 6% state tax but does not collect the county's 3% TDT, so a Franklin host must self-remit that portion on every Airbnb booking; Vrbo collects nothing in Florida, so Vrbo hosts self-remit all layers.
What does a Gulf County host need beyond DBPR licensing?
Gulf County's own Short-Term Rental Business License under Ordinance 2020-04, applied for through an online portal, with its own inspection checklist, in addition to the standard statewide DBPR Vacation Rental license. Stopping at DBPR alone leaves a Port St. Joe or Cape San Blas owner non-compliant no matter how clean the rest of their paperwork looks. Gulf is the strictest county regime covered in this corridor.
Is the June 2024 SB 280 veto still relevant to Forgotten Coast compliance?
Yes, it's worth stating plainly because outdated guides still get it wrong: Governor DeSantis vetoed SB 280 on June 27, 2024, and no statewide STR registry or expanded preemption ever took effect as a result. As of mid-2026, the existing Florida Statute §509.032(7) framework, plus each county's own registration layers, still governs everything in Franklin and Gulf counties, exactly as it did before the bill was introduced.
What makes Gulf County's regulatory regime the strictest in the corridor?
Beyond its own STR Business License, Gulf County adds a requirement Franklin doesn't have: Ordinance 2019-10 mandates twice-weekly garbage pickup for tourist-corridor short-term rentals rented for less than six months. That's a real, budgetable operating cost rather than a formality, and it needs to be disclosed in the house rules so guests understand and comply with it during their stay.
Why doesn't Mexico Beach's Forgotten Coast branding mean Franklin or Gulf County rules apply there?
Mexico Beach sits in Bay County, governed by its own Ordinance 23-18 (effective August 1, 2023), which requires a Short-Term Vacation Rental Certificate, a mandatory Fire & Life Safety inspection, posted certificate display, liability insurance, a 24-hour local contact, and safety-equipment documentation, a checklist that doesn't map cleanly onto either Franklin's or Gulf's requirements. Its combined tax rate, about 11%, matches Gulf's but is administered under an entirely separate ordinance.
Do Airbnb and Vrbo collect county Tourist Development Tax for Forgotten Coast hosts?
No, in neither Franklin nor Gulf County. Airbnb collects only the statewide 6% tax and leaves the county TDT (3% in Franklin, 5% in Gulf) to the host to self-remit on every booking. Vrbo is even less hands-on, collecting nothing at all in Florida, meaning Vrbo hosts self-remit the state tax and the county TDT on every single reservation, regardless of county.
What's the combined guest-facing tax rate in Franklin versus Gulf County?
Franklin's combined rate is about 9% (6% state plus 3% county TDT), the lowest in the Forgotten Coast corridor. Gulf's combined rate is about 11% (6% state plus 5% county TDT). Displaying the correct combined rate and DBPR license number transparently at checkout on a direct-booking site is a genuine guest-cost advantage worth stating accurately rather than leaving guests to discover it only after booking.
What private-layer rules can be stricter than county STR regulations here?
HOA and condo governing documents, which can impose minimum-stay covenants and rental caps that aren't preempted by state law because §509.032 governs government action, not private contracts. The gated Plantation community on St. George Island is a specific example worth flagging for buyers: its rules sit above and can be stricter than anything Franklin County itself requires, so reading governing documents before acquisition matters.
Work with Crest & Cove Creative
A Forgotten Coast listing that treats Apalachicola, St. George Island, Carrabelle, and Eastpoint as one interchangeable beach town misses the heritage-town crowd the November seafood festival actually draws. Each town along this coast books a different guest.
We help Forgotten Coast hosts write listing copy and a seasonal calendar that separates beach-peak summer from the fall heritage shoulder season each town actually sees. That distinction is what keeps bookings steady past Labor Day.
Reach out at crestcove.co or (256) 998-7502.
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