Vilano STR Rules: County Desk, Not City Registration

Vilano Beach is unincorporated St. Johns County, sitting east of the Intracoastal and the Tolomato River, across the Usina Bridge from downtown St. Augustine. That geography matters more than most listings admit, because a Vilano address falls under county code, not any city hall. St. Johns County Code Enforcement handles short-term registration at (904) 209-0734, and hosts should confirm the current 2026 requirements directly with that desk rather than assume last year's fee still applies.

On top of registration, the St. Johns County Tax Collector handles the 5 percent Tourist Development Tax at (904) 209-2250, a separate filing from state sales tax. The typical Vilano listing brought in roughly $63,182 across 161 active listings, at a 40.0 percent occupancy rate. Occupancy in the county ordinance means something specific too: two transient occupants per sleeping room or common area, capped at 10 total, excluding children 12 and under.

Confirm You're East of the Intracoastal Before You Advertise

The first thing to verify, before writing a single line of listing copy, is the tax map. Vilano Beach sits in unincorporated St. Johns County east of the Intracoastal, and the west-of-ICW exemption language that some St. Johns County guidance references does not cover it. A listing that skips county code registration because a nearby property manager mentioned an exemption is already wrong. So is a listing that pastes in City of St. Augustine registration language, since Vilano isn't inside that city's limits either.

Compare that against St. Augustine Beach, a separate incorporated city a few miles south with its own registration desk. St. Augustine Beach's typical listing pulled in $41,633 across 42 listings, a real market, but a different one, with its own city hall and its own paperwork. Both markets draw the bulk of their guests from Jacksonville, both peak in March, April, and June, and both see March as the single busiest month. Where they diverge is the slow season: Vilano's softest month is October, while St. Augustine Beach dips hardest in January. Flattening those two shoulder seasons into one generic seasonality chart is the same mistake as flattening the two registration desks into one.Vilano versus St. Augustine Beach breaks down the full comparison, and Vilano versus St. Johns desks walks through which office to call for which parcel.

County Code answers at (904) 209-0734, and the Tax Collector's tourist-tax line is (904) 209-2250, both belong to Vilano Beach. They aren't the same numbers as City of St. Augustine registration at (904) 201-8839, and they aren't St. Augustine Beach's city desk at (904) 471-2122. If a portal is temporarily down when you're checking, don't guess at a registration fee and publish it anyway, call the number, confirm zoning, confirm any HOA overlay on the parcel, and confirm the current 2026 rule before you advertise. East of the water is the test that decides which desk you call.

County Code Enforcement Handles Registration

St. Johns County Code Enforcement is the office that handles short-term registration for Vilano Beach, reachable at (904) 209-0734 or codenf@sjcfl.us. That's the desk for a Vilano parcel, not a City of St. Augustine window, not a St. Augustine Beach window. If your property sits east of the Intracoastal, this is the call to make before you list anything. Photograph what the county actually requires and keep that documentation with your listing paperwork, the same way you'd keep a lease or a deed.

Registration itself starts with a call to that desk and a request for the current receipt requirements, the portal was intermittently unavailable when this guide was last checked, which is exactly why we won't publish a specific dollar figure for the registration fee here. Confirm it directly rather than trusting a number that might already be stale by the time you read this.What it actually costs to start a Vilano Beach STR starts with that same call, and how to market a Vilano stay covers photographing the pier and the Usina Bridge instead of generic historic-district stock imagery that belongs to a different neighborhood.

The typical Vilano listing generated $63,182 across the 161-listing dataset, at 40.0 percent occupancy and roughly $492 ADR. Those figures describe the market, they don't substitute for a registration call, and they don't override the county's occupancy cap of two guests per sleeping room, capped at 10 total, excluding children 12 and under. Peak season runs March through June, the slow month is October, and most demand originates from Jacksonville. Average stay length is 4.2 nights with a 93-day average booking lead time.

The Tax Collector Handles Tourist Development Tax

The St. Johns County Tax Collector is a different office from Code Enforcement, reachable at (904) 209-2250 or str@sjctax.us, with a main office at 4030 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine, FL 32084. This is where you file the 5 percent Tourist Development Tax, which has been in effect since October 1, 2021. TDT is not the same thing as county registration, and Florida sales tax is a separate DOR filing on top of it, treat these as three stacked obligations, not one combined percentage.

St. Augustine Beach hosts file with this same county Tax Collector when their stays owe county tourist tax, which occasionally causes hosts to assume the two markets share a single desk for everything. They don't. St. Augustine Beach remains its own city for registration purposes, with its own $41,633 typical-year figure, its own Jacksonville-heavy origin market, and its own January low season versus Vilano's October low.Buying a Vilano rental and financing the note both cite the $63,182 Vilano figure specifically, never a blended average across both cells.

County Occupancy Is Two Per Room, Ten Max

St. Johns County's occupancy standard for short-term rentals is two transient occupants per sleeping room or common area, capped at 10 occupants total, excluding children age 12 and under. That's the ordinance figure to confirm with County Code Enforcement at (904) 209-0734 for your specific 2026 listing. In the market data, houses with capacity for eight or more guests make up 42.2 percent of the extract, but that's a description of what's on the market, not permission to exceed the county cap. A house that physically sleeps more guests than the ordinance allows still has to post and honor that cap in its house rules.

Beyond the occupancy cap itself, the dataset shows houses making up 68.3 percent of Vilano listings, three-bedroom units at 22.4 percent, and entire-home listings at 83.9 percent of the total. Professionally managed listings account for 23.0 percent of the market, with Wren Vacation Rentals (9 listings) and Elite Vacation Homes (7 listings) as the two largest labeled property managers.Who books a Vilano rental and remote stays both cover booking patterns in more depth, but neither changes the underlying occupancy math: whatever the listing sleeps, the county's two-per-room, ten-max rule still governs it.

Don't Paste City of St. Augustine Registration Onto Vilano

City of St. Augustine short-term registration is handled at (904) 201-8839, a different city government entirely, with no jurisdiction over Vilano Beach or St. Augustine Beach. Copying that registration language onto a Vilano listing because the two places share a name or sit close together on a map is a real mistake, one that shows up often enough in local listing copy to be worth calling out directly.Vilano versus St. Johns desks exists specifically to keep those three desks straight.

Vilano's actual desks are County Code at (904) 209-0734 and the county Tax Collector's tourist-tax line at (904) 209-2250. A listing that leads with City of St. Augustine historic-district imagery and cites that city's registration process is stacking two mismatches on one property, the wrong photos and the wrong paperwork. Confirm the parcel address, confirm which jurisdiction actually governs it, and confirm the current 2026 requirement before publishing. Then advertise, not before.

DBPR Registration Is Statewide, Separate From County Rules

Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation licenses vacation rentals statewide under Florida Statute 509. That filing sits alongside, not instead of, county registration, county tourist tax, and any applicable HOA rules. None of these four obligations substitutes for another; a host has to clear all of them, not pick whichever is easiest to find online.

Zoning still needs to qualify the parcel, and beach properties often carry HOA rules and turtle-lighting overlays that affect exterior lighting during nesting season, a compliance matter, not an occupancy one. A high review score or a professional-management label doesn't clear any of these requirements on its own; independent hosts, who own the large majority of this market, are the ones most likely to need to make these calls themselves rather than relying on a management company to handle it.DIY versus hire covers what a property manager actually takes off your plate versus what stays your responsibility regardless of who runs the listing.

The Tax Collector's Office Is on Lewis Speedway

If your driveway sits east of the Intracoastal in Vilano Beach, the calls to make are County Code at (904) 209-0734 for registration and occupancy questions, and the Tax Collector at (904) 209-2250 for the 5 percent tourist tax, with the main office at 4030 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine, FL 32084. Neither of those is (904) 201-8839, which belongs to the City of St. Augustine. If your property is instead in St. Augustine Beach proper, the city desk there is (904) 471-2122.

None of the market data changes which desk you call. Vilano's typical year remains $63,182 across 161 listings, ADR around $492, occupancy 40.0 percent, peaking in March with October as the slow month. That data helps you price the listing correctly; it doesn't file the paperwork for you.Remote stays and shoulder season both still require the same legal registration, regardless of booking length, a 30-plus-night minimum isn't a shortcut around tourist tax.

Related Reading

More Vilano Beach, Florida reading already live on Crest & Cove.

• Vilano Beach STR Report 2026: $63,182, Not City Copy

• Market a Vilano Beach Stay: The Pier, Not Castillo Copy

• Vilano Shoulder: March Peak, October Hole, June Extra

• Vilano Beach Remote Stays: 80 Listings Already Set 30-Plus

• DIY vs Hire in Vilano: 23.0 percent PM, Wren Nine

• Who Books a Vilano Rental: March Peak, Jacksonville Origin

• Buying a Vilano Rental: Cite $63,182

• Vilano Tourism Data: The Bridge Is Demand, Not T12

• Complete Visitor's Guide to Vilano Beach and the Pier

• What It Costs to Start a Legal Vilano Beach STR Stay

• Financing a Vilano Beach Rental Without City Costume Copy

• Vilano vs St Johns STR Desks: County Hall, Not City

• Vilano vs St Augustine Beach: Two Pins

Frequently Asked Questions

Does county registration apply on a Vilano Beach listing?

Yes. Vilano Beach is unincorporated St. Johns County, east of the Intracoastal, so it does not get the west-of-ICW exemption some St. Johns properties can claim. Registration for a Vilano address runs through County Code Enforcement, not any city hall. Confirm the current requirement with the county before you advertise a Vilano listing, since local rules can shift.

What phone number is County Code Enforcement?

St. Johns County Code Enforcement can be reached at (904) 209-0734, or by email at codenf@sjcfl.us. That's the office for short-term registration and occupancy questions on a Vilano Beach parcel. Keep that number on hand separately from any city desk, since Vilano doesn't register through a city.

What phone number is the Tax Collector, and what does that office handle?

The St. Johns County Tax Collector is (904) 209-2250, or str@sjctax.us by email, with a main office at 4030 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine, FL 32084. That's where a Vilano host files the county's Tourist Development Tax. It's a separate filing from county registration and from Florida state sales tax, so all three need to be handled on their own timelines.

What is the tourist development tax rate on Vilano Beach?

St. Johns County's Tourist Development Tax has been 5 percent since October 1, 2021, and it's collected by the county Tax Collector, not the state. Florida sales tax is a separate filing made directly with the Florida Department of Revenue. A booking of 30-plus nights doesn't exempt a stay from the tourist tax, so don't assume a long-stay guest is off the hook.

What is the county occupancy cap for a Vilano Beach rental?

St. Johns County caps occupancy at two transient guests per sleeping room or common area, up to 10 total, and children 12 and under aren't counted toward that cap. A house that could physically sleep more guests than that still has to post and honor the county's cap in its house rules. Build your listing's max-guest field around the county number, not just the bed count.

Can I use City of St. Augustine registration for a Vilano Beach listing?

No. City of St. Augustine registration, handled at (904) 201-8839, only covers properties inside that city's limits. Vilano Beach sits in unincorporated county territory, so it registers through County Code Enforcement at (904) 209-0734 instead. Pasting the city's registration number onto a Vilano listing points a host and any inspector to the wrong desk.

Does DBPR registration replace county registration on Vilano Beach?

No. DBPR licensing under Florida Statute 509 is a statewide requirement that sits alongside county registration and the county tourist tax, it doesn't substitute for either one. A Vilano host needs to clear DBPR, County Code Enforcement, and the Tax Collector separately, plus any HOA rules that apply to the specific property. Treat each as its own checklist item, not a single combined filing.

What if my Vilano Beach property is actually inside St. Augustine Beach city limits?

Then you'd instead work with St. Augustine Beach's own city desk at (904) 471-2122, not St. Johns County Code Enforcement. Vilano Beach and St. Augustine Beach are separate jurisdictions on opposite sides of the same inlet with their own registration offices. Confirm which side of that line a specific parcel falls on before you assume either desk applies.

Which desk should I call first for a Vilano Beach short-term rental?

Start with County Code Enforcement at (904) 209-0734 for registration and occupancy questions, then the county Tax Collector at (904) 209-2250 for the Tourist Development Tax. If the property turns out to be inside St. Augustine Beach proper instead, call that city's desk at (904) 471-2122. Getting the right office on the first call saves weeks versus registering with the wrong jurisdiction.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Vilano Beach rules fail when hosts call the City of St. Augustine for what is actually an unincorporated St. Johns County stay — County Code, not city hall, governs this pier strip.

We help independent Vilano Beach hosts keep registration, tax, and quiet-hour facts pointed at the county desk instead of borrowed city language. Fix the live listing at crestcove.co or call (256) 998-7502.

Reach out at crestcove.co or (256) 998-7502.