Despite the ups, downs and legal battles that Airbnb has faced since launching in 2007, hosts in Florida have seen a surge in supplemental income, up 75% year-over-year in 2017. Florida hosts earned a combined $450 million in 2017 and hosts in Miami-Dade brought in $134 million. According to Airbnb there is now 40,000 hosts in Florida with the top 3 earning counties being Miami-Dade at $134.6 million, Broward at $45.7 million and Osceola at $39.6 million. Palm Beach County hosts pulled in $17.1 million. Miami-Dade is among the top 5 regions in the United States. In April 2017 PROFILEmiami reported that AirBNB has teamed up with 5 Miami homeowner hosts to sue the city of Miami and Mayor Tomas Regalado in order to stop Miami from enforcing bans and fines on short-term rentals in the city. The state of Florida passed legislature in 2011 which prohibits cities and counties from enacting ordinances that prohibit and/ or regulate vacation rentals. Airbnb later was able to work out tax agreements with 6 Florida counties including Miami-Dade and Broward earlier this year. Since Miami-Dade and Airbnb reached thei tax agreement which went into effect May 1, 2017, Miami-Dade has collected over $2 million in taxes from Airbnb guests. In October, Miami-Dade passed a new ordinance regulating short-term rental companies including caps on occupancy at 2 people per room and hosts needing to apply for a Certificate of Use, register for a business tax receipt, screen for sexual offenders, and adhere to "vacation rental standards," amongst other regulations. Airbnb is an online marketplace and hospitality service founded in 2007 by Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky. Airbnb does not own any properties, and brokers bookings between hosts and guests via their online platform. Since have grown the company to over 3,100 employees, 3 million listings, 65,000 cities, 191 countries and 200 million users.
