All inquiries will be sent to the primary holder's account. Secondary inquiry notifications can be set up to send to a different email address as well by clicking on "Listings>General Info" and entering the details in the Secondary Notification Email box.

Yes. All short-term and mid-term vacation rental homes need to be licensed with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. You can apply for a license under vacation rentals - dwellings here.

In addition, a host should check with their county and municipal governments to see if they require any additional registration or rental licenses.

No. We do not charge traveler fees. We launched FLARBO platform to provide travelers with a marketplace to book directly with the host without paying traveler fees, such as those charged by large travel sites. This can save traveler's hundreds of dollars.

Yes! We launched in 2017 and have provided hundreds of thousands of travelers wonderful vacations through our vetted hosts. FLARBO has also been recognized by the Who's Who of Niche Listing sites (2020, 2021) and received other accolades throughout the vacation rental industry. Visit our press page here.

Start by contacting the Florida state, county, and local governments about requirements specific to your location.

County & Municipality/City: Ask if you are required to register your property for short term rental. Which governmental entities require registration for your area? Ask how much sales/resort tax you should collect and how often these payments are due to the authorities.

The State of Florida: All vacation rental reservations under 6 months are required to be taxed at 6% plus any discretionary tax imposed by the county (if any). Hosts are required to have a state sales tax account and collect and submit these taxes.

Taxes should be applied to the entire rental collection pertaining to the reservation (ie: cleaning, admin fees, pet fees, etc...)

It is the owner's responsibility to collect and remit all required taxes to the appropriate county and state governments.

Renters will contact you through your FLARBO property listing. When a traveler sends an inquiry a host will receive it in their email Inbox as well as their FLARBO dashboard. Hosts can follow the directions on the inquiry email to answer the traveler, or within the owner/host dashboard. 

Text message notifications can also be set up in a host's profile and may be subject to additional charges by the cell phone provider.

Note: Travelers who submit any url links in the inquiry will be blocked from the communication sent to the host. This is to avoid any spam, mis-use or potential fraud that may occur as a result of a host clicking on a suspect url link.

Yes. Text message notifications must be configured and set up within a host's profile in order to be received. Text message notifications are only to advise hosts that they have an email inquiry waiting for them to respond to and can not be replied to by text. To configure your SMS messaging go to the Host Dashboard, click the "Settings" tab and enter the details in the SMS TEXT ALERT field.

Currently you can upload the following photos based on your subscription level.

• Classic - 24 photos
• Bronze - 24 photos
• Silver - 35 photos
• Gold - 50 photos
• Platinum - 50 photos

To upload photos to your listing,  login to your Host Dashboard. Navigate to the property you wish to upload photos to under the "Listings" tab and press the "Details" button and click "Photos and Video" on the left menu bar.

A host can select or drag photos from their computer to their property. Hosts can change photos any time, as often as they wish.

Note: All photos must be owned by you, the host, or you must have written permission to use them. Any photos that are copyrighted material, used without permission must be communicated directly to the host. The host is required to remove them. If the host fails to remove the copyrighted material please send us a detailed message through our Contact Us page for assistance.

Photos must not contain any watermark, logo, or text in order for us to promote and market your rentals.

Load up to a maximum of 10 photos at a time. Maximum size of photos should be no more than 2MB. Larger photos will be slow to upload.

No. Hosts may not upload any photos with company logos, watermarks, or text onto the Florida Rental By Owners website. This decreases opportunity for FLARBO to market properties for further exposure.

Potential guests want to see large, high-resolution photos. It helps them trust the property description and greatly improves the performance of the listing. We recommend hosts invest in professional photography for the best results.

The uploaded images should be;

• At least 1132 pixels wide x 768 pixels high
• All photos should be a horizontal point of view
• Vertical images are not viewable in full length
• No Text or Watermarks on the photos
• Upload up to 10 photos at a time

If you are currently trying to upload your photos, you may use the drag and drop option or the Upload button. Select photos that are saved on your computer to be transferred to our website.

If you choose the Upload Button, click on the Browse button for a dialog box and navigate until you find the image file you want to upload within your computer. Click on the file, then click Open. Wait while the file is uploaded from your computer to your FLARBO property listing photo gallery. The screen will not change until the transfer is complete. If the file is large or your connection is slow, this step could take several minutes.

If you are having trouble mass uploading your large photos you may need to upload less than 10 at a time.

If you do not have photos on your computer but have them stored on the Internet you will have to go fetch them first and drag and drop them into your FLARBO property listing photo gallery. Alternatively, you can download them to your local computer and then upload them to Florida Rental By Owners website.

You have full access to your listing 24 hours a day. You can modify any portion of your listing at any time, including the pictures. To make changes simply click on the "Sign In" login button on the upper right corner of the website. Once logged in, click the "Listings" tab and "Property Details" on the listing you wish to change.

The FLARBO Host dashboard is very user-friendly and simple to understand. Please use the "Sign In" link to access your profile and modify your listing. There is additional Support information tab within the dashboard with helpful details. If you require help with changes or photos, please see other questions in this FAQ. If you need further assistance or video tutorials please contact customer service.

As we grow our vacation rental website you may encounter a situation where your location is not appearing in the search bar. This means that currently, we do not have any listings in this area. Once you register and upload your listing the location will "open up". If for some reason your city or location is not appearing while listing your property, please contact us.

No. FLARBO is not the merchant of record. FLARBO does not have payment processing in place for reservations. We feel it is best to leave it up to the individual host to determine the best way to accept payments for reservations.

We do recommend to travelers to pay hosts directly through a secure payment platform where they have recourse by using a credit card or Paypal for business (not friends and family).

For hosts accepting payments online, some options include using any of the following:

• PayPal: There is a Paypal Credit Card Transaction Fee. We recommend having a Business Standard Account for greater flexibility and safety for travelers. There is no monthly fee for a Business Standard Account. You can easily send invoices for payments and you can transfer money to your bank account at no cost. With the Business Standard account, you can also get a credit card reader that works on tablets and smartphones.
• Square: There is a Square Credit Card Transaction Fee.
• Stripe: There is a Stripe Card Charge Transaction Fee. International cards have an additional conversion fee.

Of course, hosts are free to use whatever payment processing option they wish. If a host needs help with finding a great vacation rental payment platform we are happy to make recommendations to trusted businesses in the industry. We do not restrict your ability to choose whatever works best for you. This is one of the host benefits of using Florida Rental By Owners (FlaRBO.com) listing site.

• Answer your booking inquiries in a timely manner. Preferably within an hour of notification.
• Are your rates up to date? Have you added them so that travelers can get an accurate quick quote on the FLARBO website?
• Perhaps your rental rate is too high. Compare it with other owners in your area, bedroom size, amenities, location, design, etc... just as vacationers do. The main determinant? Price versus quality ratio.
• Professional photos do make a difference! Travelers are dreaming about their vacation and want to book properties that are bright and clean, with great amenities. Remember, you are competing against other listings with professional photos.
• Think about uploading photos of the property location, the traveler is investing not only in accommodations but the local experience as well.
• Is your availability calendar up to date? Don't put off travelers who spend up to 8 hours searching for a property by leaving a calendar open. Having an accurate up to date calendar not only helps the traveler but helps us market your vacation home to travelers contacting us for help and on social media and email blasts.
• We discourage listings with open calendars and deter our customer service team from recommending them to travelers seeking exact dates.
• Have you correctly categorized your listing? Ensure all filters are correctly filled out like "beach view, waterfront, snowbird monthly, pet friendly, beachfront, boat friendly, etc..." These filters target your exact traveler that is interested in your property.
• Review your listing description and enter the correct property type, vacation type and add a great title description. Putting some effort into your listing description and formatting it so it is easily read helps travelers quickly skim through and pick out the most important items to them to help them make the right choice.
• Is your location correctly set on the location tab? Ensure the marker as well as the address is correct.
• Do you have reviews listed on your property? Reviews are the Number #1 indicator to a traveler of your hosting style as well as what they can expect from a visit to your home.
• Do you have a host photo on your profile? A great, friendly profile photo helps gain traveler trust that you are a real and trusted professional.

No. Florida Rental By Owners is not the merchant of record. Hosts are responsible for making reservations and securing guest payments. It is totally within a host's discretion as to how they would like to accept reservation payments. FLARBO encourages all travelers to make payments to hosts through secure platforms that offer buyer protection (ie: credit cards, Paypal for Business, Stripe, etc...) Of course, hosts are free to use whatever payment processing option they wish. If hosts need help finding a great vacation rental booking software platform we are happy to make recommendations to trusted businesses in the industry. We do not restrict the host's ability to choose whatever works best for them. This is one of the homeowner benefits of using Florida Rental By Owners (FlaRBO.com) listing site.

No. Each host provides their own cancellation policy. The host policy should be posted in their property listing under the Policies Section.

In regards to your personal data we use it to enhance the user experience within regular business practices. We do gather general data and statistics in order to optimize the user experience and business strategies. To read our full privacy policy click here.

Usually, emails with poor grammar, spelling, odd use of capital letters and/or asking you to wire money or participate in an unusual bank transaction is a scam.

The sender is usually attempting to obtain money, personal information or your email address. We recommend that you let us know you received this through our service.

For further information about internet fraud and fake check scams, visit fraud.org.

Be sure to provide a property rental contract/legal lease agreement, and insist on the exact payment with a credit card. It's a good idea to insist on payment with a credit card at least 14 days prior to arrival.

One popular scam is the "Renter Overpayment Scam" where a renter will send you an inquiry that may seem legitimate and suggest he/she or his/her company send you a check. The check that he/she will send is fake (the bank takes several weeks to catch it) and for too much. They will request the overpayment refund by wire transfer, and by then you have sent the difference back and will be unable to recover it.

We suggest you insist on the exact payment or if you do accept an overpayment wait at least 30 days before returning any funds.

See fraud.org for more information.

Once a traveler clicks on a property listing they can get a quote for their dates. Quotes are an estimated price for the rental period selected including all extra filters entered (ie: pets). The price indicated in the quote amount is the total price based on the owner's information entered in the rate settings. Prices may change and the final price is quoted directly from the owner/manager to the traveler upon inquiring.

Most large online rental platforms charge travelers up to 20% for booking a rental through their websites. Booking directly with a verified host through Florida Rental By Owners offers you the opportunity to work directly with a host for the best price.

Yes. Hosts should consider listing all of their properties on Florida Rental By Owners to gain the most booking inquiries. Also benefiting from our customer service traveler placement offered free of charge. There are no additional booking fees charged to hosts on any bookings generated from Florida Rental By Owners.

Hosts are not permitted to list one property as click bait for multiple properties. Each listing must relate to one property to book.

See current pricing for annual subscriptions on the List Your Property page here.

• All subscription packages are for a 12 month period.
• There are no additional booking fees when paying for a subscription level membership which saves hosts booking fees that occur on large online travel agencies.
• Subscription levels are offered in a range of pricing according to the exposure you may need.

Yes and No.

Subscription Level Memberships  - Yes  - Hosts that manage or own 5 or more properties may inquire about discounts to the annual subscription levels. Contact us here for multi-property discount information.

Commission Fee Memberships (Beta) - No - There are no discounts if the host chooses a commission fee membership.