PALM COAST, Fla. — Just ahead of the busy spring break season, a new limit to how many guests can stay at short-term rentals will go into effect in Palm Coast. 

On Tuesday, the Palm Coast City Council voted unanimously to limit the number of guests at a short-term rental to 10.

What You Need To Know

  • Starting in March, a new limit to how many guests can stay at a short-term rental will go into effect in Palm Coast
  • For Airbnb hosts, Joel and Kathy Davisson, they're worried about what this means for their short term rental
  • Palm Coast Vice Mayor Theresa Pontieri says this change to the ordinance strikes a happy medium
  • Children up to 3 years old and those who live in the rental will not count toward the 10-guest limit

Airbnb hosts Joel and Kathy Davisson have many bedrooms available for people to stay. 

“We love it. We enjoy people, we enjoy having company and it helps us to maintain living in our home here,” Joel Davisson said. 

But recent problems with short-term rentals in the area prompted a change in the number of rentals allowed. 

“The people who had the legitimate problems in the C Section here in Palm Coast," Davisson said. "They needed to have these rules for their neighborhoods because those homes over there are homes where the owners do not live in the homes and they have bad situations happen with parties, with trash in the yard, but we don’t have that situation."

But the Davissons say they want there to be an exception for other renters like them. 

“It should not affect us," Davisson said. "All that was requested at that city council meeting was these rules about a maximum of two people per bedroom, and a maximum of 10 people per home which limits us to a total of 10 guests we can have here ... that rule (should) not apply to Airbnb homeowners that live in their home that’s homesteaded. We park our cars here. This is where we live."

This decision, Davisson said, will negatively impact them. 

They’ve been with Airbnb for more than nine years, and during that time, he said they’ve welcomed around 10,000 people into their home. 

“We’re going to lose at least 10% of our income, about $6,000 a year," Davisson said. "We will definitely lose by these new rules."

He worries about what the future holds. 

“On a yearly basis, we probably have 70 nights where we have more than 10 people," Davisson said. "When you eliminate being able to have in a home our size, 14 or 15 people on those 70 nights per year, it ends up being 10% of our income."

Palm Coast Vice Mayor Theresa Pontieri said the change to the city's ordinance strikes a happy medium.

“The legislation allows short-term rentals — because the state of Florida says we can’t do anything to outlaw them — but they’ll put certain restrictions on them like the number of people they can rent to, certain trash regulations, parking regulations, noise regulations, things like that that allow the community around those short-term rentals to not be negatively affected by the fact that we have people coming and going a lot while they rent their properties,” Pontieri said. 

While Pontieri said she wants to make sure everyone in the city has their voice heard on this issue, she believes city leaders did the right thing. 

“We wanted to make sure we were helping the concerns of those who are dealing with what are essentially vacationers coming in and out of their neighborhood," she said. "I think this legislation balances those interests."

Children up to 3 years old and those who live in the rental will not count toward the 10-guest limit. 

Pontieri says this decision — which goes into effect on March 3 — will impact 275 short-term rental properties in the city of Palm Coast.