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Jacksonville could be in line for a boost in tourism dollars once an agreement with popular online accommodations company Airbnb comes to fruition.
The company serves as a “community marketplace” for people to list rooms, homes and even castles for rent. It has hundreds in Jacksonville.
Those bookings, though, don’t collect Duval County’s 6 percent bed tax that is applied to traditional lodging like hotels.
Tax Collector Michael Corrigan was contacted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is working with Airbnb, seeking an agreement for the lodging company to begin collecting and remitting the tax.
Jacksonville’s bed tax is equally divided three ways, with portions going toward the Duval County Tourist Development Council for marketing; paying off construction of EverBank Field; and overall improvements to the Sports Complex.
Visit Jacksonville CEO Paul Astleford calls the Airbnb development a promising way to grow the needed bed tax. The local tourism marketing arm is funded through such dollars.
He said Airbnb has been willing to work with communities in an organized approach. It’s a positive step, given how popular the model has become.
“In short order, Airbnb will be the largest hotel company in the world,” said Astleford. “We’ve known they are growing.”
It’s what customers want, he said. Jacksonville needs to be able to provide that service, Astleford said. Otherwise, travelers might end up looking elsewhere.
“If you don’t heed the customer, you can watch your destination dwindle,” he said.
But it also means playing by the same set of rules hotels do, which means paying Duval County’s bed tax.
Christopher Nulty, a spokesman for the San Francisco-based company, in a statement said Airbnb is eager to work with officials in Duval County and across the state to collect and remit taxes. The business already has done so for nearly two dozen Florida counties, he said.
Listings in Florida show a host of taxes, like the 6 percent Florida Transient Rental Tax, state discretionary sales tax and occupancy taxes the state administers in 22 counties. Duval is not among them.
The deal for the 22 counties went into effect in December but those not part of that group are beginning to reach agreements.
This month, Brevard County Tax Collector Lisa Cullen and the company struck a deal to collect the taxes, which could mean $240,000 to $600,000 annually, according to Florida Today.
It’s still too early to determine how much Duval County could stand to benefit from any agreement.
A meeting Monday began looking further into such a deal locally. That meeting included Astleford; Corrigan; Kerri Stewart, Mayor Lenny Curry’s chief of staff; and city attorneys.
As Astleford described it, the meeting served as a starting point for what the “rules of engagement” will be.
The rules, though, aren’t yet set and the city’s legal team is reviewing the situation and paperwork provided to Corrigan by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
According to that draft, taxes would be collected and sent from a date moving forward, not covering years past.
Furthermore, the tax collector is able to audit Airbnb on an anonymous numbered account basis, which would protect the identifications of users.
dchapman@jaxdailyrecord.com
@writerchapman
(904) 356-2466
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