With 7 months of fiscal year remaining, collections down about 10%, compared to same period of 2024 fiscal year
February marked yet another month-over-month decline in Sarasota County’s Tourist Development Tax — or, “bed tax” — revenue, as shown in the latest reports released by Sarasota County Tax Collector Mike Moran.
Thus far, no month in this fiscal year has seen more Tourist Development Tax (TDT) collections than the same month in the previous fiscal year. This fiscal year began on Oct. 1, 2024.
For February, the month-over-month drop was $393,038.10, as shown in the new reports. The total revenue turned over to the Tax Collector’s Office was $5,633,478.08. In February 2024, the revenue climbed above $6 million: $6,026,516.18. Thus, the new figure is about 6.6% lower than the one for February 2024.
Through February, the bed tax funds have added up to $18,544,619.97, the new reports also note, with seven months of the fiscal year remaining. The total is down $2,177,435.61, compared to the revenue turned over to the Tax Collector’s Office for the first five months of the 2024 fiscal year.
The office’s initial tally for the bed tax revenue turned over to staff through February 2024 — released in early April 2024 — was $20,611,013.91. That was down by $1,924,179.67, compared to the total for the same first five months of the 2023 fiscal year. Using that first figure reported for February 2024, the total through February of this fiscal year is approximately 10% lower.
The staff of the Tax Collector’s Office has explained that audits and other enforcement actions can change the revenue totals from month to month.
Chief Deputy Tax Collector Sherri Smith has pointed out to members of the county’s Tourist Development Council that the staff works diligently to try to ensure that hosts of all accommodations in the county are turning over the appropriate funds. The staff pursues its own research and readily accepts tips from the public, she has said.
The 6% tax is charged on rentals of accommodations for six months or less time. The funds are used for a variety of purposes, in accord with a county ordinance. For example, the ordinance dictates that a certain percentage of the money be dedicated to beach maintenance, while another percentage goes toward the marketing of the county to tourists.
Last fiscal year, the bed tax revenue added up to $48,380,718.32, compared to $50,480,483.07 for the 2023 fiscal year. The revenue collected through February of this fiscal year represents approximately 38% of the FY 2024 total.
Among other details of the new reports, the collections thus far from Airbnb hosts added up to $2,721,316.59, which marks a decline of 11%, compared to the $3,064,356.50 tally through February 2024.
Altogether, through the first five months of this fiscal year, accommodations rented through online platforms — including TripAdvisor and HomeAway, plus all of their subsidiaries — represents 21.14% of the total. For the same period of the 2024 fiscal year, the figure was 22.36%.
Each year, Siesta Key and the City of Sarasota vie to see which will be responsible for the largest amount of the Tourist Development Tax collections. Last year, Siesta prevailed, though the city “won” the previous two years. This year, given the widespread hurricane damage from which Siesta Key has been recovering, its hosts so far have accounted for 17.33% of the bed tax funds, compared to 26.46% for the city and 17.65% for the combined unincorporated areas of the county.
Through February 2024, Siesta’s figure was 24.85%, while the city’s was slightly higher: 24.96%. However, hosts in the unincorporated areas of the county had turned over just 14.12% of the overall funds to the Tax Collector’s Office.
The new reports do include revisions of revenue tallies from the first four months of this fiscal year, which is not unusual, given the audits and other enforcement actions of the Tax Collector’s Office.
For example, the initial data for January put the month-over-month drop at $720,742.23. That has been whittled down to $494,227.75, putting the total revenue for this January above $5 million.
For another example, the previous reports showed that the December 2024 bed tax collections were down $201,204.60, compared to the December 2023 total. The new data put that month-over-month decline at $181,010.92.
Along with the TDT data from the Tax Collector’s Office, Visit Sarasota County, the county’s tourism marketing office, reports regularly on related information, which it receives from a Tallahassee firm with which it contracts, Downs & St. Germain Research.
In an April 10 email to local government leaders, Erin Duggan, president and CEO of Visit Sarasota County, reported the following details for February:
- The number of visitors to the county in February totaled 105,800 , which was a 1.7% decline from the February 2024 tally of 107,600.
- Visitors’ direct expenditures in February were $180,328,600, which marked a 1.4% drop, compared to the figure of $182,975,200 in February 2024.
- Lodging occupancy was 84.1%, compared to 81.9% in February 2024, marking an uptick of 2.7%).
- The average room rate was $335.68, which was up 7.4%, compared to the figure of $312.57 in February 2024.
- The number of room nights sold was 330,700, which was down 1.1% from the February 2024 count of 334,500.