We did a one month rental twice before buying in The Villages.

Totally agree. We were still working full time and could only take a week of vacation at a time when we first came here. If it weren’t for a short term villa we would never have moved here. You don’t get a feeling for life here staying in a hotel and we did not know about lifestyle visits until after that first stay. Not everyone can take a month off for vacation.

It’s a giant house of cards. If there were no STRs or rentals the Villages infrastructure would collapse.
The reason there are so many restaurants, golf courses and venues is because of the demand that cycles through and money that it brings.
Without that demand this place would become just another seniors subdivision.

When we came for our lifestyle visit, we stayed at a hotel, visited squares and open houses, etc and got a golf cart. Got a great taste for the villages without renting a bnb. Anyone who is doing short term rentals is doing it for the income and the higher risk of people who are undesirable because what do they care, they will be gone in three days! Who cares about your neighbors!

Developer rentals
 

You can bet Properties of The villages will still have rentals for their lifestyle programs.

short term rentals SUCK. they ruin neighborhoods. Thats why there are motels and hotels. We had to move from Fort Myers Beach because of short term rentals. Loud parties screaming kids ignorant people.

I wonder how many people that are supporting STR actually live next to one?

Imo, anything less than a month should not be allowed.

A small minority
 

I agree, only those that wish to rent or realtors is the answer to your question. Most homeowners don’t. I can see Wildwood passing an ordinance, but see it unlikely that unincorporated Sumter would. The ilk of money grabbers can’t be that large of a group. Of course they all ride on the backs of regular homeowners and residents who aren’t so keen on Airbnbs.

Let me understand this: You knew enough to find a STR in a villa, but you didn't know about lifestyle visits that are advertised prominently on the Villages website?????? OK.

There are about 800 Airbnb listings in TV, and pushing 80,000 homes. Yep, the whole place would collapse without STRs:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

Actually, who cares about the golf courses. Played with a guy this week who was in a rental for a week to play golf. He had no interest in buying anything in The Villages. With (Every) t-shot he took at least a 4”x6” divot and left the old T sticking in the ground. He didn’t try to repair anything, obviously he didn’t care about our courses. Just came here for a week for the free golf that somehow came with a weekly rental. He belonged to a country club in the north east. I’m guessing that he doesn’t get by treating his course that way. Bottom line, if every weekly renter treated our courses this way, they would be in terrible shape for the home owners of The Villages. Free golf included with a weekly rental is quite a perk for the owner and the renters!

[QUOTE=Normal;2411442]Cocoa Beach has found a solution to curb Airbnb’s,

Cocoa Beach is raising short-term rental fees, increasing application costs from $525 to $2,500 and annual renewals from $325 to $1,500.

City officials say the fees will shift regulatory costs from taxpayers to rental owners and fund more code enforcement.

While some property owners object, many residents support stricter oversight to curb noise and disturbances.

That would be the case here also. The fees would discourage people renting out for short term. Living next to revolving door is no picnic.

Agree with everything you wrote, but there is on important caveat that would not apply to Cocoa Beach. Coco Beach is not a for profit business. The Villages is a for profit business, therefore while it might greatly enhance the quality of life here (you are quite right having even one or more of these STR's on your street is a nightmare), curtailing in any way the buying of strings of properties (many by villages employees themselves, perfectly legal of course) would NOT be in the best interests of this for profit business. The Villages is not a charity endeavor like retirement developments built by churches and other NPO's where the primary goal is to provide a quality life for seniors without, of course, loosing money. The Villages stands only to gain from allowing and even promoting investments in building an income steam through property acquisition. Don't think we will ever see that discouraged here in the V's.

Seldom a week goes by that we do not see that kind of behavior ! Difficult to pin it all on the AB&B people, but one thing we noticed (it it means anything, who knows ?) is most villagers have their names on their golf carts. We did get curious enough about things like stepping ON the hole around the edges(!), hammering the head of a putter into the green when a putt is missed, never repairing ball marks or divots on tees or fairways, and definitely do never using sand ..... seems to be people in carts that have NO name(s) painted or decal, sooooo that could indicate and support what you suspect. We've heard many comments (one from a guy on the phone last week at the pool, literally calling friends and yelling into the phone "I'm telling you Dave, this is THE best deal you'll find in Florida, yes... again he said YES, ALL included, Yes, all the golf you want to play and about a thousand other activities, I'm telling you, this beats the H--- out of that all inclusive place we went in Cancun" . So, the word spreads fast what a great deal this resort actually is and the demand just keeps growing, and the villages is delighted that buying up income properties is so in demand.

That equals 1%. Now of that 1% how many have caused a problem ? Only first handers need reply. Have you had a problem ? Did you call the landlord ? Did you call the police ? MY instinct is there are many times more bad neighbors in absolute numbers than bad renters. The problem with that is a bad neighbor stays but the bad renter will disappear in a few days.

All for it, where do I sign the petition ? However, I know the truth is the villages development inc. long ago made sure they bought themselves every politician in the area, if not the state. If you are making a million a year from stiff STR taxes and such, and a billion a year from the private business that does NOT want any discouraging taxes, fees, and restrictions... well, think that says it all !