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James Bentwood

Beach Fanatic
Feb 24, 2005
1,493
606
Tourist Development Tax collection showed an impressive 20.28% increase in South Walton for May 2019, compared with the previous year. The Tourist Development Tax, or bed tax, is a four percent tax collected on hotels, condos and other short term rentals. It is the best way to gauge visitation and demand trends in South Walton. The revenue supports tourism marketing and beach operations including cleaning and maintaining beaches, lifeguards, destination improvements and preservation initiatives.

Can someone tell me how this is possible when I hear from rental companies that business is down?
 

FactorFiction

Beach Fanatic
Feb 18, 2016
494
409
Tourist Development Tax collection showed an impressive 20.28% increase in South Walton for May 2019, compared with the previous year. The Tourist Development Tax, or bed tax, is a four percent tax collected on hotels, condos and other short term rentals. It is the best way to gauge visitation and demand trends in South Walton. The revenue supports tourism marketing and beach operations including cleaning and maintaining beaches, lifeguards, destination improvements and preservation initiatives.

Can someone tell me how this is possible when I hear from rental companies that business is down?
Maybe because the scenario isn't the doom and gloom that some predict? What gets written about on social media is the worst case and the places where conflict arises. It would be really interesting to know how much ACTUAL conflict there is instead of just what the fear mongers have been/are predicting. A friend of mine who is a rental manager says some locations/properties have been aversely affected, but that others are booming. She noted that the main difference has been that there have been more late reservations this year instead of everything filling up by March or so.
 

James Bentwood

Beach Fanatic
Feb 24, 2005
1,493
606
Maybe because the scenario isn't the doom and gloom that some predict? What gets written about on social media is the worst case and the places where conflict arises. It would be really interesting to know how much ACTUAL conflict there is instead of just what the fear mongers have been/are predicting. A friend of mine who is a rental manager says some locations/properties have been aversely affected, but that others are booming. She noted that the main difference has been that there have been more late reservations this year instead of everything filling up by March or so.
It doesn't add up. Every year they keep increasing tax collections. We are adding new units but rental companies say business is down. I suspected resorts like Seaside, Watersound, rosemary beach, sandestin might get more business because of the provate beaches but they also say business is down. And they are pretty built out so not adding new units each year like seagrove and other free zones. Maybe improved collections from people who didn't pay before?
 

FactorFiction

Beach Fanatic
Feb 18, 2016
494
409
It doesn't add up. Every year they keep increasing tax collections. We are adding new units but rental companies say business is down. I suspected resorts like Seaside, Watersound, rosemary beach, sandestin might get more business because of the provate beaches but they also say business is down. And they are pretty built out so not adding new units each year like seagrove and other free zones. Maybe improved collections from people who didn't pay before?

Improved collections may be part of it and rising rental prices contribute, too.
 

Lake View Too

SoWal Insider
Nov 16, 2008
6,849
8,277
Eastern Lake
It doesn't add up. Every year they keep increasing tax collections. We are adding new units but rental companies say business is down. I suspected resorts like Seaside, Watersound, rosemary beach, sandestin might get more business because of the provate beaches but they also say business is down. And they are pretty built out so not adding new units each year like seagrove and other free zones. Maybe improved collections from people who didn't pay before?
It could be that there are so many more start up rental agencies and many people just renting through VRBO that makes the figures for the established big rental companies go down.
 

James Bentwood

Beach Fanatic
Feb 24, 2005
1,493
606
Improved collections may be part of it and rising rental prices contribute, too.
Rising prices could be part of it. But that would make TDC bragging BS if they are crowing about putting more heads in beds.

It could be that there are so many more start up rental agencies and many people just renting through VRBO that makes the figures for the established big rental companies go down.
Good point except wouldn't the other side of the equation stay the same, or likely go down with less reporting? So tax revenues would stay same or drop.
 

Kurt

Admin
Staff member
Oct 15, 2004
2,232
4,923
SoWal
mooncreek.com
Spring Visitor Tracking Study:

The Spring 2019 Visitor Tracking Survey results show strong continued growth in key economic impacts versus Spring 2018.

Room night visits rose by 5.4%, total visitor numbers were up by 8.2% and direct spending rose by 9.7% to exceed $900 million. For lodging partners, occupancy grew by 2.8% and ADR and RevPAR were both up at $304.42 and $186.00 respectively.

The research confirmed Atlanta remained the lead origin of Spring visitors, followed by Pensacola/Mobile, Nashville and Birmingham. Four out of 10 visitors plan their Spring vacation to South Walton four months in advance, and nearly 2 out of 5 visitors viewed the Visit South Walton visitor guide before travelling.

The typical visitor party size was 5 or 6 guests and more than 80% of visitors in Spring 2019 drove to the destination.

The full study can be accessed here.
 

Kurt

Admin
Staff member
Oct 15, 2004
2,232
4,923
SoWal
mooncreek.com
SoWal.com website visitors up 58% for May 2019 over same month last year.
SoWal.com website visitors up 26.5% for 2019 through Jun 30 over same period last year.
Vistors to SoWal.com hail from, in order:
Atlanta
Mobile-Pensacola
NOLA
Orlando
Nashville
Dallas
Birmingham
Tallahassee
Houston
Tampa-St. Pete
Chicago
New York
Washington DC
Memphis
St. Louis
Jacksonville
Louisville
 

BlueMtnBeachVagrant

Beach Fanatic
Jun 20, 2005
1,305
386
FWIW, this year is a little different regarding state sales tax collection on VRBO rentals. VRBO is now obligated to collect AND directly submit ALL of the state portion of “transient rental” sales tax to Florida. However, the owner / management company still must submit the county TDC tax portion directly as it has been through the years. Does this figure in to the discrepancy of “slower busniness” vs. “more tax revenue”? Inquiring minds (conspiracy theorists) want to know.
 

Dawn

Beach Fanatic
Oct 16, 2008
1,198
519
FWIW, this year is a little different regarding state sales tax collection on VRBO rentals. VRBO is now obligated to collect AND directly submit ALL of the state portion of “transient rental” sales tax to Florida. However, the owner / management company still must submit the county TDC tax portion directly as it has been through the years. Does this figure in to the discrepancy of “slower busniness” vs. “more tax revenue”? Inquiring minds (conspiracy theorists) want to know.
I don't follow.
 
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