As businesses try to regain customers, several thousand owners of short-term vacation rental properties in Pinellas County can now take reservations for Memorial Day weekend after a state agency approved a county plan to let them reopen.
Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that short-term rentals could reopen once each county submitted a detailed plan on how the properties would operate. DeSantis halted new reservations in March to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
Pinellas County Administrator Barry Burton submitted a plan hours later to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation for approval. On Wednesday morning, Burton said he was disappointed that he had not heard anything from agency secretary Halsey Beshears, because property owners, including many small-business owners, want to take reservations for the weekend.
Halsey Beshears, secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, told Burton he approved the plan at 3:45 p.m., records show.
“I need that approval ASAP,” Burton said early Wednesday. “We have nothing to do with this ... In terms of regulation, they gave us no guidance or how it would be enforced. I hope the state enforces it."
The rentals can start taking reservations immediately. The agency approved plans for seven Panhandle counties on Tuesday.
The state set reopening guidelines for businesses such as restaurants, gyms and barbershops, but state officials ordered each county to craft a safety plan to reopen short-term rentals. The state regulates short-term rentals, and the county has no idea how many of those properties exist in the county, Burton said.
He also said he is perplexed that the state took away county oversight some time ago over the industry, but ordered counties to create plans to reopen thousands of rentals. Burton said he has empathy for the owners waiting to accept reservations, but the approval has to come from the state. He worries about visitors flocking to other counties where reservations can be accepted.
“A lot of these are small businesses," Burton said. "They’re desperate to try to keep their businesses going.”
Earlier this month, Burton and Gualtieri expressed frustration with the way DeSantis issued orders, but his administration refuses to answer questions from local officials.
The county’s six-page plans tells property owners to advise guests to practice social-distancing guidelines and to follow recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for employee safety and hygiene.
For property cleanliness, owners must follow all Department of Business and Professional Regulation sanitation guidelines and those issued by the Vacation Rental Housekeeping Professionals and Vacation Rental Management Association on May 1.
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