DBPR Vacation Rental License Lookup: Verify a Property

Key takeaways

DBPR publishes a free public license search covering licensed public lodging establishments, including vacation rental dwellings and condominiums.
Search by license number, business name, owner name, or address — address searches are the most useful for verifying a specific property.
Status matters: Active, Expired, Delinquent, Closed, and Null are not the same thing, and only one of them means the license is current.
A valid DBPR license does not establish that the property is compliant with city zoning, local registration, sales tax, or county tourist development tax.
If you cannot find a record you expect to exist, the likely causes are a name or entity mismatch, an address formatting difference, or a lapsed license.

Where the official lookup is

Use DBPR's own license verification search on myfloridalicense.com. It is free, requires no account, and is the authoritative source for the licenses DBPR issues. Third-party "license lookup" tools that repackage this data are unnecessary and can be stale.

The Division of Hotels and Restaurants is the DBPR division that licenses public lodging establishments, which is the statutory category that includes vacation rentals. When the search asks for a board or profession, that is the one you want.

DBPR license verification search — the public search interface.
Division of Hotels and Restaurants — division landing page with licensing information and contact details.

How to run the search

By license number

The most precise search if you already have the number — for example from a purchase contract, a prior renewal notice, or a document handed over at closing. It returns the single matching record.

By business or establishment name

Vacation rentals are frequently licensed under an LLC name or a property nickname rather than an owner's personal name. If a name search fails, try the LLC exactly as it appears on Sunbiz, including punctuation and the entity suffix.

By owner or officer name

Useful when you know the individual but not the entity. Bear in mind that a property held in a trust or a multi-member LLC may not surface under the name you expect.

By address or location

This is the search that matters most when you are verifying a specific property. Try the street number and street name without the suffix, then with it. Records are entered by humans, so "123 SW 4th St" and "123 Southwest 4th Street" can behave differently.

What the record shows

The detail page for a public lodging establishment generally shows a set of fields that let you evaluate the record without contacting the agency. Exact fields and labels can change as DBPR updates its systems, so treat the live page as authoritative.

Field	What it tells you	What to watch for
License number	The unique identifier for this establishment record	Keep it with your property records; you will need it for renewals and local registrations
License type / classification	Whether the record is a vacation rental dwelling, vacation rental condominium, or another lodging category	A mismatch between the classification and the actual unit type is worth resolving
Rank or unit count	How many units the record covers	A number that does not match your portfolio suggests the record needs updating
Status	Current standing of the license	See the status table below
Expiration date	When the current license period ends	Renewal cycles are date-driven; put this on a calendar
Licensee name	The legal party holding the license	Should match the current owning entity, not a prior owner or a dissolved LLC
Location address	The licensed premises	Should match the parcel, not a mailing or management address

Active, expired, delinquent, closed: reading the status

Status language varies across DBPR boards, and the meanings below are the general sense of the terms rather than legal definitions. If the status on a record you care about is anything other than clearly current, confirm the meaning with DBPR directly before acting on it.

Status	General meaning	Practical implication
Active / Current	The license period is in effect	Confirm the expiration date and the licensee name still match reality
Expired	The license period ended and was not renewed	Do not assume operation is authorized. See [what to do about an expired or inactive license](/resources/florida-vacation-rental-license-expired-inactive)
Delinquent	Renewal was not completed within the expected window	Usually recoverable, often with additional fees; act quickly and confirm requirements with DBPR
Closed / Null / Void	The record is no longer a live license	A new application is typically the path forward; confirm with DBPR
Pending	An application is in process	Not the same as authorized to operate; verify before taking bookings

A DBPR license is only one compliance layer

This is the part the lookup cannot tell you. A green "Active" status confirms one thing: the state lodging license is current. It says nothing about the four other layers that determine whether a Florida vacation rental is actually operating properly.

Layer	Who administers it	Visible in DBPR lookup?
State vacation rental license	DBPR, Division of Hotels and Restaurants	Yes
Florida sales tax and surtax registration	Florida Department of Revenue	No
County tourist development tax	Department of Revenue or the county tax collector, depending on the county	No
City or county vacation rental registration, certificate of use, or business tax receipt	The municipality or county	No
Zoning permission and private deed or HOA restrictions	Local land-use authority; private associations	No

We see this pattern constantly: a buyer verifies the seller's DBPR license, closes, and then discovers there is no county tourist development tax account and no city registration. If that is your situation, I have a DBPR license — what am I still missing? is the follow-up read.

Using the lookup as a buyer or a co-host

The lookup is a cheap and fast piece of due diligence, and it is worth running before you write an offer rather than after.

Search the property address and save a dated screenshot or PDF of the result.
Compare the licensee name against the seller entity on the contract and the Sunbiz record.
Check the expiration date against your expected closing date.
Confirm the classification matches the unit type — dwelling versus condominium.
Ask the seller for the DBPR renewal receipts, not just the license number.
Remember the license generally does not simply move with the property. See can I transfer a DBPR vacation rental license to a new owner.
Run the same due diligence on tax and local accounts, which the lookup does not cover. What documents you should receive when buying lists them.

What to do if you cannot find the record

An empty result is a data point, not a conclusion. Work through the likely explanations before drawing any inference.

Address formatting: try abbreviations, full street types, with and without unit numbers.
Entity name: the license may be held by an LLC, a trust, or a management company rather than the person you know.
Unit-level records: a condominium may be licensed individually or as part of a group or collective arrangement, which changes how it appears. See group and collective licensing.
Lapsed record: an expired license may still appear, but a very old closed record may be harder to surface.
No license was ever issued: this is a real possibility, and it is exactly the kind of gap worth resolving before you buy or before you take another booking.

When the search is inconclusive, call the Division of Hotels and Restaurants. They can confirm what exists for a given address in a way a public search sometimes cannot.

How Florida Host Desk helps

We run the state license verification as part of a broader review: state license status and classification, Department of Revenue sales tax registration, the county tourist development tax administrator and account, and whatever the city or county requires locally. You get one document showing what exists, what is missing, and the order to fix it in.

If the state license itself is the problem — never issued, wrong classification, wrong entity — our DBPR license application service handles the paperwork side.

Frequently asked questions

Is the DBPR vacation rental license lookup free?

Yes. DBPR's license verification search is a free public tool and does not require an account. Any site charging for a Florida vacation rental license lookup is reselling public data.

Can I search by property address?

Yes, the public search supports location searches. Address searches can be sensitive to formatting, so try variations of the street type and unit number if the first attempt returns nothing.

Does an Active license mean the property is fully compliant?

No. It means the state lodging license is current. County tourist development tax, state sales tax registration, and any city vacation rental registration or certificate of use are separate and do not appear in the DBPR record.

The license shows a previous owner's name. Is that a problem?

It usually needs to be resolved. Florida licenses are issued to a licensee, and a change of owner or entity typically requires action rather than passive inheritance. Confirm the required steps with DBPR before relying on the existing record.

What if the license is expired?

Do not treat expired as a technicality. Confirm the status and the renewal path with DBPR, and check whether ownership, entity, or property details also changed in the meantime. Our guide on an expired or inactive license walks through the sequence.

Can I look up whether a property I want to book is licensed?

Yes, and guests occasionally do. That is one more reason to keep your own record current and your licensee name accurate.

Official sources

These official sources were reviewed while preparing this article. Rules, forms, fees, and local ordinances change; confirm current details with the agency that has jurisdiction over your property.

Florida Host Desk provides administrative compliance research and support. Information on this page is general educational information and is not legal or tax advice. Regulations can change and property-specific requirements may vary. Last reviewed: August 2026.

Florida DBPR Vacation Rental License Lookup: How to Verify a Property