Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Associated PressJuly 27, 2017

For decades, a well-funded conservative group has helped state lawmakers across the U.S. write legislation to rein in unions, expand charter schools and lower taxes. Now, it’s expanding to the final frontier: normally nonpartisan city halls and county governments, which have become a bastion of liberal resistance to President Donald Trump. The American Legislative Exchange […]

Scott PowersJuly 23, 2017

Florida International University has been dropped from a controversial research contract proposed by the American Hotel & Lodging Association that had been criticized as potentially unethical by the national watchdog group Checks & Balances Project. A spokeswoman for the university advised FloridaPolitics.com that it has been notified that it is not receiving the AH&LA $68,209 […]

Scott PowersJuly 20, 2017

A watchdog group called the Checks & Balances Project is charging that the leading hotel industry association may be paying Florida International University to produce research for the industry’s lobbying against Airbnb and other home-sharing marketing companies. “The hotel industry’s hotel industry’s lobbying arm, the American Hotel & Lobbying Association, has an aggressive pay-to-play academic […]

Scott PowersJune 27, 2017

Vacation home-rental marketing giant Airbnb said Tuesday its expanding list of tax agreements and its growing business should lead it to equal last year’s total sales and tourist tax payments just in the first six months of 2017. The company announced that its five-month totals in sales and tourist taxes paid to the state and […]

Scott PowersJune 8, 2017

Lodging alternative marketing service Airbnb released figures Thursday that shows families and friends of college graduates piled into vacation rental homes from Pensacola to Miami Guests booking rooms in Airbnb-marketed vacation rental homes more than doubled in Gainesville and Tallahassee during the University of Florida and Florida A&M University commencement weeks in April. Tallahassee also […]

Peter SchorschMay 26, 2017

Summertime is here — well, almost. While Memorial Day commemorates the men and women who died while serving in the country’s armed forces, the holiday also marks the unofficial start to summer. And for many people, that means it’s time to start thinking about summer vacation. More than 39.9 million Americans are expected to travel more […]

Peter SchorschMay 12, 2017

Airbnb, the online marketplace that allows people to find and rent vacation homes, has formed a political committee in Florida, state campaign finance records show. “People versus the Powerful” was formed April 6 for the purpose of “supporting or opposing statewide, legislative, multi-county and local candidates,” according to its statement of organization. Its chairman is Tomas Martinelli […]

Scott PowersApril 28, 2017

Local governments that went too far in trying to crack down on or drive out vacation rental homes now face the prospect that they may not be able to do anything to specifically regulate such properties. The Florida House of Representatives approved House Bill 425 Friday 63-56, essentially re-instituting a 2011 ban on cities or counties imposing […]

Scott PowersApril 28, 2017

Republican state Rep. Rene Plasencia and his family are starring in a new promotional internet video released Friday by the vacation rental home marketing giant Airbnb. The minute, 41-second video shows interviews with Plasencia, his wife Marucci Guzman, and her daughter [his stepdaughter,] in scenes at vacation homes they have rented through Airbnb in Georgia […]

Scott PowersApril 20, 2017

Vacation rental home marketing giant Airbnb and five of its Miami hosts have won a preliminary victory in Miami that temporarily blocks that city’s ban on such operations in residential neighborhoods. In a suit that Airbnb and five vacation rental homeowners filed last week, Circuit Judge Beatrice Butchko issued a temporary restraining order late Wednesday […]

Tag: Airbnb

U.S. conservatism expands to final frontier: City hall

FIU out of anti-Airbnb, hotel association research project

Watchdog group claims hotel industry, FIU, teaming for anti-Airbnb research

Airbnb says county agreements should lead it to equal 2016 tax payments in first six months

College graduates’ families, friends pump up Airbnb bookings

Memorial Day Weekend brought to you by these lobbyists and associations

Airbnb opens Florida political committee with $1 million

House votes to strip away local regulations of vacation rental homes

Rene Plasencia stars in Airbnb promotional video

Airbnb wins stay against Miami anti-vacation rental home rules