Florida runs every kind of STR market at once: urban units in Miami and Tampa, beach houses from Destin to the Keys, and resort communities ringing Orlando. Peak pricing is strong enough to justify real risk-taking, which is exactly why discipline matters here more than anywhere.
The wind problemHurricane and wind coverage is non-negotiable and expensive, with named-storm and wind deductibles commonly set as a percentage of dwelling value that scales with coastal proximity. Flood is almost always excluded from the property policy and has to be bought separately, through the NFIP or private flood markets. After years of carrier exits, a growing share of Florida STRs end up in surplus lines or with the state-backed insurer of last resort, which brings its own limits and assessments. None of this makes a Florida STR uninsurable. It makes the structure of the program the entire game.
Flood-related losses are the single largest denial category, usually because there was no flood policy at all. Hurricane claims are denied on underwriting misstatements about distance to coast or elevation, which is why the application matters as much as the policy. And wind-versus-water disputes, where the carrier attributes damage to excluded storm surge rather than covered wind, are a recurring fight after every major landfall.
Florida partially preempts local STR bans, but municipalities regulate aggressively through registration, occupancy, and inspection regimes, and enforcement budgets are real, with some cities historically issuing five-figure fines. State law around vacation rentals continues to move; treat any summary, including this one, as a starting point for current verification.