Miami Beach, FL Short-Term Rentals: Occupancy Limits (2026)

City Code Sec. 102-386(e) sets the bedroom-based headcount for every legally permitted short-term residential rental in Miami Beach: two persons per bedroom, with children under two years old excluded from the count. That formula is a ceiling, not a guarantee, because the same subsection layers on a second, independent limit: regardless of the bedroom math, occupancy can never exceed the maximum occupant load the Florida Building Code or Florida Fire Prevention Code assigns to that residential property. A three-bedroom unit that would otherwise allow six occupants under the bedroom rule still has to drop to a lower number if the building or fire code caps the unit's occupant load below that figure.

The requirement sits inside Sec. 102-386, the same section that conditions a business tax receipt, resort tax registration certificate, and any advertising of the property on compliance with all of the section's property-owner duties, so an occupancy violation is enforced alongside the section's broader business tax receipt and certificate of use scheme. Code compliance verifies occupancy during the inspections tied to issuance or renewal of the business tax receipt and certificate of use under Sec. 102-386(d), and the property owner must keep a guest register under Sec. 102-386(k)(5) that is open to city inspection, which is the paper trail used to check compliance after the fact.