The Last Trip on the Old Sanibel Drawbridge

If this works, you will be able to see a YouTube presentation of my last drive across the Sanibel Bridge & Causeway prior to its replacement by the new fly-over span.

Theatre of the Absurd Renter

Overheard today -

Someone rents a house on Sanibel Captiva.

The rental is booked through a travel agent.

The rental management firm accepts the booking.

The guest arrives on Sanibel Captiva with the address of the rental in his pocket, courtesy of the travel agency.

The guest goes directly to the property. Since he arrives before the previous guest has checked put, he and his family move right in.

(Important point: If you have ever shown up at at hotel before check in time, you know the staff will not let you into the room before it has been cleaned.)

He and his family move into the room bags and all. There vacation on Sanibel Captiva begins.

There is a problem with the power to a guest house. The owner has not paid the electric bill and the power has been cutoff. Upon notification, the rental manager immediately cuts a check (out of his own funds) to pay the electric company to restore the power.

Numerous additional trips are required as the guests require more dishes, more implements, more service. All is done promptly and with a smile. After all the guest comes first.

The guest was joined by a family fourteen and they stayed throughout the remainder of the rental.

Now the guest calls, demanding five of his days be credited because the house was not habitable.

Yet, his family used the house for the full term of the rental.

His complaint is the house was not clean. But he had not checked in at the rental manager's office and had gone directly to the house BEFORE it was cleaned. When the cleaning crew showed up, they could not do their job because the guest already had occupied the house.

The next complaint was that the house was not as it had been represented to him. Yet, the representation was not from the rental manager. It was from a third party travel agent, a party over which the rental manager had no control.

Yet the guest wanted his money back for five of his seven day rental because the travel agent had "misrepresented" the property. Yet the guest had never checked with the rental manager or the rental manager's web site to confirm the condition of the house.

Nevertheless, out of feeling of responsibility for a happy guest, the rental manager refunded a portion of the guest's fees.

It was not enough for this very demanding guest, who could not grasp that he was operating under representations from a third party that had never visited the property, that he had moved into the premises without checking in and prior to the cleaning and that he and his family had used the facilities for the full term of the rental.

They chose to complain only AFTER they had checked out.

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Taxes in Paradise

Perhaps you already know that Lee County levies a 5% tax on rentals that are less that 6 months long.

That pretty much includes all tourist accommodations.

The 5% room tax is in addition to the State of Florida's 6% sales tax.

Therefore, any rental on Sanibel - Captiva should include an 11% surcharge on your rental.

That's a sizable up-charge, and no one likes to pay taxes anyway.

The 6% State tax goes to pay for state government and infrastructure.

The 5% County tax goes to pay for promotion of the County as a tourism destination, for beach and shoreline renewal and tourism related facilities such as construction of the Twins Spring Training stadium.

Now, you may or may not agree with the tax, the uses of it or the size of it. I personally think when it went from 3% to 5% that there was an unintended consequence lurking in there somewhere.

Clearly, all of the purposes to which the tax revenue is applied are legitimate in one way or another.

Promotion of the destination supports the tourism infrastructure by informing potential visitors about Lee County attractions (read Sanibel-Captiva as a large part thereof). The resulting business supports hotels, motels, attractions, restaurants, stores and vacation rental companies. Absent the business, these assets would wither. Coming here would be a lot less pleasant.

Similarly, tax revenue that restores the beaches and enhances the shoreline makes this a nicer place to live as well as to visit. And with crummy beaches, who would want to come here?

Even the Spring Training facility pumps millions of dollars into the economy. It now is also used to host national sports competitions, attracting players and families who bring their money, leave it and go home.

Let's get to the unintended consequence. As the total dollar amount of an 11% tax began to push the upper limits of acceptability, ie. how much extra are you willing to pay for a room somewhere, an incipient revolt is materializing.

It takes two forms. One is nothing new. Some private owners of condos or houses, who rent them directly to visitors, fail to collect taxes and/or collect them and fail to forward them in full to the county. I'm not an attorney, but it seems to me the former is misdemeanor stuff, while the latter may felonious.

Anyway, as a tempting as it may be to a visitor to cut a deal by not paying taxes, consider that once someone steps over the line in one part of his or her operation, when and where is the next step over the line? Health department inspections? Pest control?

I have a pretty good idea why any owner would do this, since he or she is not paying the tax out of his or her personal bank account. I think they believe if they can offer a cheap (tax-free) price, they will rent more weeks in their unit(s). Doesn't that put the people who are following the rules at a disadvantage to those who sidestep them? How fair is that? How constructive to the destination and industry, the same destination and industry the visitor relies on?

As for the newer revolt, a real estate company has proposed "unbundling" rents. That is, if an owner has baked certain costs such as association fees, cleaning costs, trash disposal, swimming pool maintenance, etc.
into the rent for the unit, that is the amount on which the tax is based. But what if those items are "unbundled" from the rent and charged separately, as fees? Theoretically, they would not be subject to the room tax under current law. The renter would receive two bills: one for taxable room rent, the other for untaxed "services." The real estate company claims to have a memo approval of the idea from the State Department of Revenue.

If this ruling goes through, I suspect room tax revenue will be reduced by at least as much, maybe more, than the additional 2 percentage points that it was increased last year.

Am I wrong?

It's turtle nesting season on Sanibel

According to the City of Sanibel, turtle nesting season runs from the end of May through October on the beaches of Sanibel Island. That is the season when turtles come ashore and build their nests. Over the course of the season, the hatchlings emerge from the nests and head for the water.

At least, that is nature's plan. The hatchlings are attracted by the moonlight reflecting off the Gulf water. It's been that way for centuries. It always worked.

These days, however, human activity threatens to alter the pattern - and destroy the hatch.

Beach lighting, from beachfront housing, can confuse the baby turtles and send them scrambling up the beach instead of down to the water. There, they become dehydrated and easy prey for birds.

As a result, City codes require that lights on the beach be doused or deflected during turtle nesting season.

Word to humans who visit Sanibel during nesting season is to be very careful on the beaches, don't walk in or disturb areas that have been identified as turtle nests, watch your step after dark, be cautious in any use of flashlights.

Let the turtles live.

Welcome to Sanibel Captiva for Travelers

This is the kickoff issue of this blog, which will have as its intent to offer information about Sanibel & Captiva Islands on the Florida Gulf Coast.

We will provide news about events, restaurant and attraction reviews, recommendations for accommodations and generally outrageous opinions about what works on Sanibel and Captiva and what doesn't but should.

We will entertain comments. Constructive ones will be allowed to stay for the edification of visitors to the blog. Destructive ones will end up in the blog dumpster.

Stand by. More blog postings will come in the near future.

And thank you for your pioneering interest.