Snowbird RV rental: where Florida long term RV parks cap a winter stay

Key facts

• 14 of 17 verified parks cap a stay at 14 days per site from April 15 to September 15, all run by Encore / Equity LifeStyle Properties.
• For the 2026 to 2027 winter, the gap between the window closing and reopening is 212 days.
• 14 of the 14 capped parks publish a long-stay booking tier that tops out at 184 days (179 at Scenic RV Resort).
• 15 of 17 verified parks state they take a booking of 28 nights or more; 2 do not say.
• Under Florida Statutes 212.03, a written lease for longer than six months signed up front means no transient rentals tax; without one, the tax is paid for the first six months and stops after that.

Do Florida long term RV parks cap stays in winter?

Not the ones in this directory. 14 of the 17 verified parks publish a cap, and every one of them publishes the same window: 14 days per site from April 15 to September 15. None of them publishes a limit between September 15 and April 15.

That covers every one of the 13 verified Florida parks: all of them are capped. The 3 verified parks with no published cap are all in the Asheville, NC metro, where Scenic RV Resort is the one capped park outside Florida.

All 14 capped parks are run by Encore / Equity LifeStyle Properties, and the wording is the same on each park page, so it reads as a chain policy rather than 14 separate decisions.

No published cap is what those 3 parks state, not a promise that none exists, so ask before you book.

How long can a snowbird stay before the cap starts?

The window closes on September 15 and reopens on April 15. For the 2026 to 2027 winter that gap is 212 days. A stay inside it never meets the cap.

The cap is not the only limit. 14 of the capped parks publish a long-stay booking tier that tops out at 184 days (179 at Scenic RV Resort), which is shorter than the gap. A stay that fills the whole gap runs past the parks' own longest tier. 13 of the 14 say on their own pages how a longer stay is booked: an extended-stay reservation "lasting 185 days or more", made under an "Agreement for Use of RV Site" and secured with a $150 site holding deposit that, in the pages' words, "does not secure a specific site". To sign it you "must meet residency requirements", which the pages do not spell out. Read on October 14, 2026. Scenic RV Resort publishes a tier and no such route, so ask it directly.

A stay that runs past April 15 meets the 14-day limit per site. The park pages do not say whether a stay that began before April 15 is held to that limit once the window opens, so leaving before April 15 is the safe choice. If you cannot, ask the park how it treats a stay already in progress. All 14 capped parks say consecutive stays are allowed, and their pages give the condition: "Guests change sites between reservations". Filling the whole window that way is 11 bookings and 10 site changes in 154 days, and none of the pages says who picks the next site.

What changes if the stay runs past six months?

Florida Statutes 212.03(4) gives a long stay two routes out of the transient rentals tax. The first is a bona fide written lease for longer than six months for continuous residence, which takes the stay out of the tax from the start. The second is continuous residence longer than six months after paying the tax for the first six months, which exempts the stay from then on.

So the written lease decides whether the tax is paid at all. Signed up front for longer than six months, it means no transient rentals tax on the stay. Without it, a stay that runs past six months pays the tax for the first six months, and the tax stops after that.

Subsection (4) lists the places it covers, including a "tourist or trailer camp". Read it on the statute page linked below.

Florida Statutes 513.01 treats an RV park guest registered for six months or less as transient. Six calendar months run 181 to 184 days depending on the start month, and the uncapped gap is 212 days, so a winter stay can cross that line without meeting the April 15 cap.

The operator's extended-stay route starts at 185 days, and six calendar months never run past 184, so every stay under its "Agreement for Use of RV Site" is longer than six months. Whether that agreement is the bona fide written lease 212.03(4) means is not stated on any park page we read (read October 14, 2026). Ask before arrival, in writing, because the answer decides whether the first six months are taxed. Florida adds a county local option rate on top of the 6 percent state rate, and it varies by county: 5.0 to 6.0 percent across the 5 counties of the towns this directory measures, on DR-15TDT. Each town page in the park directory prints its county's rate. A county discretionary sales surtax may also apply, so treat that figure as a floor and confirm it with the Florida Department of Revenue.

Which metros have verified parks for a winter stay?

The directory has 2 published Florida metros, with 13 verified parks between them.

The Tampa Bay park directory has 5 verified parks, all 5 capped: Winter Quarters Pasco RV Resort in Lutz, Vacation Village RV Resort in Largo, Silver Dollar Golf, Trap Club & RV Resort in Odessa, Terra Ceia Village RV Resort in Palmetto, Winter Quarters Manatee RV Resort in Bradenton.

The Fort Myers park directory has 8 verified parks, all 8 capped: Sunseekers RV Park in Fort Myers, Pioneer Village RV Resort in North Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach RV Resort in Fort Myers, Encore Tranquility Lakes in Cape Coral, Gulf Air RV Resort in Fort Myers Beach, Pine Island RV Resort in Saint James City, Gulf View RV Resort in Punta Gorda, Harbor Lakes RV Resort in Port Charlotte.

Each park page lists what the park publishes and what it leaves to a phone call, with the date the record was read.

Do these parks take mail, pets and storage for a season?

Across all 17 verified parks: 7 list a mail center, 15 say they take pets, and 4 list RV storage.

The rest are unpublished, not refused. On mail, 10 parks do not list it and none says no. On pets, 2 do not say and none says no. On storage, 13 do not list it and none says no.

For a season, a mail center decides where your post goes for months. If the park page does not list one, ask whether it accepts guest mail and packages before you change your forwarding address.

When is a Florida RV park season paid for?

All 13 verified Florida park pages print the same schedule for a stay of a month or longer: a one-month deposit, capped at $750, when you reserve; for "4 to 5 Months", "50% of balance is due on reservation start date", then "Final balance due on 1st day of 2nd month of reservation"; for "6 months or longer", "50% of balance due on reservation start date", then "25% of balance due on 1st day of 2nd month of reservation", then "Final balance is due on 1st day of 3rd month of reservation". Read October 14, 2026.

So a season of 6 months or more is paid in full on the 1st day of its 3rd month, with months still to run. 12 of the 13 also say there is no refund for leaving early; Pine Island RV Resort prints no early-departure line, so ask it.

Settle your departure date, and how it sits against the April 15 cap, before that final payment. After it, 12 of the 13 pages offer no money back for leaving early. The pages do not say which bracket covers a stay between 5 and 6 months, so ask which schedule your dates fall under.

What to ask a park before booking a season

Of the 13 verified Florida parks, none publishes an answer to any of these 6 questions: invoices monthly in the guest's name; accepts an insurance-funded booking; holds a pad while a claim is decided; sewer at the pad; water at the pad; electric metered separately.

Electric billing comes first for a season. None of the 17 verified parks states whether electric is metered separately. All 13 verified Florida park pages say "Electricity is not included for stays of 30 days or longer" (read October 14, 2026), and only Winter Quarters Pasco RV Resort adds "Any stay of 30 days or longer will incur a monthly electric bill". That says how often it is billed and does not say whether it is read from a meter or charged as a flat amount. Ask how electric is billed before you compare one park's monthly total with another's.

Then ask the cap questions the pages leave open: whether the "Agreement for Use of RV Site" is a written lease under 212.03(4) and what its residency requirements are, whether a stay that began before April 15 is held to the 14-day limit, whether a stay can run past April 15 on the same site, and whether the park signs a written lease longer than six months.

Florida park directories in this guide

• Long term RV parks in Tampa Bay (5 verified)
• Long term RV parks in Fort Myers (8 verified)
• The full park directory

Questions people ask

Can I stay at a Florida RV park all winter?

Yes on the cap: every one of the 13 verified Florida parks in this directory is capped, but only from April 15 to September 15, at 14 days per site, and none publishes a winter limit. Their own long-stay tier tops out at 184 days; every one of them publishes an extended stay of 185 days or more under an "Agreement for Use of RV Site", with residency requirements the pages do not spell out, so ask for those before arrival.

What happens if my winter stay runs past April 15?

From April 15 the capped parks limit a stay to 14 days per site, and their pages do not say whether a stay that began before April 15 is held to it. Leaving before April 15 is the safe choice; otherwise ask the park. All 14 allow a consecutive booking on the condition "Guests change sites between reservations", which over the whole window is 11 bookings and 10 site changes in 154 days.

Do I pay Florida tax on a six-month RV park stay?

Florida Statutes 212.03 gives two routes. A bona fide written lease for longer than six months, signed up front, means no transient rentals tax on the stay; without one, you pay the tax for the first six months and it stops after that. No park page we read says whether the park signs such a lease, so ask before arrival.

Is electric metered separately at these parks?

None of the 17 verified parks states whether electric is metered separately. All 13 verified Florida park pages say "Electricity is not included for stays of 30 days or longer" (read October 14, 2026), and only Winter Quarters Pasco RV Resort adds "Any stay of 30 days or longer will incur a monthly electric bill". That says how often it is billed and does not say whether it is read from a meter or charged as a flat amount. Ask the park before you compare monthly totals.

Does Long Term RV Rentals rent the RV itself?

Long Term RV Rentals is a directory of parks that take long stays. Escape RMC fulfills long term RV placements for Long Term RV Rentals. Request a quote on the contact page.

What to do next

1. Fix your departure date against April 15 before you book anything.
2. Compare the parks in the Fort Myers and Tampa Bay park directories.
3. Call your shortlist with the open questions above, electric billing first, then the "Agreement for Use of RV Site" and its residency requirements if the season runs past 184 days.
4. If the season will run past six months, ask the park before arrival for a written lease for longer than six months; without one, the tax is paid for the first six months.
5. Request a quote for the RV itself on the contact page.

How we know

Each finding below names its source, what we did to it, what it means for you and what it costs to ignore.

Reviewed by Long Term RV Rentals editorial. Published 2026-09-23. Updated 2026-10-14.