Welcome to your daily briefing on hospitality developments in Florida. Today we're covering 6 key stories including updates on florida hospitality headlines, background & context. Let's dive in.
3 stories
The Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco has announced the drawing results for the 2025 quota alcoholic beverage license entry period.
Hospitality operators across FL need quota licenses to legally serve beer, wine, and spirits, making these results critical for new bar and restaurant openings.
Recent emergency closures of public food service establishments can be viewed by selecting the 'Emergency Closures' option on the state's public records portal.
Florida hospitality operators and managers can monitor enforcement trends and stay informed about compliance issues affecting similar establishments statewide.
Beverage License Specialists offers assistance to businesses seeking to obtain a liquor license in Florida.
Navigating Florida's liquor license process is critical for hospitality venues aiming to serve alcohol legally and open on schedule.
Reach professionals in this market
3 stories
Short-term rental platforms collect and remit local occupancy tax in some jurisdictions and not others — the same platform may handle it for one city and not the next over. Hosts who assume the platform handles all tax obligations frequently owe state or local tax that was never withheld.
Tax authorities are increasingly using platform data to identify hosts; back-tax assessments in this category routinely run multi-year and include penalties.
Inspectors typically scan refrigeration and hot-hold logs for entries before service shifts as the first compliance signal. A log with all entries at exactly the same time each day reads as fabricated; a log with realistic time variance and occasional out-of-range entries with documented corrective action reads as authentic.
A fabricated-looking log is harder to defend than an honest one with corrective actions. Inspectors who spot the pattern escalate other findings.
Federal FLSA permits tip-credit on wages only for employees who customarily and regularly receive tips, and only for the time spent on tip-producing duties. Many states (and the federal "80/20" rule) limit how much side-work can be performed while paying tip-credit wage. Polishing silverware for an hour at the start of shift is the most common silent violation.
Wage-and-hour collective actions in restaurants frequently win on the side-work issue and produce back-pay liability across all tipped staff in the lookback period.
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