Miami Beach Ranks #5 For Spring Break Rentals; See Who Ranks #1

MIAMI BEACH, FL — While many people associate Miami Beach with spring break, it turns out that the city only ranked fifth in a new survey of the most popular Florida rental destinations for the annual celebration of sun, surf and debauchery. HomeToGo, which lists more than 200,000 vacation rentals on its search engine, reported the most popular destinations in the Sunshine State to be Panama City Beach, Destin, Sanibel Island and Fort Lauderdale.

While some hotels were included in the findings, company spokesman Dominic Walker in Berlin told Patch that most of the listings on HomeToGo represent rental houses or apartments, which could skew the findings toward cities with fewer hotel rooms.

"Sometimes attracting the wrong kind of headlines, Spring Break has become a byword for hedonism," the website penned. "Instead of focusing on the exuberant few who concern communities in Florida, we wanted to find out how much Florida's economy benefits from the yearly influx of Spring Break vacationers of all ages staying in vacation rentals. Families also look to make the most of the school vacations, and others simply search for some much-coveted warmth after the chilly winter period."

The findings were based on the number of listings posted on HomeToGo.com in each of the destinations; average group size; average occupancy rate during Spring Break; average spend of a visitor when visiting Florida. The results focused on a 6-week period from the beginning of March to mid-April. Visit Florida supplied data on the amount spent by the average visitor in Florida as well as breakdown of what tourists spent their money on.

The average visitor spent 32 percent of their vacation budget on accommodations followed by 23 percent on food and drink; 10 percent on transportation; 19 percent on entertainment and 16 percent on other categories, according to the study.

Rounding out the top 10 Florida destinations were Orlando, Clearwater, Fort Myers, Anna Maria Island and Daytona Beach.

Cape Coral ranked 11th followed by Siesta Key, Key West, West Palm Beach and Pensacola Beach.

Read more on the findings by clicking here.

Photo by Paul Scicchitano