Florida / Economic data / Licensed businesses / Highlands
Highlands County licensed businesses
Active food service, lodging and alcoholic beverage licenses in Highlands County from DBPR's license files, by type and by city, with new licenses by month. Consumer spending in Highlands County.
Active licenses as of DBPR's extracts of Sep 28, 2026 (food service), Sep 28, 2026 (lodging) and Oct 1, 2026 (alcoholic beverages). New lodging licenses exclude vacation rentals, which have their own count.
By city
Census incorporated places (cities, towns and villages) and the unincorporated remainder of the county. Sort any column; select a place for its page.
| Place | Food service | Restaurants, seating | Lodging | Hotels and motels | Vacation rentals | Alcohol | New food service, 12 months | New lodging | New vacation rentals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avon Park | 39 | 32 | 23 | 4 | 1 | 43 | 8 | n/a | n/a |
| Lake Placid | 45 | 29 | 13 | 2 | 4 | 37 | 5 | n/a | n/a |
| Sebring | 114 | 92 | 55 | 10 | 16 | 100 | 10 | n/a | n/a |
| Unincorporated Highlands County | 56 | 33 | 98 | 5 | 70 | 67 | 5 | n/a | n/a |
New licenses
New licenses by monthHighlands County12 months to Aug 2026: Food service 28; Lodging, except vacation rentals n/a; Vacation rentals n/a; Alcoholic beverages 27
New food service and lodging licenses by the month DBPR approved them, from the new establishment files, initial licenses only. Alcoholic beverage licenses by the month first issued, licenses still active only, so earlier years understate openings. A month inside a published file with no new license is zero; a month no file covers is left blank. Closures recorded since the first extract: Food service 0, Lodging, except vacation rentals 0, Vacation rentals 0, Alcoholic beverages 0.
New licenses by month, last 12 months
| Month | Food service | Lodging, except vacation rentals | Vacation rentals | Alcoholic beverages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 2 | n/a | n/a | 2 |
| Oct 2025 | 6 | n/a | n/a | 2 |
| Nov 2025 | 1 | n/a | n/a | 0 |
| Dec 2025 | 1 | n/a | n/a | 3 |
| Jan 2026 | 2 | n/a | n/a | 1 |
| Feb 2026 | 2 | n/a | n/a | 3 |
| Mar 2026 | 2 | n/a | n/a | 4 |
| Apr 2026 | 1 | n/a | n/a | 2 |
| May 2026 | 6 | n/a | n/a | 3 |
| Jun 2026 | 1 | n/a | n/a | 2 |
| Jul 2026 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Aug 2026 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 months | 28 | n/a | n/a | 27 |
n/a: no published file covers the month. See the explained gaps on the sources page.
Active licenses by type
| License type | Division | Code | Active | DBPR summary | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food service, non-seating | Food service | 2010-NOST | 18 | 18 | 0 |
| Food service, seating | Food service | 2010-SEAT | 186 | 186 | 0 |
| Theme park food cart | Food service | 2012-PARK | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Catering | Food service | 2013-CATR | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Hot dog cart | Food service | 2014-HTDG | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Mobile food dispensing vehicle | Food service | 2014-MFDV | 46 | 46 | 0 |
| Vending machine | Food service | 2015-VEND | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hotel | Lodging | 2001-HOTL | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| Motel | Lodging | 2002-MOTL | 11 | 11 | 0 |
| Nontransient apartment | Lodging | 2003-NAPT | 70 | 70 | 0 |
| Transient apartment | Lodging | 2003-TAPT | 7 | 7 | 0 |
| Bed and breakfast | Lodging | 2005-BNB | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Vacation rental condominium, collective | Lodging | 2006-CNDO-CLCT | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Vacation rental condominium, group | Lodging | 2006-CNDO-GRP | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Vacation rental condominium, single | Lodging | 2006-CNDO-SNGL | 7 | 6 | +1 |
| Vacation rental dwelling, collective | Lodging | 2007-DWEL-CLCT | 7 | 7 | 0 |
| Vacation rental dwelling, group | Lodging | 2007-DWEL-GRP | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Vacation rental dwelling, single | Lodging | 2007-DWEL-SNGL | 72 | 70 | +2 |
| Club | Alcoholic beverages | 11C | 15 | ||
| Club, golf | Alcoholic beverages | 11CG | 3 | ||
| Club | Alcoholic beverages | 11PA | 1 | ||
| Caterer | Alcoholic beverages | 13CT | 1 | ||
| Beer, package sales | Alcoholic beverages | 1APS | 6 | ||
| Beer, consumption on premises | Alcoholic beverages | 1COP | 3 | ||
| Beer and wine, package sales | Alcoholic beverages | 2APS | 102 | ||
| Beer and wine, consumption on premises | Alcoholic beverages | 2COP | 58 | ||
| Liquor package store (quota) | Alcoholic beverages | 3PS | 11 | ||
| Liquor, consumption on premises (quota) | Alcoholic beverages | 4COP | 16 | ||
| Liquor, consumption on premises (quota), special hotel or motel | Alcoholic beverages | 4COP-S | 1 | ||
| Liquor, consumption on premises (quota), special food service (restaurant) | Alcoholic beverages | 4COP-SFS | 29 | ||
| Liquor, consumption on premises (quota), special historic hotel | Alcoholic beverages | 4COP-SH | 1 |
DBPR's HR400C summary dated Oct 1, 2026; the extract is from a different day, so small differences are expected and the build fails beyond 1.5% or 15 licenses. Group and collective vacation rental licenses list units in more than one county and are checked statewide only. Temporary event food vendors are in DBPR's file but not its summary, and are not counted. An alcohol license is active at primary status 20, Current; DBPR publishes no current alcohol summary to compare with.
Active licenses on July 1 of each year, as DBPR publishes them
DBPR's HR400C summaries: a snapshot each July 1 since 2017 and the latest monthly summary. These are DBPR's own figures, not counts from the extracts; the extract counts are in the table above.
| License type | Code | Jul 1, 2017 | Jul 1, 2018 | Jul 1, 2019 | Jul 1, 2020 | Jul 1, 2021 | Jul 1, 2022 | Jul 1, 2023 | Jul 1, 2024 | Jul 1, 2025 | Jul 1, 2026 | Oct 1, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel | 2001-HOTL | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Motel | 2002-MOTL | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 |
| Nontransient apartment | 2003-NAPT | 79 | 78 | 79 | 79 | 69 | 69 | 65 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 |
| Transient apartment | 2003-TAPT | 11 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Bed and breakfast | 2005-BNB | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Vacation rental condominium, collective | 2006-CNDO-CLCT | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Vacation rental condominium, group | 2006-CNDO-GRP | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Vacation rental condominium, single | 2006-CNDO-SNGL | 2 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 7 | 5 | 6 | ||||
| Vacation rental dwelling, collective | 2007-DWEL-CLCT | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | ||
| Vacation rental dwelling, group | 2007-DWEL-GRP | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Vacation rental dwelling, single | 2007-DWEL-SNGL | 3 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 26 | 50 | 62 | 60 | 67 | 70 | |
| Food service, non-seating | 2010-NOST | 12 | 13 | 12 | 8 | 11 | 13 | 11 | 173 | 15 | 19 | 18 |
| Food service, seating | 2010-SEAT | 164 | 169 | 167 | 169 | 163 | 162 | 171 | 11 | 179 | 187 | 186 |
| Theme park food cart | 2012-PARK | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Catering | 2013-CATR | 1 | 6 | 2 | 3 | |||||||
| Hot dog cart | 2014-HTDG | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Mobile food dispensing vehicle | 2014-MFDV | 17 | 22 | 20 | 20 | 31 | 37 | 37 | 36 | 41 | 44 | 46 |
| Vending machine | 2015-VEND | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Timeshare project, collective | 2022-TSHR-CLCT | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Timeshare project, group | 2022-TSHR-GRP | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Timeshare project, single | 2022-TSHR-SNGL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Culinary education program, non-seating | 2023-NOST | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Culinary education program, seating | 2023-SEAT | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Of 690 active licenses here, 597 are placed in a city by their geocoded location (432 matched exactly by the Census geocoder) and 93 by the city name as filed, where the address could not be placed. Unincorporated means outside every Census incorporated place in the county.
Sources on this page
- Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation: public food service license files, public lodging license files (Division of Hotels and Restaurants, one file per district, refreshed weekly) and the retail alcoholic beverage license file (Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco). Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- Validated against DBPR's own summaries on every build: the statewide license summary (HR400A, dated Oct 1, 2026) and the county license and unit summary (HR400C, dated Oct 1, 2026), by license type, within 1.5% or 15 licenses for the days between the weekly extract and the monthly summary. The retail alcohol file is compared with DBPR's all licensees file, series by series and county by county, exactly. The last alcohol count DBPR posted by county is dated July 1, 2021 and is carried in the published counts download.
- Locations. Every license address was geocoded with the US Census Bureau batch geocoder (current benchmark) and placed in a Census incorporated place (TIGERweb, retrieved 2026-10-01) by point in polygon. DBPR publishes no GIS layer of its licenses.
- Sources and methods.
Download the data
Highlands County licenses CSV Every license, statewide (CSV, gzip) New licenses CSV (gzip) DBPR published counts CSV
One row per license with its type, status, address, county, geocoded coordinates, the city it was placed in and how. The new licenses file has every approval with its month; the published counts file has every figure from DBPR's summaries since 2017.