Imagine two three-bedroom pool homes sitting two doors apart in Reunion Resort, with the same square footage, builder, and year. One books solid through spring break and Fourth of July, while the other sits half empty despite a lower nightly rate and better reviews. That kind of contrast can have more than one explanation. One detail to check is whether a specific property still carries Club membership.
If you're comparing Reunion to ChampionsGate, Storey Lake, or any other Central Florida resort community on price per square foot alone, include Club membership among the factors you compare.
Club Membership and Rental Access
Reunion Resort's Club membership costs $15,000 up front, plus Florida sales tax, whether you choose Gold or Platinum tier. Gold gets you the pools, the water park, and the fitness facilities. Platinum adds golf privileges across all three signature courses. That much is a straightforward menu choice.
The part that catches buyers off guard is whether a property has Club membership. For a family booking a week near Disney, water park access is often the deciding factor between two otherwise comparable listings. Owners who track their own portfolios report that homes with full Club access consistently outperform those without it in both occupancy and nightly rate.
So before you get attached to a listing photo, the first question isn't "how much is the HOA." It's "does this specific address still have membership."
The HOA Number Depends Entirely On Which Reunion You're Buying
Reunion isn't managed by one HOA. It's a patchwork of associations, each covering a different product type, and the dues swing meaningfully depending on where the property sits.
| Property Type | Monthly HOA (as of March 2026) |
|---|---|
| The Villas (Cabana Court, Whisper Way, Sunset View, Sandy Ridge) | around $895 |
| Spectrum+ condos | $813, or $930 with elevator access |
| Spectrum+ townhomes | around $436 |
These are three of roughly a dozen distinct HOA brackets across the resort, so confirm the current assessment with the specific neighborhood's management company before you write an offer. A Master HOA, run by Artemis Lifestyles, covers resort-wide infrastructure like shared roadways, ponds, and stormwater systems. Individual neighborhood HOAs, including Greystone Management for The Villas, layer additional dues on top for exterior maintenance, internet and cable, and access to their own pool clusters.
The HOA number alone doesn't tell you what you're buying. A $895 monthly fee in The Villas buys walkability to the water park and Greystone-managed pools. A Spectrum+ townhome at $436 buys a different set of amenities entirely, plus a separate Spectrum Club dues line most buyers don't see until they're already under contract. Comparing two Reunion listings by HOA cost without checking what that HOA actually unlocks is like comparing two gym memberships without checking which one includes the pool.
The Second Tax Bill Almost Nobody Budgets For
Reunion carries two Community Development Districts, Reunion East and Reunion West, that show up on the Osceola County property tax bill as a non-ad valorem assessment separate from the home's regular property tax. These CDD assessments fund the roads, utilities, drainage, and landscaping built when the resort was developed. Each assessment has two pieces: a fixed debt service portion that pays down the original construction bonds, and an operations and maintenance portion that can move up or down annually.
This is why property tax bills at Reunion often run higher than a buyer expects compared to a similarly priced home outside a CDD-funded community. The infrastructure cost didn't disappear. It got shifted from the original lot price into an annual assessment that every subsequent owner keeps paying. Ask your title company or the county for the current CDD assessment on any specific parcel before closing, since it varies by district and lot size and isn't always broken out clearly on a listing sheet.
Who Actually Collects Your Rental Tax
Short-term rental owners at Reunion owe a combined 13.5% on every booking: 6% Florida state sales tax plus a 1.5% Osceola County discretionary surtax, on top of a separate 6% county Tourist Development Tax. That much is standard for the market. What trips people up is who's responsible for sending it in.
According to the Osceola County Tax Collector's own office, the county is not contracted with Airbnb, VRBO, or any other third-party booking platform for tax collection. The person receiving the rent is responsible for remitting the tax, regardless of where the payment exchange takes place. If you're assuming the platform handles your Tourist Development Tax the way it might in some other Florida counties, that assumption will cost you here. You need your own active TDT account with the county, and if you take any direct bookings outside a platform, you're collecting and filing all of it yourself.
Layer that on top of the state DBPR vacation rental license, required for any property rented more than three times a year for stays under six months, and the paperwork adds up fast. None of it is unusual for an experienced Central Florida STR investor. It's just easy to underprice if you're building your first pro forma off a portal median price and a rough guess at taxes.
What This Actually Changes About Your Comparison
Reunion sits inside Osceola County's short-term rental overlay, one of the more STR-friendly zoning setups in the region, and current guidance describes the resort as having no minimum stay and no rental restriction at the county level, unlike neighboring Celebration, which prohibits short-term rentals outright, or St. Cloud, which limits them to hotel and motel zones. That zoning flexibility is real and it's a genuine advantage over plenty of other Central Florida markets.
But zoning flexibility only sets the ceiling. The membership status of the specific parcel, the sub-community's HOA rate, the CDD assessment on that lot, and your own tax registration determine whether you actually hit that ceiling. Two buyers can purchase homes at the same price point in the same month and see different investment outcomes. Membership status is one factor to include in the underwriting, alongside the other costs and property details that shape a rental’s performance.
If you're shopping Reunion against ChampionsGate or Storey Lake, run the comparison on total carrying cost and confirmed amenity access, not on sticker price. That comparison gives you a more complete basis for estimating potential occupancy.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Before You Offer
What should I check about Club access before buying? Confirm the specific home's current membership status with the Club before you make an offer.
If Airbnb collects my Florida sales tax, does that cover my county Tourist Development Tax too? Not automatically. Osceola County's Tax Collector states directly that the county does not have a collection agreement with Airbnb, VRBO, or similar platforms, so you need your own registered TDT account and you're responsible for remitting it yourself for any bookings the platform doesn't cover.
Is the HOA fee the same across all of Reunion? No. Reunion has roughly a dozen distinct HOA brackets by property type and neighborhood. The Villas run about $895 a month, while Spectrum+ dues range from around $436 for a townhome to $930 for a condo with elevator access, as of March 2026. Confirm the current rate for the specific address with that neighborhood's management company.
Numbers like these change with HOA votes, county ordinance updates, and Club policy revisions, so treat every figure here as a starting point for your own verification, not a locked-in guarantee.
If you're weighing a Reunion purchase against other Central Florida resort communities, The Werner Group can walk through the membership status, HOA structure, and CDD assessment on a specific address before you write an offer. Get Your Free Home Valuation to see where your current property stands, or reach out directly to start comparing Reunion against the rest of the Orlando resort corridor.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
