A neighbor mentions that your city stopped permitting rentals that aren't owner-occupied. You've already planned to run your condo year-round, and now the property may not qualify. Proceeding anyway could leave you paying carrying costs on a unit you cannot legally list, or force you to cancel bookings after launch. Sorting out the local rules before your first booking costs far less than unwinding an illegal listing later.
No single state rulebook exists. Each city and county sets its own rules, so legality depends on your jurisdiction and sometimes the zoning district within it, whether you're hosting in Denver or a mountain resort town.
What counts as a short-term rental in Colorado
Colorado defines a short-term rental (STR) as the rental of a lodging unit for less than 30 days. That definition appears in HB 23-1287, the 2023 law governing rental platforms, and the Colorado Department of Revenue uses the same threshold for lodging taxes. A rental to a permanent resident for at least 30 consecutive days may qualify for a sales tax exemption, and stays that long generally fall under the lease rules that govern long-term rental property owners rather than STR ordinances.
Cities adjust the threshold at the margins. Denver regulates rentals of fewer than 30 consecutive days, Colorado Springs requires a permit for anything listed on a hosting platform for 29 days or less, and Littleton's lodgers tax applies to stays of fewer than 28 consecutive days. County STR licensing leaves the property-tax classification of lodging units as residential improvements unchanged.
Who regulates Colorado short-term rentals: state vs. local authority
The Colorado Legislative Council Staff put it flatly in a January 30, 2026 publication: "There are no statewide regulations regarding STRs." State law sets the sub-30-day definition and, through HB 20-1093, authorizes county commissioners to license and regulate STR owners, including setting fees and revoking licenses. Everything else happens locally.
Home-rule cities like Denver and Boulder, along with Colorado Springs, write their own licensing ordinances and collect their own lodging taxes outside the state system. Counties license STRs in unincorporated areas, and some, like El Paso County, have chosen not to regulate principal-structure STRs at all. For rental property investors buying and trading Colorado STR assets across county lines, every acquisition brings a different rulebook: owners must obtain separate permits and tax accounts for each address, and track a separate renewal calendar.
How to get a Colorado short-term rental license or permit
Major Colorado cities require a license or permit before you operate. Boulder must issue a valid rental license before an owner can offer, advertise, or rent the property. Littleton makes it unlawful to advertise or operate with an expired license and requires your license number on every online listing.
The application mechanics are similar across cities, though the portals differ. Denver uses its online Permitting and Licensing Center, Colorado Springs takes applications through an electronic submittal system with a 10-business-day review window, Boulder runs an online application plus a Customer Self-Service Portal for fees, and Littleton processes everything through its eTRAKiT portal, which can take up to four weeks. Expect to assemble most of the following:
- A Colorado driver's license or state ID, plus two or more documents proving primary residency (vehicle registration, voter registration, tax returns, utility bill, or mortgage statement)
- Documentation showing ownership or possession, such as a deed or lease; tenants may also need owner permission
- Proof of liability insurance where local rules require it ($500,000 in Colorado Springs and Littleton)
- A local tax account or license (Denver requires a lodger's tax account number; Park County requires a Colorado sales tax license listing the rental property); hosts operating under an LLC also generally register that entity with the Colorado Secretary of State
- Signed affidavits or acknowledgments; Denver applicants self-certify accuracy under penalty of perjury per DRMC § 33-48(b)
Most licenses run one year and do not transfer with the property. Boulder is the outlier with a four-year term, but the city revokes the license if you miss the annual affidavit and $20 certification fee. Colorado Springs offers no grace period for late renewal; letting a permit lapse can trigger a Code Enforcement notice and forfeiture of a non-owner-occupied permit there. Colorado Springs also prohibits owners from applying for new non-owner-occupied permits in single-family (R-E and R-1) districts, though it still allows them in other zones subject to the 500-foot buffer. Under HB 23-1287, once a county suspends or revokes your license and notifies a platform, the platform must remove your listing within seven days.
The steps stay broadly similar, but the amount you pay varies sharply by jurisdiction, so confirm both the initial fee and the renewal schedule before you apply.
Permit fees and fee schedules
Fees vary by an order of magnitude across the state:
- City | Application fee | Renewal
- Denver | $50 | $100 per year (confirm the current schedule with Denver Excise and Licenses)
- Colorado Springs | $124.95 | $124.95 per year
- Boulder | $215 (license plus business license) | $190 every four years, plus $20 annual certification
- Littleton | $200 | $200 per year
Confirm current amounts against the official schedules: the Denver STR FAQ, the Colorado Springs STR program page, Boulder's 2026 fee schedule, and the Littleton development fee schedule. Elsewhere the range widens: Aurora charges $45 for a two-year license, Fort Collins charges $500 per year, and Crested Butte's higher license tier runs $800. Mountain resort towns charge per bedroom, with Telluride at $857 per bedroom annually and Breckenridge at $756.
Primary residence and owner-occupancy rules
Owner-occupancy is the gatekeeper rule in nearly every major Colorado city. Denver licenses STRs only in the host's primary residence, and its code excludes corporations, partnerships, firms, associations, joint ventures, and similar legal entities from qualifying as the operator, which shuts out entity-held investment properties.
Boulder requires the property to be your principal residence, defined as where you live more than half the year, and you must hold at least 50% ownership. Littleton requires nine months of annual residency and has stopped issuing non-primary licenses; the legacy non-primary licenses that remain all terminate on October 28, 2026.
Colorado Springs runs a two-track system. Owner-occupied permits require you to physically occupy the property at least 185 days per year, with two approved proofs of residency: the city accepts a driver's license, vehicle registration, voter registration, or a dependent's school registration, but mail does not count. Non-owner-occupied permits still exist, but Colorado Springs has prohibited owners from applying for them in single-family zoning districts since December 26, 2019, and new non-owner-occupied units elsewhere must sit at least 500 feet from another non-owner-occupied STR.
Colorado Springs also carves out a military exemption under City Code § 7.3.301.C.4.c. The city can waive the owner-occupancy requirement for up to one year for an active-duty service member who receives orders to a temporary duty station outside the county, provided the service member's permanent duty station is in El Paso County.
Zoning, land use, and density restrictions
Local officials will reject a license application if the property sits in the wrong district, so check zoning first. Denver allows STRs as an accessory residential use across its suburban, urban edge, urban, general urban, urban center, downtown (except the CV district), industrial, campus, and master planned contexts, but not in the open space context or the airport zone district. Denver imposes no density caps or buffer zones; the primary-residence rule does the limiting. Colorado Springs uses both the 500-foot buffer for non-owner-occupied units and listing caps by zone:
- One listing per property in single-family districts and two listings on R-2 properties
- Up to four in multi-family zones, with a separate permit and fee for each listing
Boulder regulates STRs under its licensing chapter (B.R.C. § 10-3-19). An owner can rent an entire principal residence with no annual day limit, but an accessory unit is capped at 120 rental days per year. Boulder created its new Festival Lodging Rental License through Ordinance 8715 in October 2025, giving non-primary-resident owners one opening: they may rent for up to 29 days per year, but only during festival periods.
ADUs are the tightest corner of Colorado zoning for hosts. State law HB24-1152 forced cities to allow ADUs wherever single-family homes are permitted, but it expressly preserved local authority to regulate short-term rental of ADUs, and cities have used that authority aggressively:
- Colorado Springs prohibits STR use of any structure on a property that has an ADU, effective June 30, 2025. Properties that legally held both before that date retain grandfathered status.
- Boulder prohibits short-term rental of either the ADU or the main house unless the owner legally established both the ADU and the STR license before Boulder's 2019 cutoff (city materials give both January 3 and February 1, 2019).
- In Denver, an owner living in the main house generally cannot license the ADU separately, because the licensed unit must be the applicant's primary residence and a person can have only one.
- Fort Collins and Salida ban ADU STRs outright.
- Aurora permits them when the owner lives in the primary structure.
Colorado short-term rental taxes: what you owe and who collects it
Every Colorado STR booking carries state sales tax plus a stack of local taxes that depends on the address.
- Tax | Rate | Who typically remits
- Colorado state sales tax | 2.9% | Airbnb and Vrbo collect and remit for stays of 29 nights or fewer
- County lodging tax | Generally 0.9%–2%; up to 6% with voter approval (Park County moved to 6% effective January 1, 2026) | Platforms remit where the state administers the tax; direct bookings filed quarterly on Form DR 1485
- Local marketing district tax | Up to 5.50% (Estes Park) | Platforms remit; direct bookings filed on Form DR 1490
- Home-rule city lodging taxes | Denver lodger's tax 10.75%; Boulder accommodations tax 7.5%; Steamboat Springs 18.4% | The city administers these directly; the host holds the city tax license and files with the city
Colorado's marketplace facilitator law, effective October 1, 2019, requires platforms to collect and remit state and state-administered local taxes, including county lodging and local marketing district taxes. The Department of Revenue does not administer home-rule city taxes, though. Airbnb collects Denver's 10.75% lodger's tax under a vendor agreement dating to April 1, 2018, and collects Boulder's 7.5% accommodations tax. In Snowmass Village, however, the town states outright that "Airbnb and VRBO do not remit taxes to the Town of Snowmass Village on the host's behalf," so owners there remit monthly through Munirevs. Aspen and Durango, along with Steamboat Springs, likewise collect locally.
Even when a platform collects the tax, you must still file the required returns. Colorado hosts must register for a state tax license and file lodging tax returns even when a marketplace collects, filing zero-dollar returns for periods with no income; Denver requires hosts to report total sales before deducting platform-remitted amounts on the return itself. When no platform serves as the merchant of record for a direct booking, you bear the full collection burden.
Operational, occupancy, and safety rules for hosts
The three cities with the most detailed operating codes compare this way:
- Rule | Denver | Colorado Springs | Littleton
- Occupancy limit | No guest limit | 2 per bedroom plus 2 per unit, capped at 15 | 2 renters per bedroom, maximum 8
- Parking | No minimum parking requirements (rules effective August 2025); guest brochure must state neighborhood parking restrictions | Driveways used first; no parking in front yards, parkways, or rear yards | Two off-street spaces required
- Nighttime noise limit | 50 dB(A), 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. | 50 dB(A), 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. | Not specified in city STR materials
Denver's DRMC § 33-49(a) makes it unlawful to operate an STR unless the premises have functioning smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and a fire extinguisher. Fire code placement rules require smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside each sleeping area, and on every level, including the basement. C.R.S. § 38-45-102(1)(a) requires a CO alarm within 15 feet of the entrance to each sleeping room in homes with fuel-burning appliances or an attached garage. Denver hosts must also provide a guest brochure under DRMC § 33-50 that explains noise and parking restrictions and shows fire evacuation routes.
Colorado Springs caps occupancy at two occupants per bedroom plus two additional per unit, with a maximum of 15 total guests under City Code § 7.3.301.C.5(h). Hosts must keep a 24-hour point of contact on file who can respond within one hour in an emergency, and must prominently display the city-issued STR permit and the Good Neighbor Guidelines, which outline noise, parking, and waste-management practices. Colorado Springs prohibits weddings and large social or commercial events at STRs. Boulder requires no physical inspection: hosts self-certify that they have required safety equipment, including smoke and CO detectors, and must provide two local contacts who can reach the property within 60 minutes.
HOA and private covenant restrictions
A municipal license does not override recorded covenants. If your HOA's governing documents bar rentals under 30 days, that private restriction operates independently of the city permit your licensing office issued. Read those documents, including the amendment provisions, before you pay an application fee.
Short-term rental rules by Colorado city and county
The same property would face different licensing, residency, and insurance rules in each of these six jurisdictions:
- Jurisdiction | License required | Primary residence rule | Non-owner-occupied STRs | Application fee | Liability insurance minimum
- Denver | STR Business License | Yes; entities (LLCs, corporations) excluded | Not permitted | $50 plus $100/yr | $1,000,000 per Denver's licensing materials; DRMC § 33-49(e) requires fire and hazard insurance plus liability coverage
- Colorado Springs | STR Permit | Owner-occupied track: 185 days/yr | Allowed outside single-family zones with a 500-ft buffer; new single-family-zone permits barred since 12/26/2019 | $124.95/yr | $500,000
- Boulder | STR License | Yes; principal residence more than half the year, at least 50% ownership | Not permitted (except 29-day festival license) | $215 new; $190 every 4 yrs plus $20/yr | No stated dollar minimum
- El Paso County (unincorporated) | No codified STR ordinance for principal structures; zoning approval if an accessory structure is used | None | Not restricted by county ordinance | None | None stated
- Park County | STR license via Cloudpermit portal | County materials do not address this rule; confirm with the county | County materials do not address this rule | County page does not state a fee | County states no minimum; owner collects and remits all applicable taxes; 6% county lodging tax from 1/1/2026
- Littleton | STR Primary Rental License | Yes; nine months per year | No new licenses; legacy licenses terminate 10/28/2026 | $200/yr | $500,000
Colorado Springs accepts a hosting-platform contract as proof of insurance when all reservations run through platforms extending at least $500,000 in liability coverage, and Littleton has a similar platform allowance. Breckenridge, for comparison, requires $2,000,000 per claim plus $50,000 in property damage coverage.
Recent Colorado STR legislation and what may change
Two enacted laws define the current state framework. Governor Jared Polis signed HB 20-1093 on March 23, 2020, giving county commissioners express authority to license and regulate STR owners while excluding the platforms themselves from county licensing. He signed HB 23-1287 on June 5, 2023, extending requirements to the platforms: where a county requires it, hosts must include their license or permit number in every listing, and a platform must remove a listing within seven days after the county notifies it that it suspended or revoked the permit.
The bills that failed matter almost as much. SB24-033 would have reclassified any non-primary-residence STR rented more than 90 days a year as lodging property, and county assessors would have applied the 29% commercial rate instead of the 7.15% residential rate under Colorado's tax laws. The Senate Finance Committee killed it 6 to 1 on April 16, 2024, and a companion attempt, HB24-1299, died the same month. SB24-213, which would have preempted some local STR authority, passed the Senate 28 to 7 and then died unanimously in a House committee on May 4, 2024. The one recent enacted change is HB25-1247, which Governor Polis signed May 13, 2025: it lets counties raise lodging taxes to 6% with voter approval, and Park County's voters used it within months. Both reclassification attempts came in the 2024 session, and no comparable bill advanced in 2025 or 2026.
Insuring your Colorado short-term rental
City officials may issue a permit even when your current policy excludes short-term rental use. Before you list the property, ask your insurer to confirm the permitted occupancy in writing and compare the policy's liability limit with the local licensing requirement. In Denver, operating without the required fire and hazard insurance is itself unlawful under DRMC § 33-49(e), and the same code section requires liability coverage.
Steadily insures short-term rentals in Colorado, naming Airbnb and Vrbo use as a covered occupancy, so the policy won't deny a guest-related claim the way a standard homeowners' policy can. Liability limits run from $100,000 to $1 million or more, which covers the $500,000 minimums in Colorado Springs and Littleton, as well as Lakewood, and the higher figure Denver's licensing materials list. National average landlord premiums run about $1,478 per year, deductible options typically range from $1,000 to $5,000, and a higher deductible can reduce the premium. Get a quote in minutes at quote.steadily.com, no phone call required.
FAQ
Colorado STR rules vary by address, but the questions below cover the licensing, tax, residency, ADU, safety, HOA, and insurance issues hosts encounter most often.
What legally counts as a short-term rental in Colorado?
Any rental of a lodging unit for less than 30 days; Colorado Springs draws the line at 29 days or less.
Do I need a license to run an Airbnb in Colorado?
Yes, in every major city. Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder, and Littleton all require a license or permit to operate, with fees from $50 to $215 at application. Boulder expressly requires a license before you advertise, and Littleton prohibits advertising with an expired license. Unincorporated El Paso County is the notable exception, with no codified STR ordinance for principal structures.
Does Airbnb collect my Colorado taxes for me?
Partly. Platforms collect the 2.9% state sales tax, state-administered local taxes, county lodging taxes, and local marketing district taxes for stays of 29 nights or fewer. Home-rule cities sit outside that system: Denver and Boulder have platform agreements, while Snowmass Village requires you to remit directly. You must hold a state tax license and file returns either way.
Do I have to live in the property I rent out?
In most cities, yes. Denver and Boulder, as well as Littleton, restrict STRs to the host's primary residence. Colorado Springs allows non-owner-occupied STRs outside single-family zones, subject to a 500-foot buffer between them.
Can I run a short-term rental in my ADU?
Almost never. Colorado Springs bans STR use on any property with an ADU, and Boulder prohibits it outside grandfathered pre-2019 setups. Denver's one-primary-residence rule blocks licensing an ADU separately from the main house. Aurora permits it when the owner lives in the primary structure.
Do the rules change from city to city?
Substantially. Denver limits STRs to a host's primary residence, while Colorado Springs permits non-owner-occupied units outside single-family zones. Unincorporated El Paso County has no codified STR ordinance for principal structures.
Do I need a safety inspection?
It depends on where you operate, but none of these Colorado jurisdictions charges a separate routine safety inspection fee. Boulder replaces any formal inspection with host self-certification that the required safety equipment, including smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, is in place. Colorado Springs and Denver both rely on fire-code compliance rather than a mandatory pre-license inspection: in Denver, DRMC § 33-49(a) makes it unlawful to operate without working smoke and CO detectors and a fire extinguisher. Meeting those requirements is your responsibility, but the city will not charge a separate inspection fee.
Can my HOA block my STR even if the city approves it?
Yes. Municipal permits do not override recorded covenants, and an association that bans rentals under 30 days can enforce that ban against a fully licensed host. Check your governing documents before applying.
What insurance do Colorado cities require for STRs?
Colorado Springs and Littleton, as well as Lakewood, require at least $500,000 in liability coverage as a permit condition; Denver's licensing materials list $1 million, and Breckenridge requires $2 million per claim. There is no statewide STR insurance mandate, so each jurisdiction sets its own requirement. Confirm that your policy covers short-term rental use and carries the liability limit your city requires.
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