Colorado Short-Term Rental Laws (2026): State Rules, City Limits and Taxes

Short-term rentals are legal in Colorado, and whether you can run one at a particular address is decided by a city council or county commission, not the state: Colorado has no statewide license, no registry and no preemption law, and its home-rule tradition gives Denver, Breckenridge, Boulder and the mountain towns wide room to license by zone, cap by neighborhood and tax by ballot measure. Where the state has acted, it has acted on taxes, twice trying and failing to reclassify busy rentals as commercial property and, in 2025, letting counties triple their lodging taxes with voter approval.

This guide is for hosts along the Front Range and in the resort counties who want the state picture, the local license models and the tax stack explained together, as part of our state-by-state roundup. Reviewed October 13, 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with the Department of Revenue, your county and your town before acting.

Key facts

• State law defines a short-term rental as a lodging unit rented for less than 30 days and leaves regulation to local governments; there is no state license or registry, per the Legislative Council's January 2026 issue brief.
• HB25-1247, signed in May 2025 with a safety clause, lets counties ask voters to raise the lodging tax in unincorporated areas from a 2 percent cap to as much as 6 percent and spend it on housing, childcare, infrastructure, conservation and public safety; several counties put questions on the November 2025 ballot.
• SB24-033, which would have assessed rentals used more than 90 days a year at the commercial rate, died 6-1 in Senate Finance in April 2024; a 2026 successor (SB 33) was reported amended toward a study after platform opposition, and its final status should be checked on leg.colorado.gov.
• SB24-024 took effect January 1, 2025, treating "accommodations intermediaries" as marketplace facilitators for lodging taxes, so audits go to the platform rather than the host where a local law applies.
• Denver licenses only primary residences and charges a 10.75 percent Lodger's Tax; Breckenridge issues licenses by zone with caps and a waitlist; Boulder's Festival Lodging Rental License for Sundance 2027 costs $190 plus a $25 business license and allows at most 29 nights a year.

Statewide rules

Colorado's statute book says little. The 30-day definition exists so that counties have authority to regulate rentals under it, and the Legislative Council's 2026 brief describes a landscape in which Breckenridge requires a license number on every advertisement and lets homeowners' associations add their own rules, while other towns do nothing. There is no state safety standard, no state insurance minimum and no state platform data-sharing requirement beyond the tax reporting that SB24-024 formalized.

The fights at the Capitol have been about property tax. Residential property in Colorado is assessed at a far lower rate than commercial property, and the argument that a house rented 200 nights a year is a hotel has been made at least three times since 2023. SB24-033 would have moved any unit rented more than 90 days in the prior year into the lodging class for tax years beginning January 1, 2026; the fiscal note projected roughly $371 million in added local property tax, and the Senate Finance Committee killed it at its first hearing in April 2024, rejecting even a study amendment. A 2026 bill from the same sponsor, Senator Chris Hansen, drew the same resistance and was reported gutted to a study. We could not confirm its final disposition before the session ended; treat the residential classification as unchanged until the General Assembly's site says otherwise.

What did pass is HB25-1247. Counties could previously levy a lodging tax of up to 2 percent in unincorporated areas; the 2025 law raised the ceiling to 6 percent, kept the voter-approval requirement, barred stacking a county rate on top of a municipality's lodging tax and broadened the uses. The immediate effect was a round of November 2025 ballot questions in resort counties, and the Denver-based platform Evolve told a House committee in 2024 that rental-specific local taxes already ranged from 2 to 10 percent across the state.

HOA and covenant disputes follow Colorado's own case law, which sits in the majority line holding that a residential-use covenant does not by itself prohibit short stays. The survey is in what courts have actually held about short-term rentals.

Major cities and counties

The resort towns license by geography and cap by zone; the Front Range cities license by residency. Both models leave the investor who buys in the wrong zone with no path to a license, which is why the Breckenridge waitlist and the Denver primary-residence rule are the two facts to check before closing.

Taxes

A Colorado stay carries up to four layers. The state sales tax of 2.9 percent applies to lodging. A county lodging tax applies in unincorporated areas, historically capped at 2 percent and now, after HB25-1247 and a successful ballot, as high as 6 percent. A local marketing district tax may apply where property owners petitioned for one. And a city tax applies in town, which in Denver means the 10.75 percent Lodger's Tax and in roughly 70 home-rule cities means a separately administered return.

Collection splits along the same lines. Airbnb collects the state tax and the state-administered local taxes under voluntary collection agreements; home-rule cities that administer their own lodging tax may or may not have an agreement with each platform, and Denver files monthly on its own system. SB24-024 changed the audit posture from January 1, 2025: where a local law applies, the accommodations intermediary is the marketplace facilitator and the jurisdiction audits it rather than the host for facilitated sales. Jurisdictions without such a law can still pursue hosts.

Direct bookings are the host's in every layer: a state sales tax account with the Department of Revenue, a county lodging tax account where one applies, a marketing district account where one applies, and a home-rule city license and return. The number of accounts is the compliance problem, and Haven's tax and accounting features are built for it, holding state, county, city and district rates per property with cited AI rate suggestions and applying them to every direct reservation.

What changed in 2025 and 2026

• January 1, 2025: SB24-024 took effect; accommodations intermediaries became marketplace facilitators for lodging taxes.
• May 2025: Governor Polis signed HB25-1247, raising the county lodging tax ceiling from 2 to 6 percent with voter approval and expanding permitted uses; the safety clause made it effective immediately.
• November 2025: Counties put lodging tax increases to voters; Vail voters rejected a town rental lodging tax increase by a reported 35 votes.
• January 2026: The Legislative Council published its short-term rental issue brief, describing local license regimes and the Breckenridge advertising rule.
• March 2026: SB 33 (Hansen) proposed commercial assessment for rentals used at least 90 days a year; it was reported amended toward a study after Airbnb and Vrbo resistance.
• May 13, 2026: The session adjourned without a statewide preemption law; confirm SB 33's final status on the General Assembly's site.
• August 2026: Boulder opened Festival Lodging Rental Licenses for Sundance 2027 and had received 964 applications by August 13.

How to stay compliant

1. Identify every jurisdiction your property sits in: county, town, marketing district and any special district, because each may tax or license separately.
2. Get the local license before listing, confirm whether it transfers on sale (Breckenridge's does not) and put the number on every ad where required.
3. Open a state sales tax account and each local lodging tax account; assume home-rule city taxes are not collected by the platform until the city says they are.
4. If your county passed a lodging tax increase in November 2025, update your direct booking rates from the effective date.
5. Carry the liability coverage your town requires and keep a local contact on file.
6. Read the HOA declaration; Breckenridge explicitly allows associations to add rules, and Colorado courts enforce clear ones.
7. Track rental nights; if a future property-tax bill uses a 90-day threshold, your calendar becomes the evidence.
8. For Boulder's festival window, respect the 29-night ceiling and the January 11 to February 9, 2027 dates.

FAQ

Is Airbnb legal in Colorado?

Yes. The state neither licenses nor restricts short-term rentals; cities and counties do. Denver allows only primary residences, resort towns license by zone with caps, and some towns require nothing more than a tax account.

Do I need a state license to host in Colorado?

No state rental license exists. You need a Department of Revenue sales tax account, any local lodging tax accounts and the license your city or county issues.

What taxes do I pay on a Colorado short-term rental?

The 2.9 percent state sales tax, a county lodging tax of up to 6 percent in unincorporated areas (where voters approved an increase), any local marketing district tax and the city's own lodging tax, such as Denver's 10.75 percent. Platforms collect the state-administered layers; home-rule city taxes and direct bookings are often yours to file.

Can my Colorado city ban short-term rentals?

Yes. Without a preemption statute, a home-rule city may restrict rentals to primary residences, cap them by zone or exclude them from residential districts, subject to constitutional limits. The Legislature has not taken that power away.

What changed in 2025 and 2026?

HB25-1247 let counties raise lodging taxes to 6 percent from 2025; SB24-024 made platforms the audit target from January 1, 2025; and the 2026 property-tax reclassification bill was reported reduced to a study. Boulder's Sundance license is the newest local program.

Sources

• Colorado General Assembly — HB25-1247 (county lodging tax) via Colorado Capitol Watch (accessed October 2026)
• Colorado General Assembly — SB24-033 bill page (accessed October 2026)
• Colorado Legislative Council Staff — SB24-033 fiscal note (accessed October 2026)
• Colorado Legislative Council Staff — Short-term rentals issue brief (R25-881) (accessed October 2026)
• City and County of Denver — Tax guide topic 97: short-term rentals (accessed October 2026)
• Summit Daily — Lawmakers approve bill allowing Colorado county voters to triple lodging taxes from 2% to 6% (accessed October 2026)
• The Colorado Sun — Plan to quadruple property taxes on short-term rentals in Colorado fails in late-night Capitol committee vote (accessed October 2026)
• Steamboat Pilot — Bill hiking taxes for short-term rentals to be gutted after resistance from Airbnb, VRBO (accessed October 2026)
• Avalara — Colorado makes sales tax simpler for out-of-state sellers (SB24-024) (accessed October 2026)
• SkyRun — Guide to short-term rental regulations in Breckenridge (accessed October 2026)