Colorados Independent Mountain Towns Away From the I 70 Corridor STR

Thomas Garner
Jul 24
18 min read

Updated: 7 hours ago

There's a pattern showing up in Colorado short-term rental data that doesn't get much attention outside the state, because it doesn't involve Vail, Breckenridge, Aspen, or Steamboat. It involves the towns buyers land in *after* they get priced out of those four names , Crested Butte, Durango, and the Salida/Buena Vista pair in the upper Arkansas Valley.

These three markets don't share a highway, a ski conglomerate, or even a mountain range. What they share is a posture: each one is proudly, almost defiantly, independent of the corporate resort model. Crested Butte Mountain Resort is Vail Resorts-owned now, but the town around it has spent thirty years cultivating an "anti-Aspen" identity. Durango built its tourism economy on a 19th-century narrow-gauge railroad, not a gondola. Salida and Buena Vista sell whitewater, hot springs, and 14,000-foot peaks , no lift ticket required for most of it. All three post high average daily rates relative to their size, all three see real demand across more than one season, and , critically for an operator or investor deciding where to plant a flag , all three still have property-management landscapes led by small local and regional firms rather than national platforms with market-share dominance.

That last point matters more in 2026 than it did two years ago, because two of these three markets have moved from "lightly regulated" to "actively capped" in the last eighteen months, and one is currently in a hard moratorium. This report verifies the numbers, the regulatory mechanics, and the competitive landscape in each market as of mid-2026, because a lot of what circulates about these towns online is a year or two stale , and in a market this fast-moving, stale data leads to bad purchase decisions.

Crested Butte: The "Anti-Aspen" Premium, With a Softening Signal

Crested Butte earns its "anti-Aspen" Keep honestly. The ski season built around Crested Butte Mountain Resort's steep, storied terrain draws a rider base that measures itself against Vail and Aspen and finds a smaller, less manicured, more locally-run town on the other side of that comparison , intentionally. Summer runs on a different engine entirely: the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival draws visitors specifically for the alpine bloom, and the town's mountain-bike pedigree (this is widely regarded as one of the sports' founding towns) fills shoulder-season beds that a pure ski town would leave empty.

The numbers back up the premium positioning. As of June 2026, AirDNA counts 385 listings (AirROI Crested Butte as of 2026-07-31) in Crested Butte, with a trailing-twelve-month average daily rate of $495 and average annual revenue of $46,357 per active listing , figures that sit well above most Colorado mountain towns outside the I-70 corridor's biggest names.

But the brief's flag on softening demand checks out, and it's worth stating plainly rather than glossing over: from June 2025 to June 2026, Crested Butte occupancy is down 9.9% year-over-year, revenue is down 13.2%, ADR is down 2.0%, RevPAR is down 8.6%, and even active listing count is down 2.3%. AirDNA's composite Market Score sits at 50 out of 100. That's not a collapse, but it's a real cooling trend after several years of supply growth outpacing demand growth , new entrants underwriting a purchase on trailing-three-year performance in this market are underwriting a market that peaked and is now correcting.

On regulation, the brief's framing needed correction. There is no new Gunnison County STR licensing requirement that rolled out by the end of 2025 , that's ahead of what actually happened. As of January 2026, Gunnison County commissioners were reviewing a draft licensing plan forunincorporatedareas of the county only (this does not touch the Town of Crested Butte or Mt. Crested Butte, which already run their own separate, longer-standing licensing programs). The draft calls for a $150, three-year license, renewable 60 days before expiration, with owners submitting affidavits on occupancy standards , no inspections, no cap, and explicitly no advertising-platform or insurance rules for now. Target implementation is early summer 2026. In short: this is a registration-and-accountability measure, not a supply cap, and it's still in progress rather than live.

Those separate town-level programs are where the real caps already live, and they cut in opposite directions. The Town of Crested Butte limits "Unlimited" STR licenses , the license type that permits year-round short-term rental subject only to a minimum-use floor , to 198 townwide, with no more than two active licenses allowed per block face (roughly a 400-foot run along one side of a town block). Holders must rent at least 30 nights a year to keep the license, applications and renewals are accepted only during an October 1-31 window each year, and licenses are non-transferable: when a licensed property sells, the license does not carry over, and the new owner has to reapply in the next October window and compete for the same block-face-limited pool. Mt. Crested Butte, by contrast, runs no cap on STR licenses at all. Its council discussed tightening the rules at a December 16, 2025 work session , specifically whether to require every STR to use a licensed local property-management company in place of the current local-representative-on-call requirement , but that was staff-input direction, not an adopted ordinance, and the town has not added a local-PM or local-business-license mandate as of this writing.

One place a real cap was proposed , and failed , is Crested Butte South, an unincorporated subdivision governed by its own property owners' association rather than the town or county. In late 2024, the CB South POA put a covenant amendment to a membership vote that would have capped STR licenses at 20% of the subdivision's roughly 650 homes , about 130 licenses. The measure won a clear majority of ballots actually cast (about 61% in favor), but covenant amendments require 50%-plus-one of *all* eligible voters, not just those who turn out, and participation fell short of that bar. The cap did not pass. CB South's STR policy was updated again in January 2025, but no comprehensive licensing cap has been adopted since the failed vote , this remains an unincorporated subdivision with no binding POA-level STR cap as of mid-2026, worth watching but not currently a constraint on new entrants.

Durango: Four-Season Demand, and a Field That's Already Crowded

Durango's appeal is structural, not seasonal. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad pulls heritage-tourism visitors who have zero interest in skiing. Purgatory Resort covers winter. The San Juan Mountains open up for hiking, rafting, and jeeping all summer. That layering is exactly the four-season demand pattern that makes a market resilient to a bad snow year in a way a pure ski town isn't.

On regulation, the City of Durango caps non-owner-occupied vacation rental permits specifically in its EN-1 and EN-2 residential zones , 22 permits in EN-1 and 17 in EN-2 , and both pools are currently full, with a formal waitlist for each. Those permits are also non-transferable: a property sale invalidates the existing permit, and the new owner has to apply fresh and take a place in line behind the cap. Other city zones carry their own, less restrictive rules. Critically, that cap structure is a Durango-city-limits phenomenon only. Unincorporated La Plata County , which includes Purgatory Resort, well north of the city , has no equivalent STR cap or licensing review at all; the county's only requirement is standard sales and lodging tax (2.9% state sales tax, 2% county sales tax, 2% county lodging tax), collected and remitted like any other short-term lodging business. An operator comparing a Purgatory-area property to one inside Durango's EN zones is looking at two different regulatory worlds, not one.

On the competitive field, this is a market with multiple established, named property managers, not a vacancy: Durango Colorado Vacations has operated in the market for 18-plus years and runs a dedicated Purgatory-area management arm; Red Cliff Properties positions itself as a boutique, selective manager; Summit Property Management is a locally owned vacation-rental and HOA manager based in Durango; Vacation Rental Collective and Durango Purgatory Getaways both run active local portfolios; and Vacasa, the national platform, also has a presence. Typical management fees in the market run 10-30% of gross revenue, with full-service operators clustering at 20-30%.

The right way to read Durango, then, isn't "greenfield opportunity." It's "an established field with real four-season demand, where winning means out-marketing a half-dozen credible local operators on brand, direct-booking systems, and guest experience" , not showing up to an empty market. Crested Butte's cooling metrics reflect a market where supply already caught up to demand, meaning the operators standing out now are the ones with a real brand and a direct-booking base, not just a listing on the big platforms competing on price.

Salida & Buena Vista: The Tightest Entry Barrier in This Report

If Crested Butte is cooling and Durango is competitive-but-open, the Chaffee County submarket , Salida and Buena Vista together , is something else entirely: the tightest regulatory environment of any market examined in this pilot's Mountain West research, and as of mid-2026, one leg of it is under an outright moratorium. Put together: this submarket is not a growth market for new entrants through at least September 30, 2026, at minimum in Buena Vista , and that date could move again depending on what the Board decides after reviewing the Workgroup's July 14, 2026 recommendations , while the Chaffee County unincorporated pool is close enough to its own ceiling that new-entrant odds are poor there too.

The draw here doesn't depend on a ski resort at all, though Monarch Mountain covers winter for those who want it. The real engine is water and elevation: Browns Canyon National Monument and the Arkansas River's "Numbers" rapids make this stretch one of the most heavily-rafted sections of whitewater in the country, the Collegiate Peaks put more than a dozen 14,000-foot summits within a short drive, and Mount Princeton and Cottonwood hot springs pull a soaking-and-recovery crowd that has nothing to do with either rafting or skiing. That's a lot of independent demand drivers stacked on top of each other, and it shows in pricing , though the exact number depends on which data provider you ask. AirDNA puts Salida's average daily rate around $266 and Buena Vista's around $286; AirROI, drawing on a different listing set and methodology, puts both higher , around $293 for Salida and $298 for Buena Vista , with average annual revenue near $35,339 in Salida and $34,255 in Buena Vista. Both readings sit well above what a town this size would typically command. Top-decile properties do meaningfully better than the average: AirROI's top-10%-by-rate tier clears roughly $464+ a night in Salida and $499+ a night in Buena Vista. The provider-to-provider spread is a genuine feature of this market's data, not sloppiness on any one source's part , use a range, not a single point estimate, when underwriting a specific property here.

Now the regulatory picture, which is the real story in this submarket:. If Crested Butte is cooling and Durango is competitive-but-open, the Chaffee County submarket , Salida and Buena Vista together , is something else entirely: the tightest regulatory environment of any market examined in this pilot's Mountain West research, and as of mid-2026, one leg of it is under an outright moratorium.

Chaffee County (unincorporated)caps total STR licenses at whichever is fewer of 6% of the county's total unincorporated housing units or 310 licenses , and 310 is currently the binding number. New STR owners must be full-time county residents, and once the cap fills, a waitlist forms with county residents prioritized ahead of out-of-county applicants. Coverage from the ordinance's rollout described the county as "quickly approaching" this ceiling after several years of rapid STR growth; the county does not publish a live daily count of licenses issued against the 310 cap, so operators should call the county STR office directly (str@chaffeecounty.org, ) for same-day utilization before assuming availability either way.

Salidaruns its own, more granular cap structure by zoning district rather than one townwide number: 85 licenses in its residential zones (R1, R2, R3, AG, and PD), 99 in the Mixed-Use Downtown (MD) district, 50 in Mixed-Use Center/Highway (MC/MH), and 75 in Mixed-Use Neighborhood (MN) , roughly 309 licenses citywide across all zones combined. City Council passed Ordinance 2026-06 on February 17, 2026 (effective March 23), which reorganized these caps onto the city's newly-adopted zoning districts with no material change to the total number of licenses available, dropped the owner-residency requirement specifically in the Mixed-Use Center/Highway district (which, alongside the Downtown district, no longer requires applicants to be Chaffee County residents), and moved applications to a year-round window instead of the old fixed May 1-June 1 filing period. As of a late-February 2026 accounting, roughly 38% of Salida's citywide license pool remained available , a snapshot that will have moved by the time anyone reads this, so treat it as directional and confirm current openings directly with the City Clerk's office before assuming a slot is open.

Buena Vistais the sharpest constraint in this report. The town caps out-of-county STR licenses at 119 and in-county, non-primary-residence licenses at 30. As of a September 2025 report, all 119 out-of-county licenses were already issued, with six applicants on a waitlist , that pool is full. The in-county, non-primary-residence pool is less tight: roughly 19 of the 30 available licenses are in use, leaving about 11 still open. (A separate, larger 59-license figure sometimes circulates for this pool , that's only a theoretical 3%-of-housing-stock ceiling the town has chosen not to fully allocate, not the actual working cap of 30.) Then, on January 13, 2026, Buena Vista's Board of Trustees adopted an emergency ordinance imposing a temporary moratorium on the acceptance, processing, and approval ofallnew STR license applications townwide, running through at least September 30, 2026. Trustees have framed this explicitly as a pause for policy review, not a declared shift to permanent caps: the town stood up a seven-member STR Workgroup tasked with gathering input across differing viewpoints and returning the Board a non-binding recommendation. That Workgroup presented its findings at a July 14, 2026 Board of Trustees work session , but as of this writing, no Board decision or outcome from that session has been publicly reported. Treat this as an active, closely-watched policy review with the outcome still pending, not a settled move to permanent caps, and check for a post-July-14 Board decision before relying on this section.

Put together: this submarket is not a growth market for new entrants through at least September 30, 2026, at minimum in Buena Vista , and that date could move again depending on what the Board decides after reviewing the Workgroup's July 14, 2026 recommendations , while the Chaffee County unincorporated pool is close enough to its own ceiling that new-entrant odds are poor there too. This is existing-license-holder territory right now , the opportunity is marketing and repositioning a property that already has a license, not acquiring a new one. Anyone being pitched a Buena Vista or unincorporated-Chaffee-County STR as a turnkey new investment this year should ask, directly, whether the license is already issued and transferable, because the county and town are not issuing meaningful numbers of new ones in the current window.

Buy the Brand, Not Just the View

Across all three markets, the operating lesson is the same one, even though the regulatory pictures diverge sharply. None of these towns are undiscovered. Crested Butte's cooling metrics reflect a market where supply already caught up to demand, meaning the operators standing out now are the ones with a real brand and a direct-booking base, not just a listing on the big platforms competing on price. Durango's established PM field means a new entrant wins by building something a guest chooses on purpose , a story, a niche, a look , not by hoping to be discovered in an undifferentiated pool. And in Salida/Buena Vista, where the regulatory door is mostly shut for new licenses through at least September 30, 2026, the entire opportunity is squeezed into properties that already hold a license: the only lever left to pull is how well that existing asset is marketed and positioned against everyone else who also already has one.

One statewide item worth flagging here, mostly to rule it out: a 2024 bill, SB24-033, proposed reclassifying short-term rentals rented more than 90 days a year from the residential property-tax category to a far higher-taxed "lodging" category , roughly a jump from a 6.7% assessment rate to 27.9%. It never became law. The Senate Finance Committee postponed it indefinitely on a 6-1 vote on April 16, 2024, and its House companion, HB24-1299, was killed 10-0 in committee six days later. No successor legislation reviving the concept has passed since. Colorado STR owners in Crested Butte, Durango, and the Chaffee County towns are not currently subject to any such reclassification , the license caps and mechanics detailed above remain the real constraints to underwrite around in 2026.

"Buy the brand, not just the view" is the right frame for all three, but it means something slightly different in each: in Crested Butte it means building direct-booking demand before the correction deepens further; in Durango it means differentiating against a half-dozen named, credible competitors; in Salida/Buena Vista it means squeezing more performance out of a fixed, scarce license rather than counting on acquiring a new one.

the Crest & Cove intro·local SEO keywords that actually book·the five elements of a converting hero·how to compare STR marketing agencies·Asheville paddling spots worth the drive·Crested Butte against AirROI $46,357·Durango against AirROI $33,759·Destin against AirROI, not leftover year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Crested Butte still a good Airbnb investment in 2026?

It depends on your entry basis and timeline. Crested Butte still commands a premium ADR (around $495 as of mid-2026) and strong summer/winter demand, but occupancy is down 9.9% and revenue down 13.2% year-over-year through June 2026 , a real softening after a period of rapid listing growth. New buyers should underwrite on current, not trailing-peak, performance.

Does Gunnison County require a short-term rental license?

Not yet, as of mid-2026, for unincorporated county land. A draft licensing program for unincorporated Gunnison County was under commissioner review in January 2026, targeting implementation in early summer 2026, as a $150, three-year registration with no cap and no inspections , not a supply restriction. The incorporated towns already have their own, separate programs: the Town of Crested Butte caps "Unlimited" STR licenses at 198 townwide (two per block face, October-only applications, non-transferable on sale), while Mt. Crested Butte runs no cap at all.

Are there STR caps in Durango or La Plata County?

Yes, but only inside Durango city limits. The City of Durango caps non-owner-occupied vacation rental permits at 22 in its EN-1 zone and 17 in EN-2; both pools are currently full, with an active waitlist for each, and the permits are non-transferable on sale. Other city zones have their own, less restrictive rules. Unincorporated La Plata County , including the Purgatory Resort area , has no equivalent cap or license review; owners there only need to collect and remit standard state and county sales tax plus county lodging tax.

Who manages most short-term rentals in Durango?

A mix of established local and regional firms, not a fragmented or wide-open field. Named operators active in the market include Durango Colorado Vacations (18+ years in market), Red Cliff Properties, Summit Property Management, Vacation Rental Collective, and Durango Purgatory Getaways, alongside national platform Vacasa. Typical management fees run 10-30% of gross revenue. On the competitive field, this is a market with multiple established, named property managers, not a vacancy: Durango Colorado Vacations has operated in the market for 18-plus years and runs a dedicated Purgatory-area management arm; Red Cliff Properties positions itself as a boutique,.

Can I still get a new short-term rental license in Buena Vista right now?

Buena Vista's Board of Trustees adopted an emergency moratorium on January 13, 2026, halting acceptance, processing, and approval of all new STR license applications townwide, running through at least September 30, 2026. Trustees have framed it as a temporary pause for policy review , a seven-member Workgroup presented recommendations at a July 14, 2026 Board meeting, but no decision has been publicly reported yet. The town's 119-license out-of-county cap was already fully allocated (with a six-name waitlist) before the moratorium took effect; the separate 30-license in-county, non-primary-residence pool had roughly 11 openings left.

What's the STR license cap in unincorporated Chaffee County?

The county caps total licenses at the lesser of 6% of unincorporated housing units or 310 licenses per year , currently 310 is the binding ceiling. New owners must be full-time county residents, and a resident-prioritized waitlist forms once the cap fills. The county does not publish a live utilization count, so confirm current availability directly with the Chaffee County STR office before assuming a license is obtainable.

What are average Airbnb rates in Salida and Buena Vista?

It depends on the data provider. AirDNA puts Salida around $266 ADR and Buena Vista around $286; AirROI puts both higher, around $293 and $298 respectively, with average annual revenue near $35,339 in Salida and $34,255 in Buena Vista. Top-10%-by-rate properties clear roughly $464+/night in Salida and $499+/night in Buena Vista (AirROI). Both towns run well above what their size would typically command, driven by whitewater, hot springs, and 14er access rather than a single ski resort , expect a real range depending on which platform's data you're looking.

Is Colorado mountain town Airbnb investment still viable outside Vail and Aspen?

Yes, but the opportunity has shifted from acquisition to marketing in most of these towns. Crested Butte is cooling on trailing metrics, Durango has an established competitive PM field inside city limits, and Salida/Buena Vista are largely closed to new STR licenses through at least September 30, 2026. The strongest near-term plays are repositioning and rebranding properties that already hold a license or an established presence, rather than counting on easy new entry.

About the Authors

Crest & Cove Creative is a short-term rental marketing agency founded by Thomas Garner and Jacob Mishalanie. We build direct-booking brands, listing optimization systems, and market-specific content strategies for independent STR operators nationwide, including emerging corridors like Colorado's independent mountain towns away from the I-70 corridor. The right way to read Durango, then, isn't "greenfield opportunity." It's "an established field with real four-season demand, where winning means out-marketing a half-dozen credible local operators on brand, direct-booking systems, and guest experience" , not showing up to an empty market.

Sources

AirDNA, Crested Butte, CO market overview (accessed July 2026): 385 listings (AirROI Crested Butte as of 2026-07-31), 47% occupancy, $495 ADR, $46,357 average annual revenue, $225 RevPAR, Market Score 50/100; June 2025-June 2026 year-over-year change: revenue -13.2%, occupancy -9.9%, ADR -2.0%, RevPAR -8.6%, active listings -2.3%.Confirms brief's 385-listing (AirROI Crested Butte as of 2026-07-31) and -9.9% occupancy figures.
Crested Butte News, "County prepares for short-term licensing" (January 2026): Gunnison County's draft unincorporated-area STR licensing program , $150/3-year license, no cap, target implementation early summer 2026, still in draft/commissioner-review stage as of January 2026.Confirms this is a registration measure still in progress, not a live requirement that rolled out by end of 2025.
Town of Crested Butte, Licensing & Permitting page and "Current Concentrations of Unlimited Licenses" document (townofcrestedbutte.colorado.gov): confirms 198-license townwide cap on "Unlimited" STR licenses (189 active in the most recent count), two-per-block-face limit, October 1-31 application/renewal window, non-transferable on sale, minimum annual rental-night requirement to retain the license.
Crested Butte News, "Mt. CB council ponders short-term rental license updates" (December 2025): confirms Mt. Crested Butte runs no townwide STR cap and that a December 16, 2025 work session discussed , but did not adopt , a requirement that all STRs use a licensed local property-management company.
Crested Butte News, "Short-term rental regulations fail to pass in CB South" (November 2024): confirms the CB South POA's proposed 20%-of-inventory cap (~130 licenses against ~650 homes) went to a membership vote in late 2024, won roughly 61% of ballots cast, but failed because covenant amendments require 50%-plus-one of all eligible voters, not just those who vote. No comprehensive STR cap has been adopted in CB South since.Corrects the earlier draft's claim that this vote "hasn't been scheduled" , the vote already happened and failed.
Town of Durango, Vacation Rental Information page (durangoco.gov): confirms 22-permit EN-1 / 17-permit EN-2 caps, both pools currently full with an active waitlist, and that permits are non-transferable , a property sale invalidates the permit and the new owner must reapply.
La Plata County Finance/Lodging Tax page (lpcgov.org): confirms unincorporated La Plata County (including the Purgatory Resort area) has no STR cap or license-review process; owners remit standard 2.9% state sales tax, 2% county sales tax, and 2% county lodging tax only.Corrects the earlier draft's claim that the county "reviews and renews STR licenses annually" , the city-limits cap does not extend to the unincorporated county.
Named Durango-area property managers verified via company websites (summitdgo.com, durango.org) and Colorado.com/Durango tourism listings: Durango Colorado Vacations, Red Cliff Properties, Summit Property Management, Vacation Rental Collective, Durango Purgatory Getaways, plus national operator Vacasa. Management fee range (10-30% of gross, full-service 20-30%) per market listings.
Chaffee County Ordinance 2021-002 and Ark Valley Voice coverage: cap set at the lesser of 6% of unincorporated housing units or 310 licenses/year; 310 confirmed as current binding cap; residency requirement for new owners; resident-prioritized waitlist. Exact current license count against the 310 ceiling was not published in available sources , flagged as needing direct county confirmation (str@chaffeecounty.org / ).
City of Salida STR licensing page, Ark Valley Voice, and The Mountain Mail coverage of Ordinance 2026-06 (passed February 17, 2026; effective March 23, 2026): confirms 85-license cap in R1/R2/R3/AG/PD residential zones, 99 in Mixed-Use Downtown (MD), 50 in Mixed-Use Center/Highway (MC/MH), and 75 in Mixed-Use Neighborhood (MN) , roughly 309 citywide. The ordinance converted existing caps onto newly-adopted zone districts with no material change to the total, dropped the owner-residency requirement in the MC/MH district specifically, and moved to year-round applications. The ~38%-available figure (late February 2026) is dated and should be reconfirmed with the City Clerk's office before relying on it.
Chaffeecountytimes.com, "Buena Vista Board caps out-of-county rental licenses," and liveinbuenavista.com coverage: confirms 119-license out-of-county cap (fully allocated as of September 2025, six-name waitlist) and 30-license in-county, non-primary-residence cap (roughly 19 in use, ~11 open) , not the larger 59-license theoretical 3%-of-housing-stock ceiling sometimes cited.
Ark Valley Voice, "Buena Vista Trustees Pass Temporary Short Term Rental License Moratorium" (January 13, 2026) and "BV Trustees to Consider Short Term Rental Committee Recommendations" (July 2026): confirms the emergency moratorium on all new STR license applications runs through at least September 30, 2026; confirms a seven-member STR Workgroup presented non-binding recommendations at a July 14, 2026 Board of Trustees work session, with no Board decision publicly reported as of this writing.This report deliberately does not assert what the Board decided , the outcome was still pending at time of publication.
AirDNA, Salida and Buena Vista, CO market overviews (2026): Salida , $266 ADR, 52% occupancy, ~$33,759 average monthly revenue. Buena Vista , $286 ADR, 52% occupancy, ~$33,759 average monthly revenue.
AirROI, Salida and Buena Vista, CO Airbnb data reports (2026): Salida , $293 ADR (some pulls show ~$290), 40.6% occupancy, $35,339 average annual revenue, $124 RevPAR, top-10%-by-rate tier $463-464+/night. Buena Vista , $298 ADR (some pulls show ~$291), 45.5% occupancy, $34,255 average annual revenue, $133 RevPAR, top-10%-by-rate tier $473-499+/night depending on data-pull timing.Provider-to-provider variance between AirDNA and AirROI is real and should be presented as a range, not a single figure , both are cited above rather than picking one as "correct."
Colorado General Assembly, SB24-033 "Lodging Property Tax Treatment" and HB24-1299, bill status pages (leg.colorado.gov): confirms SB24-033 proposed reclassifying STR units rented more than 90 days a year from residential (~6.7% assessment rate) to the higher-taxed "lodging" category (~27.9%), but was postponed indefinitely by the Senate Finance Committee on a 6-1 vote on April 16, 2024; companion bill HB24-1299 was postponed indefinitely 10-0 in committee on April 22, 2024. Neither became law, and no successor legislation has passed in any subsequent session.Corrects the earlier draft's claim that this reclassification is current or upcoming law , it was rejected by the legislature in 2024 and Colorado STR owners are not subject to it.
Browns Canyon National Monument, "The Numbers" rapids, Collegiate Peaks 14ers, Mount Princeton/Cottonwood hot springs, and Monarch Mountain ski area are established, well-documented regional features (rafting outfitter sites, National Monument designation, Colorado tourism resources) and were treated as general background rather than independently re-verified figures.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Crested Butte, Salida, and Buena Vista listings that borrow Aspen or Vail language miss the guest chasing an independent, non-resort mountain town, and miss the regulatory cap now reshaping two of these three markets.

We position these listings around the independent, anti-resort identity guests actually search for, not a diluted Aspen comparison. Start at crestcove.co/audit or call (256) 998-7502.

Reach out at crestcove.co or (256) 998-7502.