Who Books Colorado Springs vs. Manitou Springs and Pueblo

Thomas Garner
2 days ago
10 min read

Updated: 17 hours ago

Empty Colorado Springs vacation rental living room, lodging interior, no people

A host underwriting the Colorado Springs area often makes the same mistake: writing one caption meant to serve downtown Old Colorado City, a Manitou Springs cottage, and a Pueblo property all at once. Typical Colorado Springs listings earned about $28,823 last year across 2,340 active rentals, per AirROI's trailing twelve months from August 2025 through July 2026 — a $233 average night, 44.5 percent occupancy, and $105 in revenue per available night. Year over year is down 1.7 percent while active supply held roughly steady, a meaningfully calmer supply picture than several comparable Front Range markets are currently seeing.

That's the city figure specifically. Manitou Springs listings earned about $33,745 last year from 115 active rentals on the current extract, and Pueblo listings earned about $12,335 from 212 active rentals — both genuinely different numbers, on much smaller inventories, and neither belongs blended into a Colorado Springs buyer packet or listing description. Most guests booking a Colorado Springs stay arrive from Denver, then from Colorado Springs itself, staying a typical 6.4 nights on about 46 days' notice. That's a deliberate, planned trip, and the listing copy should reflect the specific city occasion driving it rather than a generic Front Range caption vague enough to also describe a Manitou Springs cottage or a Pueblo property.

None of this argues against operating in Manitou Springs or Pueblo — Manitou Springs in particular posts a stronger per-listing average than the city itself in this sample. It argues against writing one caption, pricing one calendar, or citing one figure across all three markets when the data plainly shows three separate products serving three separate guests with three separate, genuinely distinct reasons for making the trip in the first place at different points on the calendar. This is not legal advice.

The Urban Guest Wants Old Colorado City and Downtown

June is Colorado Springs' busiest month, with August and May close behind; February is the slowest month, and occupancy itself bottoms out separately in January. That calendar reflects couples and groups on a genuine weekend city trip, drawn to Old Colorado City and downtown specifically — design-forward copy, not a suburb bunk with a Colorado Springs address attached. A listing built for this guest should photograph Old Colorado City's historic character or downtown's walkability honestly, rather than reaching for language vague enough to also cover a Manitou Springs cottage a few miles up the canyon.

Professional management covers 18.5 percent of Colorado Springs listings, with the largest operator, Kaitlyn at Renjoy, holding 136. That's a meaningful chunk of organized competition in the urban core, which raises the bar for a self-managed Old Colorado City or downtown listing to compete on photos, consistency, and response time. A listing that photographs its actual neighborhood plainly, rather than hedging toward whatever might also apply to Manitou Springs or Pueblo, is the one that reads as built specifically for the guest who typed Colorado Springs into a search bar in the first place.

Manitou Springs and Pueblo Book a Separate City Entirely

Manitou Springs listings earned about $33,745 last year from 115 active rentals — a notably higher per-listing average than the city itself on a much smaller listing stock, consistent with a smaller, more curated tourist-town market. Pueblo listings earned about $12,335 from 212 active rentals, a meaningfully lower figure that reflects a genuinely different kind of market entirely. Manitou Springs is not Old Colorado City, and Pueblo is not downtown — each deserves its own listing description built around its own draw, not a shared Front Range pitch that dilutes all three.

A host operating in more than one of these markets should in any buyer packet or investment analysis, since averaging them together would flatten real differences in listing stock size, guest type, and price point into a number that doesn't accurately describe any single market. A Manitou Springs cottage competes in a small, tourist-oriented pool; a Pueblo property competes in a market with a different guest base and a different price ceiling entirely — and a listing description written for one shouldn't be recycled for the other without acknowledging that gap.

What the Zoning and Permit Rules Actually Require

Colorado Springs requires an active STR permit. Call Colorado Springs Short Term Rentals at 719-385-5982 or email shorttermrentals@coloradosprings.gov, Development Review Enterprise, 2880 International Circle, Suite 200-7. Owner-occupied permits require the owner to be physically present 185 days a year. Non-owner-occupied applications filed after December 26, 2019 aren't permitted in single-family zoning R-E, R-1 6, R-1 9, or single-family PDZs, and must sit 500 feet from another non-owner-occupied STR — a real zoning constraint worth confirming on a specific parcel before committing to a purchase in this specific market.

Coverage cites a $124.95 annual permit, though an older city PDF still lists $119 — confirm the current figure directly with the city desk before budgeting either number as a fixed cost. A scraped low-regulation label from a third-party listings site describes what's currently posted, not the city's actual enacted zoning and permit requirements, and a buyer or host relying on that label instead of the Development Review Enterprise office risks building a business plan around a rule that doesn't reflect current Colorado Springs policy. That risk is higher here than in some markets, given how specific the 500-foot spacing and single-family zoning restrictions are for non-owner-occupied applications filed after the 2019 cutoff date.

Photos Should Match the House That Exists

An Old Colorado City bungalow is not a Manitou Springs cottage, and the two shouldn't share a photo set even under the same host's management. Colorado Springs' urban guest wants downtown walkability and design-forward interiors; a Manitou Springs guest is often drawn by the town's tourist character and mountain-canyon setting specifically, a different kind of trip that rewards different photography emphasizing charm and proximity to the town's own attractions rather than downtown Colorado Springs nightlife and its evening restaurant scene.

About 851 listings, 36.4 percent of Colorado Springs' 2,340 active rentals, carry a 30-night minimum — a platform setting describing a desk-stay product, not a measure of how full the calendar runs. The city's real typical stay is 6.4 nights on a 46-day lead, and February remains the slow month regardless of how many listings carry a long-stay filter, which shouldn't be cited as evidence of strong occupancy on its own. A buyer comparing two otherwise similar Colorado Springs listings should look past a high 30-night-minimum share as a sign of strength and check the underlying typical-stay and occupancy figures instead.

What a Buyer Packet Should Carry

Hosts underwriting Front Range stays should cite $28,823 in typical annual revenue on 2,340 city listings, note supply holding roughly steady against year-over-year revenue down 1.7 percent, and list the permit contact at 719-385-5982. Keep Manitou Springs' $33,745 and Pueblo's $12,335 figures labeled separately from the city number, since averaging any of the three into one Front Range figure would misrepresent all three markets to a buyer or lender reading the packet.

The same discipline applies to zoning. A buyer evaluating a specific parcel should confirm directly with Development Review Enterprise whether that address falls inside a restricted single-family zone or the Padre-style 500-foot spacing rule that applies to non-owner-occupied applications, rather than assuming a scraped regulation label accurately reflects the parcel's actual zoning status.

Reading the Three Markets Side by Side

Set the three figures next to each other and the pattern is worth understanding rather than flattening: Colorado Springs' $28,823 typical year runs across the largest listing stock at 2,340 listings, Manitou Springs' $33,745 sits on a much smaller, higher-per-listing listing stock of 115, and Pueblo's $12,335 reflects a lower-priced market of 212 listings. That's a pattern consistent with a dense urban core, a small high-demand tourist town, and a more affordable secondary city all sharing the same general Front Range region without sharing the same guest, the same season, or the same price point at any point in the calendar.

For a host deciding where to buy or how to price an existing property, that distinction is the difference between an accurate underwriting model and a misleading one. A downtown Colorado Springs property competes against 2,340 other listings on urban-guest terms; a Manitou Springs cottage competes in a small, high-average pool; a Pueblo property competes on entirely different price expectations. Each market rewards listing copy and pricing built around its own real guest, not a shared Front Range caption broad enough to technically describe all three and specific enough to convert none of them well.

What a 6.4-Night Stay and a 46-Day Lead Mean for Listing Copy

A guest booking a 6.4-night Colorado Springs stay roughly six and a half weeks out is planning a genuinely deliberate trip, not a spontaneous one, and that lead time gives them ample room to compare several listings carefully before committing to any single one. That rewards a listing that answers the questions a purely local guest wouldn't need answered: how to get from the Colorado Springs Airport to the property, what a longer stay's grocery and laundry setup looks like, and how far the listing actually sits from Garden of the Gods, Old Colorado City, or downtown rather than a vague claim of proximity to "the mountains."

That same lead time also means a Colorado Springs listing benefits from staying accurately priced and photographed well ahead of the guest's target dates, since a guest six weeks into comparison shopping has already filtered out listings with vague or generic photography by the time they're ready to book. Denver's status as the top origin market matters here too — a Denver-area guest driving down for the weekend has plenty of comparable Front Range options, and the listings that hold that guest's attention are consistently the ones with specific, honest copy rather than a caption broad enough to also describe Manitou Springs or Pueblo just as easily.

Don't Blend Three Occasions on One Tile

The clearest single piece of advice for a Colorado Springs-area host remains the simplest one available: serve the guest who typed the search term they actually typed into the box. A guest searching "Colorado Springs" wants Old Colorado City or downtown; a guest searching "Manitou Springs" wants that specific mountain town's charm; a guest searching "Pueblo" wants that market's own draw at its own price point. A listing that tries to hold all three occasions on one tile, hedging its neighborhood description and photo set to vaguely fit wherever the property happens to sit, tends to underperform three separately optimized listings, even under the same host's management.

That principle holds for a single property too. A host with one Colorado Springs-area rental doesn't need three listings; they need one listing that's honest and specific about which of the three markets the property actually belongs to, written with that guest's real trip in mind from the first sentence through the house rules. Whichever one the property genuinely serves — the urban core, the mountain-town charm, or the Pueblo price point — that's the guest the whole listing should be written for, not a hedge broad enough to apply to all three at once and specific enough to actually convert none of them well over a full season.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much did typical Colorado Springs listings earn last year?

Typical Colorado Springs listings earned about $28,823 last year from 2,340 active rentals, per AirROI's trailing twelve months from August 2025 through July 2026. The average night was $233, occupancy was 44.5 percent, and revenue per available night was $105. Year over year is down 1.7 percent while active supply held roughly steady. Keep Manitou Springs and Pueblo figures on their own separate lines rather than blending them into this city number.

When is Colorado Springs' strongest month?

June is the busiest revenue month, with August and May also running strong. February is the slowest month, and occupancy is weakest in January. That calendar describes the city proper — a Manitou Springs or Pueblo listing follows its own seasonal pattern and shouldn't be priced off this one, since each market's demand drivers differ meaningfully from the others.

Do I need a Colorado Springs CO STR permit in 2026?

Yes. Call Colorado Springs Short Term Rentals at 719-385-5982 or email shorttermrentals@coloradosprings.gov, Development Review Enterprise, 2880 International Circle, Suite 200-7. Owner-occupied permits require 185 days of physical occupancy. Non-owner-occupied applications filed after December 26, 2019 aren't permitted in single-family zoning R-E, R-1 6, R-1 9, or single-family PDZs, and must sit 500 feet from another non-owner-occupied STR.

Is a 30-night minimum the same as occupancy?

No. About 851 listings, 36.4 percent of the 2,340 active rentals, carry a 30-night minimum — that's a platform setting, not a measure of how full the property runs. Colorado Springs' real stay length is 6.4 nights, booked roughly 46 days out, and February remains the slow month regardless of minimum-night filters showing up in the raw listing count.

Should I hire a manager in Colorado Springs and on the satellites?

Professional management covers 18.5 percent of Colorado Springs listings; the largest operator, Kaitlyn at Renjoy, holds 136. Manitou Springs and Pueblo each reward their own separate-city copy rather than a shared regional pitch. Don't buy one management plan, or one listing description, to cover all three distinct markets under a single Front Range strategy that ignores real differences between them.

Who books a Colorado Springs stay?

Most guests arrive from Denver, then from Colorado Springs itself, staying about 6.4 nights on roughly 46 days' notice. Urban guests want Old Colorado City, downtown, and a real city night. Manitou Springs and Pueblo guests are each booking a distinct, separate-city stay — serve the guest who actually typed Colorado Springs rather than hedging the copy toward either satellite market instead.

Can I file Manitou Springs numbers as the Colorado Springs year?

No. Colorado Springs' average night was $233 across 2,340 listings, while Manitou Springs earned about $33,745 across 115 listings on its own extract. Keep the $28,823 Colorado Springs figure on its own line rather than blending it with Manitou Springs pricing, which reflects a much smaller, higher-average tourist-town market entirely and shouldn't set city-wide expectations.

Can I run a non-owner-occupied STR in a Colorado Springs single-family zone?

Generally no. Non-owner-occupied applications filed after December 26, 2019 aren't permitted in single-family zoning R-E, R-1 6, R-1 9, or single-family PDZs. Owner-occupied permits require 185 days of physical occupancy. Call 719-385-5982 to confirm zoning on a specific parcel before you commit to a purchase — a scraped low-regulation label isn't the actual town file to rely on.

What should a buyer packet carry for Colorado Springs?

Cite $28,823 in typical annual revenue on 2,340 city listings, supply holding roughly steady, and year over year down 1.7 percent. Note the permit contact at 719-385-5982 and keep Manitou Springs' $33,745 and Pueblo's $12,335 figures labeled separately from the city number rather than averaging any of the three distinct markets together into one misleading regional figure.

Where do I confirm the city desk in Colorado Springs?

Call Colorado Springs Short Term Rentals at 719-385-5982 or email shorttermrentals@coloradosprings.gov, Development Review Enterprise, 2880 International Circle, Suite 200-7. That office confirms current permit fees, occupancy-day requirements, and zoning restrictions for 2026 — not a scraped listings-site regulation label reflecting current postings rather than actual enacted city policy on the ground for a specific parcel.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, and Pueblo get written as one Front Range caption more often than the numbers support. A downtown listing built for Old Colorado City beats a hedge that also tries to cover a Manitou Springs cottage.

If a Colorado Springs listing still blurs downtown with a Manitou Springs or Pueblo pitch, splitting the copy by city is a fast way to convert more of the guest who actually typed Colorado Springs. Start with a listing audit at crestcove.co or call (256) 998-7502.

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