New law empowers Summit County, Colorado, to force short-term rental marketplaces like Airbnb to take down unlicensed listings

A new ordinance in Summit County, Colorado, requires short-term rental (STR) marketplaces such as Airbnb and Vrbo to include a valid county STR permit number in all property listings. Under the ordinance, marketplaces must also delete illegal listings when notified by county officials. While the measure doesn’t change the county’s STR regulations, it offers the county a new avenue for enforcing the rules. With limited resources, enforcement has been a challenge for county authorities.

The ordinance follows on the heels of a statewide law passed in 2023 that gave counties authority to a regulate vacation rental service, defined as “a person that operates a website or any other digital platform that provides a means through which an owner or owner’s agent may offer lodging, unit, or portion thereof for short-term rentals and from which the person financially benefits.”

The law allows counties specific powers to require STR marketplaces to help them enforce rules around licensing. Other Colorado jurisdictions — including Boulder, Douglas, Clear Creek, and Larimer counties — have used this legislation as a springboard to craft laws similar to Summit County’s.

Colorado isn’t the only government using regulation of STR marketplaces to aid in enforcement of STR laws. Other jurisdictions that have passed similar laws recently include Monterey, California, San Antonio, Texas, and Rhode Island.

Summit County first passed STR regulations in 2018 and updated them most recently in 2023. Under the law, STR hosts in unincorporated areas of the county must:

• Register with the county annually
• Designate an agent responsible for responding to problems with the rental within an hour
• Follow safety, occupancy, and parking rules

The ordinance established a Neighborhood Overlay Zone and a Resort Overlay Zone for STRs, with stricter rules in the neighborhood zone in terms of limits on numbers of licenses and the number of nights per year properties can operate as STRs. The majority of STRs in the county are located in the resort zone, which includes Keystone, Copper Mountain, Tiger Run Resort, and unincorporated areas at the base of Peak 8 in Breckenridge.

In addition to following operational rules, Summit County vacation rental owners must register for a tax license with the state and collect state sales tax from guests. STRs are also subject to a Summit County short-term rental lodging tax that was approved by voters in 2022. STR operators are responsible for collecting all required taxes and submitting them to the proper tax authorities, unless their STR marketplace collects taxes for them.

In Summit County, Airbnb and Vrbo automatically collect state and county lodging taxes for their hosts when guests pay. Even if a rental marketplace collects lodging taxes, Colorado hosts are still required to register for a state tax license and file regular lodging tax returns.

MyLodgeTax can automate and simplify short-term rental tax compliance, including registration and filing with state and local tax authorities. For more on short-term rental taxes in Colorado, see our Colorado vacation rental tax guide. If you have tax questions related to vacation rental properties, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you with answers.