Estes Park, CO short-term rental limits

What Estes Park asks of you

• The cap applies to the town's seven residential zoning districts, from estate lots to multi-family.^[4]

• Commercial-zone licenses have no limit and are processed in the order received.^[3]

• If 10 or fewer requests remain on the waitlist on February 1, the Town Clerk holds a lottery. Each entry costs $50, one per dwelling unit.^[4]

• Winners join the waitlist until it holds 30 requests. Each failed entry in consecutive past lotteries adds one more chance in the next draw.^[4]

• When licenses open up under the cap, requests at the top of the waitlist get 14 days to file a full application.^[4]

• The town's license page says Ordinance 16-21, approved October 26, 2021, placed a moratorium on the waitlist and that residential applications are not being accepted.^[3]

• In a residential zone, occupancy is two people per sleeping room plus two, with eight as the maximum.^[4]

• Homes allowed nine or more occupants must have applied for a license before March 31, 2017.^[3]

• In residential zones, a vacation home goes to one party per night. Every occupant is registered by name by the time the party arrives.^[4]

• Print or online ads put the business license number in the first line of the property description. They also state the maximum number of occupants allowed.^[4]

• Outside the downtown commercial district, a vacation home has at least two off-street spaces. In residential zones, cars parked outside a garage cannot outnumber the bedrooms.^[4]

• The local representative lives within the Park R-3 School District boundary. Living in the Estes Valley Recreation and Park District also qualifies.^[4]

• The license page asks that representative to respond within 20 to 30 minutes to a violation or emergency.^[3]

• Before a first or transferred license, the owner mails a notice to property owners within 100 feet. It gives the address plus the town's 24/7 hotline number.^[4]

• A compliance inspection looks for illegal duplexes or accessory units. A life safety inspection follows, ending with a certificate of occupancy for the use.^[4]

• No vacation home is allowed on a residential lot containing an accessory dwelling unit.^[4]

• Outdoor solid-fuel fires, from fire pits to pellet grills, are banned at vacation homes. The ban lifts only when the owner or local representative is there to oversee.^[4]

• A residential license keeps its renewal priority only if the renewal is complete, inspected and paid by January 31. Otherwise it expires.^[4]

• Residential licenses first issued after October 18, 2021 cannot be transferred. They end when the home is sold.^[3]

• Those licenses may be held only by natural persons. An entity holding one since before October 14, 2025 keeps it through the 2027 renewal, which closes January 31, 2027.^[4]

• A first conviction costs $250. Repeats within two years cost $500, then $1,000.^[4]

• Each day a home is advertised without a license counts as a separate offense.^[4]

• A home rented without a license is barred for five years from licenses, lotteries and the waitlist.^[4]

What Colorado asks wherever you host

These rules apply at this address whatever the city decides.

• When guests book through a platform, it collects Colorado sales tax on the full amount charged. The platform also handles any county lodging tax and local marketing district tax.^[1]

• Lodging taxes a city sets stay outside the state's system, since the Department of Revenue administers none of them. Home-rule cities that run their own sales tax sit outside it too, so start with your city.^[1]

• Hosts who take direct bookings need a Colorado sales tax license and collect the 2.9% state rate themselves. The license is $16, prorated, with a $50 deposit returned once your state tax tops $50.^[2]