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Town of Vail Contemplating Short-Term Rental Fee Changes
Background:
At their afternoon meeting on November 5th, Vail Town Council discussed potential fee and regulatory changes to the Town’s existing short-term rental requirements. More specifically, they contemplated the following:
- Establishing a new per-bedroom fee on all short-term rentals
This fee, per the Town’s legal counsel, would need to be the same for all STRs, no matter their location within the Town. Consensus amongst council was a fee in the range of $1k-$2k per bedroom, although the Town’s STR study said they could justifiably go as high as $5k per bedroom. Additional dollars generated from this fee would likely go towards the Town’s affordable housing efforts and offsetting impacts from STRs.
- Capping the number of short-term rentals
Staff raised the possibility of placing a cap on the number of short-term rentals within the Town, but ultimately, all but one council member agreed that was not the direction the Town should go.
- Establishing occupancy requirements for short-term rentals
Staff raised the possibility of establishing occupancy requirements for an owner to use their property as an STR i.e., Minturn requires two years of ownership before an owner can use their property as a short-term rental. One council member suggested a 5-year ownership requirement, but the remaining members did not support any requirement.
Next Steps:
Given that many STR licenses are set to renew in February 2025, Town Council Members directed staff to bring forward a recommendation on the per bedroom fee and a revised STR ordinance for adoption. As such, we felt it was important to quickly educate our members (and their clients) on these potential changes.
VBR’s Advocacy Efforts:
VBR will be sending a letter to Vail Town Council and staff sharing some of the Association’s concerns. Given the unanimous consensus on the council for the per bedroom fee, our feedback will encourage them to adopt a per-bedroom fee of no more than $1k. Ultimately, we don’t want to discourage families from using STRs sparingly throughout the year to help offset their mortgage. A higher uniform fee would hit residents/property owners the hardest, yet they’re the group that relies upon that income the most.
Interested in providing your own feedback to the Town Council? Use this LINK to email your council member.
Thank you in advance for helping to defend our industry by protecting property rights and supporting home ownership.
Sincerely,
VBR Board of Directors
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