Colorado Just Closed the Loophole. Are You Still Using It?

Salida spent its September 2 council meeting doing two things at once: closing a residency loophole operators have been quietly using, and rejecting a penalty rule that would've hurt small operators more than cheaters. That split decision previews where STR enforcement is headed statewide. Meanwhile, the RV side of the business just got a real signal about where to put capital next season.

Salida City Council voted September 2 on two short-term rental amendments. The first passed unanimously: STR license applicants must now provide every one of four residency documents — valid Colorado driver's license, current voter registration, vehicle registration, and income tax filings designating Chaffee County as primary residence — instead of "two or more." The old rule let out-of-state owners register to vote or title a vehicle locally just to qualify, while their real address stayed elsewhere. That loophole is closed.

The second amendment failed. It would have required license holders to actively rent at least 12 nights a year or lose the license. Staff data showed 16 current licensees rented under 12 nights last year, 12 of them zero nights. Council killed it anyway — members didn't want to punish small operators, and losing those licenses would cut revenue the city routes to its affordable housing fund. Downtown and Two Rivers properties stay exempt from the residency rules entirely.

The takeaway for every operator in our five states: cities are getting more surgical. They're not banning STRs outright — they're closing specific loopholes (residency fraud) while backing off blunt instruments (occupancy mandates) that hit compliant small operators as hard as bad actors. If your compliance story depends on a P.O. box or a vehicle you titled locally and nothing else, fix that now. Expect more counties to copy the documentation language rather than the occupancy mandate — it's the version that survived a council vote, and other jurisdictions watch for exactly that.

The RV side of the business just got a clear signal on where demand is going. Q1 2026 data cited by Modern Campground shows park model RV placements up 22.4% year over year, while towable RV shipments fell 13.2% over the same period. Translation: buyers are choosing settled, semi-permanent stays over rigs they tow behind a truck.

Dwell Outdoor Hospitality's McKay Quinn told the outlet 85% of the company's revenue now comes from long-term stays, not transient traffic — a direct response to a consumer "dollar going less and less far." Blue Water's Rafael Correa and Cairn Consulting Group's Scott Bahr both flagged the same pattern from the transient side: booking windows have compressed to an average of 97 days, and today's guest needs only one friction point — a bad forecast, a gas price spike — to cancel.

If your park still leans on transient RV traffic for its margin, this is the season to build out a long-term or park-model tier before next summer, not during it. If you're already extended-stay heavy, the same data is your evidence for holding rates instead of discounting into a soft-confidence market. Either way, don't wait for a slow shoulder season to make the call — the shift is already showing up in what manufacturers are building and selling.

The capital is already moving. Park model placements outgrowing towables by 35 points (+22.4% vs. -13.2%) is a manufacturer-level signal, not an anecdote — it's what's actually selling into the industry right now. For operators sitting on underused overflow or seasonal tent sites, that's the inventory conversion to price out this fall: park models instead of more transient pads. The Consumer Confidence expectations sub-index sitting at 74.7 — nine points under the recession-signal threshold of 80 — is the reason to move now rather than wait for demand certainty that isn't coming this cycle.

If this is useful, forward it to one operator who needs it.

Got a park model conversion in the works, or fighting your own residency-documentation battle with a city?

— Timberline Operator

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