On November 3, voters in 11 Colorado towns decide on lodging, short-term rental, and vacant-home taxes, and Mt. Crested Butte could nearly double its STR tax. Five days earlier, on October 29, Vrbo's host fee jumps to a flat 12%. And Choice Hotels just paid $130 million to get into RV travel.
MARKET INTEL
Colorado's November ballot is a lodging-tax ballot
The Colorado Municipal League's fall election preview, published October 2, tracks 104 municipal ballot questions statewide. Eleven towns have questions on lodging, short-term rental, or vacancy taxes.
The biggest one for STR operators is in Mt. Crested Butte. Residential short-term rentals there pay a 4.9% excise tax today. The ballot question adds 5%, taking residential units to 9.9%, with the new money going to the town's community housing fund. Commercial units would stay at 4.9%. The town council sent it to voters on a 3–2 vote in July. "An Airbnb is no different than a small hotel, but they get taxed significantly less," council member Nation said at the time, according to the Crested Butte News.
The rest of the list:
Gypsum: a new 4% town lodging tax that would replace the 4% county lodging tax collected in town, effective January 1, 2027. Hotels and short-term rentals are both covered.
Boulder: a vacancy tax of $4,000–$7,000 a year, adjusted annually for inflation, on homes occupied fewer than 184 days a year.
Crested Butte: an excise tax on non-primary residences, based on square footage, plus a flat tax on vacant land.
Lodging-tax increases: Broomfield (up 4.4% to a 6% total), Cortez (up 4% to 6%), Morrison (up 2% to 8%, plus a separate question ending a lodging-tax exemption), Northglenn (up 3% to 8%), and Rifle (up 3% to 5.5%).
New lodging tax: Erie (3.5%).
Extension: Holyoke would keep its 2.5% lodging tax through 2032.
The operator takeaway: if you have a property in any of these towns, find out what passes on November 3 and when it takes effect, then update the tax settings on every channel before the first affected stay.
OPERATOR PLAYBOOK
Vrbo's fee goes to 12% on October 29. Here's what to do before then.
Vrbo told hosts on September 29 that it's moving to a flat 12% host fee, according to Skift and Short Term Rentalz. Today, property managers connected through property management software pay 5%, and everyone else pays 8%. From October 29, everyone pays 12%. Hosts still on Vrbo's old annual subscription plan move to pay-per-booking at the same 12%. AirDNA puts that group at about 12% of U.S. listings.
Two new terms come with the fee change. A rate-parity clause requires your Vrbo rates to be at least as low as any other channel, including your own direct-booking website. And Vrbo can now distribute your rates through AI agents and metasearch sites.
Vrbo's reason is to match Airbnb's host-only fee (about 15.5%) and Booking.com's (about 15%) so guests see lower prices up front. It plans to cut guest service fees, but its FAQ says that "in most cases" guests will still see one.
Three things to do in the next three weeks:
Reprice. A move from 5% or 8% to 12% comes straight out of your margin unless you adjust your Vrbo rates.
Check parity against your direct-booking discounts. If your own site undercuts Vrbo, the new terms put that discount in question.
Look at Vrbo's share of your bookings. If it's a small slice of your revenue, decide now whether it's still worth the higher fee and the parity terms.
DEAL SPOTLIGHT
Choice Hotels buys its way into RV travel
Choice Hotels announced on September 30 that it's buying Harvest Hosts for about $130 million in cash, with the deal expected to close October 1. The purchase includes Harvest Hosts plus Boondockers Welcome, Escapees RV Club, CampScanner, and Brit Stops: a combined network of more than 11,200 host locations for RV travelers.
Harvest Hosts will keep running as a standalone business under its existing brand, with CEO Joel Holland and his team staying on. Choice's reasoning is its own customer data: members of its Choice Privileges loyalty program "over-index among RV travelers." Choice plans to connect that loyalty base with the Harvest Hosts network, but it hasn't said how yet.
Why it matters to campground and RV park owners: a major hotel company now owns one of the biggest channels for reaching RV travelers. Watch for cross-promotion between Choice Privileges and Harvest Hosts, and think about whether your park should be reaching the same travelers.
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