Golden, Colorado, places six-month moratorium on new short-term rentals

The Golden City Council has approved a six-month moratorium on applications for new short-term rentals so the city can draft clear regulations.

Currently, short-term rentals are legal in certain zones in Golden as “tourist homes,” but, while there are only 12 of these registered with the city, there are more than 40 Golden homes offered for short-term rentals on vacation rental sites. The city wants to institute updated and comprehensive rules for the industry.

The new rules may follow Denver’s lead to only allow short-term rentals at primary residences — not second homes or investment properties.

Other communities near Golden are also addressing short-term rentals; Wheat Ridge plans on looking at the issue later this year and Edgewater severely restricted short-term rentals recently.

The short-term vacation rental industry in Colorado is growing — and communities are noticing and looking at ways to regulate it. Airbnb short-term operators in Colorado hosted 1.2 million guests in 2017, a 68 percent jump from the previous year.

Airbnb has an agreement with Colorado to collect state-administered lodging taxes on behalf of hosts, as well as deals with some non-state-administered cities to collect city accommodation taxes. Colorado Airbnb hosts in non-state-administered cities that have no agreement with Airbnb are responsible for collecting and remitting city lodging tax.

Short-term rental operators who use other booking services, such as VRBO and HomeAway, are required to take care of all taxes on short-term rentals themselves. Many Colorado hosts use MyLodgeTax, a managed tax filing service, to help them manage lodging tax compliance.