Sneak Peek of the Week
Vacation rental owners, managers organizing in anticipation of new legislation
$3,150
Tax revenue per resident paid by tourism in Summit County
Colorado is the birthplace of short-term rentals. And the state is ground zero for local regulation of the booming industry.
After several years of reactive, defensive responses to increased regulation and taxation legislation, the state’s short-term rental owners and managers are organizing with an educational campaign and lawmaker lobbying plans. And just in time as the state’s policymakers head back to the Capitol next week for a special session to hammer out a plan to cut property taxes.
Colorado House Speaker Rep. Julie McCluskie — a Democrat from Dillon — expects state legislation that would affect short-term rentals “is highly likely” in the special session.
“We know that short-term rentals have become a significant part of the guest experience,” she said at a rally of short-term rental owners, managers and representatives from Vrbo in Silverthorne this week. “In order for our tourism economies to thrive, we need short-term rentals in places where the world wants to be.”
Earlier this year, as the legislature debated Senate Bill 33 — legislation that would have quadrupled property taxes on vacation rental homes — McCluskie fielded more than 2,000 emails from constituents in one week. The third-term representative said she has never received so many notes from voters.
She urged the short-term rental advocates gathered inside the Silverthorne Pavilion to reach out now to lawmakers and share data — not just anecdotes — about vacation homes that rent to visitors.
The Senate Bill 33 proposal posed “an existential crisis” for the short-term rental industry in Colorado, said Tim Rosolio, who heads up vacation rental partnerships Expedia Group, Vrbo’s parent.
“In Colorado, we kind of got to the brink there,” he said.
“The answer is not ‘no regulation,’” Rosolio said. “It’s important for us to land on something that is balanced … while making sure that we understand what a big economic driver short-term rentals and tourism are for the community.”
Colorado overnight visitors spent $6.3 billion on lodging in 2023, generating $1.8 billion in local and state tax revenue and supporting 9,450 jobs. Visitors spent $28.2 billion in total in 2023 and vacationers who rented privately owned homes spent $4.1 billion.
In nine Western Slope mountain counties anchored by ski areas, visitors in short-term rental homes and condos — not hotels and motels — spent $1.2 billion in 2023, up from $1.1 billion in 2022 and 2021. That is compared to $2.3 billion spent on traditional hotels and motels in 2023 and 2022.
Since 2019, the number of vacationers renting private homes has increased by 27%.
The taxes generated by tourism in Colorado equate to about $308 per resident. But in places like Summit County, the $96.3 million in state and local taxes paid by tourists in 2023 equals more than $3,150 per resident.
The Colorado Tourism Office collects annual spending figures and shares that data far and wide. That is part of the office’s mission to empower local communities so they can share their own plans for balancing the quality of life for local residents with tourism and tourist-based economies.
“What is the value of tourism? Where are you on the tourism cycle in your communities?” asked Tim Wolfe, the head of the Colorado Tourism Office who champions the revival of international tourism as a key component for sustainable visitation in high-profile destinations like metro Denver and Summit County. He’s seeing more communities backing away from intense regulation of short-term rental properties as visitation and lodging tax collections ebb in the first half of 2024.
>> Click over to The Sun next week to read this story
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Breaking Trail
Powdr lists Eldora Mountain Resort for sale
The owner of Eldora Mountain Resort, Powdr, on Thursday announced plans to sell the Boulder County ski area.
Powdr also announced it had inked a deal to sell Killington and Pico ski areas in Vermont to local investors and was also listing SilverStar Mountain Resort in British Columbia and Mt. Bachelor in Oregon for sale alongside Eldora.
The company has enlisted financial firm JP Morgan to help with the potential sale, and a spokesperson said more details would come as the process unfolds.
The resort operator said its arrangements with Alterra Mountain Co. providing Ikon Pass access to Eldora would not change for the 2024-25 ski season. The Park City, Utah-based Powdr was founded in 1994 by entrepreneur John Cumming with Alpine Meadows and Park City ski areas.
He acquired Copper Mountain ski area in 2009 and purchased Eldora in 2016 from his friend Bill Killebrew, who had owned the resort with two partners for more than 25 years.
Powdr evolved in the past 30 years into what it calls an adventure lifestyle company. It sold Alpine Meadows on Lake Tahoe in 2007, which is now part of Alterra Mountain Co.’s Palisades Tahoe ski area. When Powdr missed a deadline in 2011 to renew an historic and inexpensive lease for critical private land at its Park City Mountain Resort, Vail Resorts, which owned the adjacent Canyons ski hill, swooped in with a new offer for the landowner in 2014 and took over the resort in a $182.5 million deal that created the country’s largest ski area.
Last year Powdr sold Lee Canyon ski area in Nevada to Durango’s Mountain Capital Partners. The company’s Woodward Experiences offers year-round BMX, skateboard, snowboard and ski training facilities and programs at 10 locations across the country.
The 680-acre Eldora celebrated its 60th season of operation in 2023 following a $10 million investment by Powdr. In October, Eldora will open its new 12,000-square-foot Caribou Lodge, which will house the Ignite Adaptive Sports nonprofit and the resort’s ski school. Ski patrollers at Eldora recently voted to unionize, citing patroller turnover and a need for higher wages to meet the cost of living in Boulder County.
Eldora plans to open for the 2024-25 season Nov. 15 and a statement from the company said the ski area “will continue to conduct business as usual” as it courts potential buyers.
The U.S. resort industry has undergone intense consolidation in recent years as Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Co. peddle multiresort season passes. Vail Resorts has 37 North American ski areas and Alterra owns 19. Mountain Capital Partners has grown to nine North American ski areas and Boyne Resorts has 11. Powdr has been a partner with Alterra Mountain Co. since the debut of the Ikon Pass in 2018, offering unlimited access at its Eldora and Copper Mountain ski areas.
Alterra Mountain Co., which owns the Winter Park and Steamboat ski areas, in February announced plans to acquire its Ikon Pass partner Arapahoe Basin. The U.S. Department of Justice in June said it was taking a closer look at the acquisition, asking for national skier surveys and Arapahoe Basin visitation statistics as it studied a potential antitrust issue with Alterra’s growth in Colorado.
>> Click over to The Sun to read this story
The Playground
Western Slope airports host record traffic in 2023
52%
Percentage increase in traffic through eight Western Slope airports from 2013 to 2023
The airports of the Western Slope continue to see record traffic. More than 1.5 million passengers passed through airports in Aspen, Durango, Grand Junction, Gunnison, Gypsum, Hayden, Montrose and Telluride last year, an all-time high. That’s a 7% increase over the previous record set in 2022.
Traffic through the vital transportation hubs has steadily climbed since 2017 — minus the pandemic year of 2020 — as communities work to support the airborne travelers who tend to spend more. Since 2013, the number of visitors through the eight commercial airports on the Western Slope has increased by 52%. That’s a larger percentage increase than traffic at Denver International Airport since 2013.
The Guide
New faces for Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission
Gov. Jared Polis added some new faces to Colorado’s outdoor leadership institutions this week with hopes that this time around, his nominations won’t inflame the angst of hunters and anglers.
It’s highly unlikely anyone will oppose Polis’ nomination of Bobby Massie to the Great Outdoors Colorado Trust Fund Board of Directors. The former Denver Broncos player whose Wanderland Outdoors introduces overlooked communities to the outdoors will help guide Colorado Lottery revenue toward conservation and outdoor recreation projects.
And it’s not likely that Polis’ re-appointments of Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission Chairman Dallas May and Commissioner Jay Tuchton will see much opposition.
The appointment of Murphy Robinson of Littleton to represent hunters and anglers and Tai Jacober of Carbondale to represent agricultural interests on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission could see more turbulence as hunters and anglers fight for veteran representation on the commission. Scrutiny of commissioners representing hunters and ranchers is growing this year as voter-approved wolves stalk livestock and a pending vote could end mountain lion hunting.
Earlier this year, Polis’ nominations to the parks and wildlife commission — Jessica Beaulieu, an attorney who manages the University of Denver’s Animal Law Program, Jack Murphy, who leads Urban Wildlife Rescue, and longtime wildlife biologist Gary Skiba — faced fierce opposition from Western Slope lawmakers, hunters and recreation groups.
Beaulieu and Murphy were confirmed by the Colorado Senate but Durango-based Skiba resigned after the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee declined to support his appointment to represent hunters and anglers on the Western Slope.
Both Robinson — a longtime big game hunter who oversaw police, fire and sheriff’s departments in Denver — and Jacober, a lifelong rancher based in the Crystal River Valley, appear to fall in the middle ground of the groups they will be representing.
>> Click over to The Sun on Friday to read this story
Cyclists step up for Howard Grotts after horrific Breck Epic crash
Howard Grotts, a Durango mountain biking legend, was in the final mile of the six-stage Breck Epic on Friday. He was in the lead, besting dozens of the world’s top mountain bikers in the grueling 200-mile race that climbs more than 40,000 vertical feet, when he crashed. No one saw it happen. Other riders came across him, unconscious and injured.
The 31-year-old was swiftly treated by rescuers and the race’s medical team. He was airlifted to St. Anthony Hospital with life-threatening injuries to his back, spine, ribs, clavicle and scapula. The cycling community stepped up, raising nearly $85,000 in the first six days of a GoFundMe campaign.
A few days ago, Grotts was out of surgery but his condition was changing by the hour.
“He does have feeling in his arms and legs, though, so that’s a huge relief,” said Mike McCormack, the founder and organizer of the Breck Epic who is helping the fundraising campaign for Grotts, who won the prestigious race in 2017. McCormack said the medical bills for Grotts “are going to be insane.”
“Howard is an absolute lion on the bike. More importantly, he is kind and gentle. Quiet and thoughtful. He rides and acts with dignity, sportsmanship and honor,” McCormark wrote on the GoFundMe page. “His temporary absence leaves a huge hole in our community, and he faces a long road to recovery that’s going to require deep reserves of courage. And the support of everyone around him.”
Click over to Grotts’ GoFundMe page for updates.
— j
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