Are Colorado Airbnbs Taxed as Commercial Property? No, and Here's Why
Program and regulatory figures verified July 24, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.
This is the single most important correction on the site. If you've researched Colorado short-term rentals, you've read that the state is about to tax them like hotels. It isn't, and it didn't. Here is exactly what happened, with dates.
Is Colorado going to tax Airbnbs as commercial property?
No. As of July 2026, Colorado short-term rentals are taxed as ordinary residential property, the same class as any other home. The only attempts to change that were two 2024 bills, and both failed the same spring. SB24-033 was postponed indefinitely by the Senate Finance Committee on April 16, 2024, and its House companion, HB24-1299, was postponed indefinitely by the House Finance Committee on April 22, 2024. "Postponed indefinitely" is how a Colorado committee kills a bill. Neither became law, and no successor bill has passed in the 2025 or 2026 sessions.
We verified this directly against the legislature's own bill records, not secondary summaries, because the secondary summaries are exactly the problem. A 2026-session property tax bill, SB26-116 (signed into law June 2, 2026), does not touch STR classification at all; we read it to be sure.
Are short-term rentals residential or commercial for Colorado property tax?
Residential. Your Colorado STR is assessed at the residential rate, gets the SB24-233 value exemption, and reappraises on the ordinary two-year cycle. The only classification change ever formally proposed, in SB24-033 and HB24-1299, never became law, so short-term rentals remain classified as residential today. If a listing agent, a competitor's blog, or a forum post tells you your Airbnb will be reclassified as "lodging property," ask them for the statute. There isn't one.
Why the fear is real even though the law isn't
The stakes explain why every Colorado STR investor has heard this. The bills would have moved an STR rented more than 90 days a year from the roughly 6.7–6.8% residential assessment rate to the roughly 27.9–29% nonresidential lodging rate. That's not a tweak; it's roughly quadrupling the property-tax bill on that home overnight. Colorado newspapers covered it as a plan to "quadruple" STR property taxes, and that coverage, correct at the time about a bill that later died, is part of what keeps the myth alive.
The stale-content problem, in plain terms
Here's the mechanical reason bad information persists. SB24-033's draft text said the reclassification would apply "for property tax years commencing on and after January 1, 2026." Dozens of STR-guide pages, tax-service blogs, and property-management sites quoted that line in 2024 and 2025 and never updated it after the bill died. So today you can read, on pages that look current, a confident "starting January 1, 2026, Colorado short-term rentals are taxed as lodging property." That sentence describes a bill that was killed in committee in April 2024. We re-run this check before every update to this page, the same discipline we apply to any moving legal question. What's actually true is simpler and better for you: your Colorado STR is residential property, taxed near a 0.5% effective rate. The details are in Colorado rental property taxes, and the local licensing rules, which are real and do vary, are in STR rules by city.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Colorado going to tax short-term rentals as commercial property?
No. The two 2024 bills that would have reclassified STRs as ~4x-taxed lodging property both died in committee: SB24-033 on April 16, 2024, and HB24-1299 on April 22, 2024. No replacement has passed since. As of July 2026, Colorado short-term rentals are taxed as ordinary residential property. The "effective January 1, 2026" language online is from the dead bill.
Are Colorado short-term rentals classified as residential or commercial?
Residential. STRs remain classified as residential property for Colorado tax assessment, get the SB24-233 value exemption, and reappraise on the normal two-year cycle. The only reclassification ever proposed (SB24-033, HB24-1299) never became law, so there is no commercial or lodging classification for short-term rentals in Colorado today (as of July 2026).
Why do so many websites say Colorado taxes Airbnbs as lodging property?
Because they quote a dead bill. SB24-033's draft text set the change for property tax years "on and after January 1, 2026," and many sites copied that line in 2024 and never updated it after the bill was killed in committee. The date makes stale pages look current. The actual current law keeps STRs residential-assessed.
Would the reclassification have really quadrupled my STR taxes?
Roughly, yes, which is why the fight drew attention. The bills would have moved an STR rented over 90 days a year from the ~6.7–6.8% residential assessment rate to the ~27.9–29% lodging rate. That's about a fourfold jump in the taxable-value math. It never took effect, but the stakes are why every Colorado STR investor has heard about it.
Mike Certo · NMLS #260555 · Cornerstone First Mortgage NMLS #173855 · Equal Housing Lender. Educational content, not a loan commitment and not legal or tax advice. City and county STR rules, tax figures, and filing fees change; verify current requirements with the city or county, the HOA or metro district, your CPA, or a Colorado real estate attorney before you buy. Loans are subject to buyer and property qualification.