—Short-term rental rules · Aspen
Aspen recalibrated its STR market in 2022 with a three-tier permit structure: lodge-exempt, owner-occupied, and classic short-term residential. The third tier — the one that looked most like a traditional vacation rental — is now closed to new permits.
Last reviewed against current municipal sources on 2026-05-20.
01The Aspen context
Lodge-exempt covers properties already operating as accommodations before the 2022 changes. Owner-occupied permits remain available to hosts using the property as their primary residence. The classic STR tier — non-owner-occupied residential — is capped: existing permits transfer with the property in limited ways, but new ones are not being issued.
For hosts already in the system the practical question is renewal discipline and compliance with the conditions attached to the tier — occupancy caps, parking minimums, and the on-site contact requirement that comes with most classic-STR permits.
Local rules change — confirm current requirements with your city before you list. This page is a market-context summary and a house-rules starting point, not a legal source or a substitute for Aspen's own Colorado guidance.
02The house-rules angle
In a market where permit supply is fixed, every renewal cycle is a test of whether the property has been operated as the conditions require. The complaints that surface — noise, parking, occupancy over the rated count — are the same ones that can put a renewal at risk.
A signed acknowledgment that names the permit type and the specific occupancy and noise conditions documents the operator side of the renewal conversation. It is not a guarantee, but it is the kind of paper that a renewal hearing wants to see.
These are starting points to adapt — not legal advice, and not specific to any one Colorado ordinance. Edit the wording and any amounts to your property and what your platform and city allow.
03Put the rules on the file
A house-rules block in your listing is disclosure — it proves the rule existed. It does not prove the guest who booked your Aspen place ever saw that specific rule or agreed to it. What sits in the file as evidence after an incident, and what shows good-faith compliance in a regulated market, is acknowledgment: the guest confirming each rule and each fee individually, with a timestamp, before check-in.
PreArrive turns the tuned rules above into a packet the guest signs in about ninety seconds. They tap each rule and each fee to acknowledge it, draw a signature, and you get a PDF certificate — disclosure and acknowledgment in one file, with a two-event audit trail and a content hash. It is evidence, not a verdict: it does not litigate a dispute or decide a code question for you, but it puts a traceable record behind every stay.
Build a packet from these rules once, send it on every reservation. Free covers one property. No credit card.
04Verify with the source
This page is a plainspoken summary. The municipal sources below are where the actual rules live. If something here disagrees with the source, the source is right — let us know and we'll re-review.
Page reviewed 2026-05-20.
05Other regulated markets
The same disclosure-versus-acknowledgment gap shows up across every active STR market. Each city below has a plain-language local summary and a house-rules angle tuned to that market.
Want all of them in one place? See PreArrive for regulated-market hosts.
06Keep reading