The Snowmass Village Short-Term Rental Rule That Never Took Effect

Ask around Snowmass Village long enough and someone will tell you single-family homes can only be rented short-term for 56 nights a year. It sounds specific enough to be true. It isn't. That number was a 2022 proposal that never made it into the ordinance the town actually adopted, and the rule that took its place works in the opposite direction: instead of capping how much you can rent, it sets a floor on how long each booking has to be. That distinction, cap versus minimum, changes how you should think about a Snowmass Village purchase if rental income is part of the plan.

The second surprise catches even more buyers off guard, because it shows up at closing rather than in a search engine result: the short-term rental permit attached to the house you're buying does not come with the house.

Permits don't transfer with the sale

Snowmass Village's 2022 short-term rental ordinance states plainly that permits are non-transferable. A change in ownership terminates the existing permit, and the new owner has to apply from scratch. If you're buying a property that was actively renting the week before closing, you inherit none of that operating history with the town. You start the application process the same day everyone else does, through the MUNIRevs portal, with the same business license and permit requirements as a first-time host.

For a buyer who has budgeted a rental calendar starting the week after closing, this matters. Plan for the application window before you plan for the first guest.

The four permit types, and why the building name matters

Snowmass Village sorts short-term rentals into four categories, and which one applies to your property depends on the building, not just the unit.

That Type 1 list is short on purpose. If a building is marketed like a hotel but isn't one of those four properties, it doesn't get Type 1 treatment, and the owner needs to work through Type 2 or 3 requirements instead. The town's permit FAQ walks through the distinctions in more detail, and it's worth reading before you assume a building qualifies for the lighter-touch category.

What the occupancy formula actually limits

For Type 3 and Type 4 permits, the town caps how many guests can stay based on legal bedroom count, not on how many nights you can rent:

• Four or more legal bedrooms: two people per bedroom, plus four
• Three or fewer legal bedrooms: two people per bedroom, plus two
• Children five and under don't count toward the limit

Pair that with the four-night minimum stay for single-family homes and duplexes, and the picture of Snowmass Village's rules starts to look less like a cap on income and more like a set of guardrails on booking patterns and party size. An owner used to two-night weekend turns in other resort markets needs to rebuild their pricing calendar around four-night minimums here.

What actually changed heading into 2026

The town spent 2025 tightening the administrative side of the system rather than the income side. Three changes matter for anyone buying now:

The permit fee rose from $300 to $400, effective January 1, 2026. The $85 business license fee did not change. Renewal dates got unified so every permit now expires April 30 annually, which meant owners renewing between January and March 2026 paid a prorated amount to align with the new cycle. And effective December 30, 2025, trespassing became a major violation under the STR code, aimed specifically at guests who cut through private property to reach the ski area.

Sara Nester, the town's code compliance manager, told council in September 2025 why the unified date mattered:

"I think having a common expiration date would just be a lot cleaner and easier for everyone."

None of these changes touch how many nights you can rent. They all touch how carefully you have to manage the paperwork.

The tax filing owners don't expect

One more shift affects cash flow directly. Airbnb and VRBO no longer remit sales and lodging tax to the Town of Snowmass Village on a host's behalf. Owners now file and pay directly through MUNIRevs every month, and that filing is required even in months with zero rental activity. A property manager can hold the business license for a single-family home or duplex, which is one reason many out-of-state owners choose that route, but the filing obligation exists whether or not you outsource it.

The number that explains the town's next move

Here's where the 56-night myth becomes useful context rather than trivia. In a July 2025 presentation to Town Council, staff reported 126 active short-term rental permits for single-family homes and duplexes, representing roughly 12% of the town's approximately 1,000 single-family homes. Those 126 permits produced about 4,000 rental nights a year combined, an average of roughly 33 nights per permit. That's well under the 56-night threshold that was floated and dropped in 2022, which tells you something the proposal debate didn't: most owners weren't going to hit that cap anyway.

What the town did flag as a target is scale, not usage. As of that same July 2025 count, Snowmass Village had 1,698 total short-term rental permits across hotels, condos, and homes, about 42.25% of the town's residential units. Council members discussed disincentivizing short-term rentals in condominiums and single-family homes specifically, a group that made up 569 of those permits, in part because 290 people were on the waiting list for town workforce and long-term rentals at the time.

That's the actual mechanism worth understanding before you buy: the town has shown more appetite for shifting condos and single-family homes toward long-term use than for capping nights on any individual property. A buyer weighing a Type 4 purchase today is buying into a category the town has already named as a priority for future policy attention, even though the fee and renewal changes so far have been procedural rather than restrictive.

Before you close on a rental property here

• Confirm whether the parcel sits inside Town of Snowmass Village limits or unincorporated Pitkin County. The rules above apply only within town boundaries.
• Check the building name against the Type 1 list. If it's not Viewline, Limelight, Wildwood, or Mountain Chalet, don't assume hotel-style permitting applies.
• Get the HOA's short-term rental policy in writing. Town approval and HOA approval are separate, and the stricter of the two governs.
• Budget for a fresh permit application at closing, not a transferred one, and build your first-rental-week timeline around that.
• Plan for monthly MUNIRevs tax filings from day one, including zero-activity months.

A few questions worth asking directly

Is there still a maximum number of nights I can rent a single-family home in Snowmass Village? No. The 2022 ordinance that passed does not include an annual night cap. The operating rule for single-family homes and duplexes is a four-night minimum stay, not a maximum.

Does the seller's existing STR permit transfer to me at closing? No. Permits are non-transferable under the town's ordinance, and a change in ownership terminates the existing permit. You'll need to apply for your own.

Who do I contact with permit-type questions before I make an offer? The Town of Snowmass Village's Community Development Department handles STR compliance questions and can confirm which permit type applies to a specific building before you're under contract.

Rules like these are exactly the kind of detail that separates a rental projection that holds up from one that doesn't. If you're weighing a Snowmass Village property with an eye toward short-term rental income, Karina Marx can walk through how a specific building's permit type and a specific HOA's rules affect what that property can actually do for you. Let's connect and schedule a private consultation before you write an offer.