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Hotel And Lodging Tax In Colorado 2026: TOT Rates By City
Colorado's TABOR law requires a public vote for any hotel tax increase, and Vail voters rejected one in 2025. See 2026 rates by city, the new county-tax cap, and where properties get compliance wrong.
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TL;DR
- Colorado has no single named hotel tax; up to four separate layers can stack on one room: state sales tax, a county lodging tax, a local marketing district tax, and a city tax with its own local name.
- "Hotel tax," "lodging tax," "occupancy tax," "bed tax," and "lodger's tax" all describe pieces of this stack, but the specific combination and names change city to city.
- Colorado's TABOR law requires voter approval for any new tax or tax increase by any government in the state, broader than California's referendum rule, and voters have real power to reject one, as Vail's did in 2025.
- A 2025 law tripled the maximum county lodging tax rate from 2% to 6%, subject to individual county voter approval, many counties haven't yet put the higher rate to a vote.
- The exemption threshold is 30 consecutive days under state law, though at least two cities, Telluride and Glenwood Springs, use 29 days instead.
- A 2026 state law bans hiding mandatory fees from the advertised price, but explicitly exempts taxes from that requirement.
- Filing cadence depends on which layer: state-administered county and district taxes file quarterly, while self-collecting home-rule cities like Denver and Aspen file monthly.
How Colorado's Hotel and Lodging Tax Works
Colorado has no single statewide hotel tax. A room can carry up to four separate layers: the state's general sales tax, a county lodging tax, a local marketing district tax formed by petition of area property owners, and a city tax that goes by a different name in nearly every town.
Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, a 1992 constitutional amendment, requires voter approval before any government in the state can create or raise a tax, broader than California's referendum rule since it applies to every level of government, not just property-related charges. This isn't a formality: in November 2025, Vail voters rejected a proposed increase to the town's short-term-rental lodging tax by just 35 votes.
The exemption for long-term stays generally follows the state's 30-consecutive-day rule, but home-rule cities can set their own definition, and a couple genuinely use 29 days instead, worth checking before assuming the standard threshold applies everywhere.
Tax Rates and Extra Fees
Because up to four layers can stack, and each city names its own portion differently, the combined total varies significantly by location. Here's where the major Colorado markets stand as of 2026.
| City / town | Local rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Town of Estes Park | 5.5% local marketing district tax, part of a 14.45% combined rate | Voters approved 2% in 2008 and added 3.5 more points in 2022, with most of that increase earmarked for tourism-workforce housing and childcare |
| City and County of Denver | 10.75% Lodger's Tax, 11.75% at hotels with 50+ rooms | A 1% Tourism Improvement District surcharge applies only to larger hotels, dedicated to Convention Center expansion financing |
| City of Durango | 5.25% | Raised from 2% by a 2021 voter-approved ballot measure, with revenue split across tourism marketing, transportation, and arts |
| City of Glenwood Springs | 5% base, plus a separate 2.5% workforce-housing tax | Applies to stays of 29 nights or fewer, not 30; the workforce-housing portion is legally segregated and can only fund housing for local workers |
| City of Grand Junction | 6% | Revenue used solely by the local visitor bureau to promote city tourism |
| Town of Breckenridge | 3.4%, on top of 2.5% town sales tax | The town sued 16 online travel companies over unpaid tax; a split state supreme court ruling found OTAs weren't liable under the town's specific ordinance wording |
| Town of Vail | 1.4% local marketing district tax | A 2025 ballot measure to raise the short-term-rental rate to 16.8% was rejected by voters by 35 votes |
| City of Aspen | 2% traditional lodging, 5% to 10% for short-term rentals | Over 70% of short-term rental tax revenue is earmarked for affordable housing |
| Steamboat Springs | 1% city tax, plus a separate 9% short-term rental tax | The 1% rate was approved by voters in 1986; the 9% short-term rental tax only started applying to stays after April 2023 |
| Colorado Springs | 2% | The city states it carries one of the lowest lodging tax burdens among the 150 largest U.S. cities |
Rates change after a voter-approved ballot measure, so treat this table as a starting point and confirm the current published rate with the specific city before filing.
A district assessment layer is common in Colorado, but it runs through a specific legal structure called a Local Marketing District, formed by petition of commercial property owners and then ratified by district voters, rather than the business-improvement-district model used elsewhere. Verified examples range from about 1% in Vail to 5.5% in Estes Park. Denver's Tourism Improvement District is a separate mechanism entirely, a 1% surcharge only at hotels with 50 or more rooms, dedicated to convention center financing.
Collection and Remittance
The guest pays the tax, and the property remits it, but the cadence depends on which layer and who administers it. County and local marketing district taxes administered by the state are filed quarterly. Home-rule cities that self-administer their own tax instead file monthly, Denver's Lodger's Tax return is due by the 20th of the following month, and Aspen follows the same monthly schedule.
Colorado's Fee Transparency Rules
Since January 1, 2026, Colorado law bans advertising a price that excludes mandatory, unavoidable fees, a hotel can't advertise a nightly rate that leaves out a mandatory resort or amenity fee, the advertised total has to include it. The law explicitly exempts government charges from that requirement, meaning the tax itself, state sales tax, county lodging tax, city tax, and any district tax, is not required to be folded into the advertised rate and can still be added separately at checkout.
Exemptions From Colorado's Hotel Tax
The state-law threshold is 30 consecutive days with a written occupancy agreement, exempting the stay from sales tax and the county and district taxes that ride on the same taxable base. Local variation exists, though: Telluride's lodging tax applies to stays of "twenty-nine days or less," and Glenwood Springs uses the same 29-day framing, both a day shorter than the state's standard threshold.
Common Mistakes Hotels Make With TOT Compliance
- Assuming a flat 30-day exemption everywhere. Telluride and Glenwood Springs both use 29 days instead of 30, a property applying the state default in those cities gets the threshold wrong by a day.
- Missing the county lodging tax cap increase. A 2025 law tripled the maximum county rate from 2% to 6%, but only where voters have approved it, don't assume every county has adopted the new ceiling.
- Confusing a Local Marketing District tax with an ordinary city tax. LMDs are a distinct legal structure formed by property-owner petition and district vote, not a simple council-passed assessment, worth understanding when a guest or auditor asks what the charge actually is.
- Assuming Colorado's fee-transparency law covers tax. The 2026 law forces all-in pricing on mandatory fees but explicitly exempts taxes, they can still be shown separately at checkout.
- Applying Denver's Tourism Improvement District to every hotel. The 1% surcharge only applies to hotels with 50 or more rooms, not the whole city.
- Not retraining front desk staff after a voter-approved rate change. When a ballot measure changes the rate, as Durango's did in 2021, staff quoting the old number to walk-in guests creates disputes at checkout.
Where A PMS Fits Into TOT Compliance
None of the above is about software. It's about a Colorado property tracking which of up to four possible tax layers actually apply to it, and whether its city uses the 30-day exemption or one of the shorter local variants. Where a PMS actually helps is in keeping the state, county, district, and city layers configured as distinct tax codes rather than one blended rate, and pulling revenue reports by date range for whichever filing cadence each layer requires. roommaster lets properties configure tax codes per rate, so a voter-approved rate change is a configuration update once, not a manual recalculation on every folio.
See how roommaster simplifies multi-property tax reporting.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does Colorado have a statewide hotel tax rate?
No. Colorado combines a 2.9% state sales tax with county, district, and city layers that vary significantly, so the total a guest pays depends entirely on the specific location.
2. What is Colorado's hotel tax?
Colorado's hotel tax is a layered combination of state sales tax, an optional county lodging tax, a local marketing district tax in tourist areas, and a city-level tax with its own local name, like Denver's Lodger's Tax.
3. What is Colorado's lodging tax?
Lodging tax is the same general charge as Colorado's hotel tax, this is actually one of the common names used across the state's various local ordinances, not just an informal term.
4. Do Colorado voters have to approve hotel tax increases?
Yes. Colorado's TABOR law requires voter approval for any new tax or tax rate increase by any government in the state, and voters do sometimes reject proposed increases, as Vail's 2025 ballot measure shows.
5. How long can a guest stay in Colorado before the hotel tax stops applying?
30 consecutive days under the state's standard rule, though Telluride and Glenwood Springs both use a 29-day threshold instead.
6. Does Colorado require hotels to disclose the total price before booking?
Since January 2026, yes for mandatory fees like resort charges, but the law explicitly exempts taxes, which can still be added separately at checkout.
7. Who is responsible for collecting and remitting Colorado's hotel tax?
The property collects the tax from the guest and remits it, with county and district taxes filed quarterly to the state, while home-rule cities like Denver and Aspen collect their own tax and require monthly filing directly to the city.
