Mt. CB council ponders short-term rental license updates

How to ensure more reliable and qualified local reps?

By Kendra Walker

The town of Mt. Crested Butte is reviewing updates to the town code regarding short-term rental (STR) regulations, some items for standard clean-up and others for bigger picture practices. During a December 16 work session, the town council discussed short-term rentals and provided town staff input for managing local contacts of STR units.

Town clerk Tiffany O’Connell explained that the majority of problematic STRs—those cited, revoked or suspended—have been self-managed. She asked whether the council was open to requiring that all STR owners use a local property management company.

“Our biggest problem-children are the people that manage their unit that do not live here, such as a homeowner in Texas that manages the entire rental remotely,” she said. “They still have a local representative, but whether that local rep does their job is unknown,” said O’Connell.

All Mt. CB short-term rentals are required to have a local representative to help serve the local needs that come up for the STR. Per the town’s STR regulations, “The licensee must identify and provide contact information for a local representative qualified and capable of providing property maintenance repair who is located within a 45-minute drive of the property. The local representative shall be on call full time (24/7), shall have physical access to the STR, and shall be authorized to make maintenance and repair decisions regarding the STR on behalf of the licensee. The local representative is also responsible for responding to complaints within 45 minutes.”

O’Connell and the town’s short-term rental officer Heidi Sheldon said they have seen STR owners use their neighbors, realtors and even house cleaners as their local rep, which has become problematic when they were signing a form to help check the boxes for the STR license and don’t understand what they’re actually signing up to do.

“They have to be on call 24/7 and available to respond within 45 minutes. They’re the on-the-ground contact person. If that house is burning down, I’m calling you. Guests are locked out, they’re calling you,” said O’Connell. “They don’t know what they’re signing. We deal with it constantly.”

O’Connell explained that the requirement for a local rep would go away if the town required each STR to have a local property management company. Sheldon said that one of the biggest advantages of using a property manager is that they have staff sharing those on-call duties. “I have a lot more confidence when a resident or guest is calling a property manager, because they’re going to actually get someone on the phone.”

O’Connell also asked the council whether they would like all local representatives to be required to hold a Mt. Crested Butte business license. “It means they would have a little more tooth in the game, more validity. You would have to take that extra step and get your local Mt. Crested Butte business license,” she said.

“Is there a possibility the root cause is the representatives aren’t aware of their responsibilities, or aren’t taking it seriously enough?” asked council member Valeda Scribner. She suggested the town explore ways to provide more education upfront, such as a video they must watch regarding their responsibilities.

“If they don’t understand, then that is as much of a responsibility of the town and the owner to educate,” said Scribner.

“It’s not to help the STR owners with the process, it’s to help town staff,” said council member Alec Lindeman.

“They’ve signed a paper that clearly outlines what they’re supposed to do,” said O’Connell.

“But we’re either going to deal with it in the backend complaint process or upfront,” said Scribner.

“It feels like we’re trying to fix something that already has a solution. All this trickles to the homeowners,” said council member Steve Morris, noting that if an STR licensee is not following the rules, then the town’s process should already be designed to correct or weed out problematic licenses.

“My concern is that a lot of times people with complaints about STRs come to the HOAs because they don’t want to come to the town,” said Sheldon. “When it comes to me, I can deal with it.”

O’Connell agreed. “There are a lot more problems out there than we’re aware of.” The town encourages any STR complaints to be reported to the town even if the issue is resolved by the local representative, so those incidents can be tracked.

The council ultimately didn’t feel the town needed to require that STR license holders use a local property manager or obtain a business license.

“To me it’s drilling down on the important part, and that’s having someone to respond within 45 minutes,” said mayor Nicholas Kempin. “If you’re an STR licensee and you want to do it all yourself — ‘I don’t want to pay fees to a property management company, I want to do all this myself’ — then you’ve got to have somebody who can respond within 45 minutes. So however we strengthen that, I would be in support of it.”

Kempin also suggested that if an STR is self-managed, they need to have a backup person as well. “There’s no way any human being can be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week for an entire year or even a ski season or summer.”

Morris also suggested the town consider more marketing and seasonal reminders so community members know where to access the town’s resources and information regarding short-term rentals, such as how to contact the town or local rep when they have an issue with an STR. Ideas included more newspaper ads, posters in the transit center and sharing info at town events.

The town does have a public list on its website at https://mtcb.colorado.gov/short-term-rentals, with all STR details, including how to report a complaint and a list of local representative contact information.

Scribner requested more data on the town’s current STR listings in preparation for the council’s upcoming housing retreat in February, such as number of active listings, occupancy rates, average nightly rates and revenue.

“I’d really like to get an understanding of the market, really go deeper into what it would take to get people out of short-term renting into long-term renting,” said Scribner.

O’Connell explained that some of that information is still a guessing game. For example, with occupancy rates, if a unit’s availability is blocked off the town doesn’t know whether that’s because it’s been booked by guests, saved for the homeowner’s use or for construction, etc.

For average revenues, “You’re not going to want to know the answer to that,” said O’Connell. “We’ve got some units that make $100,000 a year and others that make $40,000 a year. And then there’s the individual homeowner that rents it a few times a year. We can get some ballpark numbers, but there are so many different situations. There are so many factors.”

O’Connell did say that for the STR industry in general, a 40-50% occupancy rate is doing well.

The council will continue to evaluate and discuss the different sides of the housing puzzle at their upcoming housing retreat on February 5, with the goal to develop a strategic housing plan.