Montezuma County, CO (Unincorporated) Short-Term Rental Rules (2026)
Can I operate a short-term rental in Montezuma County?
STRs operate in unincorporated Montezuma County without a dedicated county licensing programme today, subject to the land-use code and lodging tax. The commissioners have an approved grant to build an STR permit and fee ordinance and a lodging-tax increase question is headed to the November 2026 ballot.
Key facts
What the record says about short-term rentals in Montezuma County, with the level of law each comes from. What do these facts mean?
Can you operate?
Stay limits
Taxes
Why this score
The main reasons Montezuma County scores the way it does. Listed most important first.
What holds it back
- State lodging tax lowers the score.
What helps
- Platform collects tax (Partly) raises the score.Source
Not yet known
- 19 facts are not yet established, so the score leans on typical values.
Operating restrictions
What limits how, where and how often you can rent in Montezuma County.
Enforcement / penalties
Enforcement is complaint-driven; staff cite noise and traffic complaints and untracked listings, which is the stated rationale for the coming permit programme.
New to this? Owner-occupied vs non-owner-occupied STRs, explained
Permit requirements
What you need to file or hold before hosting in Montezuma County.
Permits & licensing
Regulation to date has run through the land-use code and tax administration rather than an STR licence. Staff estimate several hundred listings and want them tracked; a permit and fee programme is being developed with no adopted text yet.
- Permit and annual fee programme in development under state planning grant
- Some STRs reportedly never went through septic or driveway review
New to this? How short-term rental permits and licensing work
Taxes
Lodging, occupancy and related taxes or fees.
Taxes & fees
Lodging tax collection is administered through the Colorado Department of Revenue and marketplace facilitators remit on bookings they process. Voters will decide a county lodging-tax increase in November 2026, enabled by a 2025 state law raising the county ceiling.
- County lodging tax applies in unincorporated areas only and never stacks with a municipal lodging tax
- Register with Colorado Department of Revenue for state and county returns
New to this? Short-term rental lodging taxes, explained
Recent changes
The dated change history is part of the free account. Email alerts above need no account.
Market assumptions
Estimates, not lawRevenue, occupancy and returns depend on the specific property and are estimates, separate from the rules above.
Run any property in Montezuma County through the deal analyzer for cash flow, cap rate, and long-term projections.
Sources
Last verified October 21, 2026 (20 days ago). Short-term rental rules can change between checks. Confirm current requirements with the jurisdiction before relying on this for a real decision.
- ksjd.org
- montezumacounty.gov
- citizenportal.ai › …rant-fee-schedule-and-oversight-still-to-be-set
- citizenportal.ai › …untracked-listings-and-lost-lodging-tax-revenue
- the-journal.com
- the-journal.com
- content.leg.colorado.gov
- avalara.com
- tax.colorado.gov
- leg.colorado.gov
A free STRVE account shows which rule each source supports, plus the full jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction breakdown, change history, and rule-change alerts for Montezuma County.
More STR-friendly options nearby
Nearby cities with a higher regulation score than Montezuma County.
- 76/100Pagosa Springs~85 mi
Short-term rental rules near Montezuma County
All Colorado cities →How we research this
The STRVE Score is our own regulation rating, built from seven levels of authority: state, county, town, HOA, deed restrictions, special districts, and platform rules. Each level is scored separately, with its own citations and the date we verified it. The headline number is the strictest of the seven, never an average, because the tightest rule is the one that governs you.
We keep a history of what a city's rules said before and when they changed, so a score that moves is traceable to the rule that moved it.
- Highly permissive
- 90+
- Friendly
- 70–89
- Moderate
- 45–69
- Heavily restricted
- 20–44
- Effectively banned
- 0–19
Not legal advice
STRVE is a research tool, not financial or legal advice. Always verify regulation, tax, and permitting details with the local jurisdiction and a licensed professional before you buy.
The STRVE Score and the seven-level breakdown are our own rating framework, not an official or government rating, and no jurisdiction endorses or reviews them. The rules behind them are researched from public sources with AI assistance and are current only as of the verification date shown, so they can be incomplete, outdated, or wrong. None of it substitutes for advice from local counsel. Confirm every permit, tax, occupancy, and zoning requirement against the jurisdiction's own municipal code and with an attorney licensed in that jurisdiction before you buy, list, or operate. Terms of Service