Westminster, Colorado Short Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Westminster, Colorado and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is, you can. The city licenses short-term rentals outright, and unlike a few of its Denver-metro neighbors, it doesn't force you to live in the property yourself to qualify. That single fact surprises a lot of people who last looked at this market back when Westminster was still debating the rules.

There is a real limit, though, and it's worth knowing before you get attached to a bigger plan. Each owner may hold only one licensed short-term rental in Westminster at any given time, so this city isn't where you build a five-unit portfolio. Westminster also straddles two counties, Adams and Jefferson, which means your tax math depends on which side of the city your address sits on, something plenty of hosts don't discover until their first return is due.

So let's walk through what it takes to do this properly: what the city requires in 2026, what the license costs, the tax layers that stack on top of a stay, how seriously the city polices it, and who picks up the phone when you get stuck. Every figure below comes from Westminster's own city pages and Colorado's own tax guidance, checked in July 2026, and anywhere the record was incomplete, I've said so rather than guessing. Run the numbers through BNBCalc once you know the rules apply to you.

What are short term rental (Airbnb, VRBO) regulations in Westminster, Colorado?

That research basis matters here. Westminster's own municipal code portal blocked automated reading while I was building this guide, so every claim below traces back to the city's own plain-language pages rather than the codified ordinance text itself.

Short-term rentals are legal in Westminster, defined by the city as the use of a residential dwelling unit, or portion of one, for periods of less than 30 days, excluding hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts. That covers a single-family home, a duplex, a townhome or a condo. Whether you rent the whole place or only a room in it, the rule reaches you.

City Council approved the current rules on May 22, 2023. The stated goal was setting minimum standards that don't clash with the neighborhoods around them, and the ordinance lives in the zoning chapter of the Westminster Municipal Code, at Title XI, Chapter 4, Section 11-4-18.

Three things fall out of that definition, and they hold regardless of which county your address sits in. Anyone offering a short-term rental has to hold a license first, full stop. No applicant may hold more than one licensed short-term rental in the city at a time, which caps this at a side business rather than a scalable one.

Homeowners association rules sit entirely outside the city's job, though. It's the homeowner's own responsibility to confirm with the HOA that short-term rentals are even allowed in that neighborhood. The city won't check that for you, and it won't defend you if the HOA objects later.

Starting a Short Term Rental Business in Westminster

That one-license-per-owner cap is the first thing to plan around. The second is who's even allowed to apply. Westminster's own Short-Term Rental Application Guide states plainly that you must be the owner of the property to hold the license, not a tenant subletting on the side. If more than one person owns the property, including spouses who hold it jointly, every owner has to sign.

Here's the part that changes the calculus for investors specifically. Nothing in the city's current rules requires you to live in the unit yourself. You can name a property manager to run day-to-day operations, plus a separate responsible agent to handle city correspondence, so an out-of-state owner can still hold a compliant license here. That's meaningfully different from Thornton next door, which has generally required the host to occupy the property. It's a large part of why Westminster reads as more investor-friendly than the 2019 resident survey once suggested it would end up.

Since Westminster spans both Adams County and Jefferson County, don't assume your mailing address tells you which side you're on. The city even splits across ten ZIP codes, eight of them shared with other cities. Check the parcel against the city boundary directly, because the county line changes your combined tax rate later in this guide, even though the license process itself is identical either way. Weighing a Westminster property against unincorporated land nearby? The Adams County guide and the Jefferson County guide cover what changes once you step outside city limits.

Short Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Westminster

Given that ownership requirement, the actual application is still refreshingly light. You apply through the city's online licensing portal, built on the Deckard platform that a growing number of Colorado cities use to manage short-term rental licensing and complaints together.

Initial applications carry no registration fee at all. Once granted, the license runs for two years, and renewing it costs $200 plus a processing fee. That's a low bar next to plenty of Colorado cities. Keep in mind the fee could still change, though, since city councils revisit these ordinances more often than the state legislature revisits statewide rules.

After you submit, city staff reviews the application for completeness, then approves or denies it and emails you at the address you applied with. The city doesn't publish a guaranteed turnaround time for that review. Build in some buffer before your first planned booking rather than assuming same-week approval.

Getting licensed isn't the finish line, either. You also need a business and sales tax license from the city, and you'll be remitting accommodations tax through the Finance Department once you start hosting, which the next two sections cover in full. Direct licensing questions to the City Clerk's Office at [email protected] or 303-658-2008, and sales tax questions to [email protected] or 303-658-2065.

Required Documents for Westminster Short Term Rentals

Since the fee itself is so low, the paperwork is where Westminster does its screening, so it pays to get it right on the first submission. The city asks for three specific documents uploaded directly into the application form, and a reasonable-looking substitute for any of them can stall your approval.

• A narrative or visual of the dwelling unit. This needs to specify which parts of the property will operate as the short-term rental, whether that's the whole home or a single bedroom.
• A copy of the recorded deed of trust for the property, confirming who legally owns it.
• A signed affidavit certifying life safety compliance, covering operational smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers and any other equipment required under the city's building, fire or rental property maintenance codes. The city publishes a sample version of this affidavit alongside the application guide, so don't just wing the wording.

Make sure you have all three ready before you start the online form, since the portal won't let you move past that step without them. And remember the ownership rule from the licensing section: if the deed lists more than one owner, every one of them needs to sign, so chase down those signatures early rather than discovering the gap the day you meant to submit.

Westminster Short Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you clear all of that and are able to get licensed, there's still tax to work out, and this is where the two-county split changes your number. Westminster is a home-rule city, meaning it administers its own sales tax program independently of the state, and it treats a short-term stay differently from an ordinary retail sale.

The city's regular 4.25% sales tax, which took effect January 1, 2026 after voters approved ballot measure 3H, does not apply to short-term lodging at all. In its place, a stay of under 30 consecutive days owes the city's own 7% Accommodations Tax instead, layered underneath the state, regional and county sales taxes that still apply on top. Here's how that stacks up depending on which county your address falls in:

Tax	Rate	Collected by
City Accommodations Tax	7%	City of Westminster (replaces the regular 4.25% city sales tax on lodging)
Colorado state sales tax	2.9%	Colorado Department of Revenue
Regional Transportation District (RTD)	1%	Colorado Department of Revenue
Scientific & Cultural Facilities District	0.10%	Colorado Department of Revenue
County sales tax	0.75% (Adams) or 0.50% (Jefferson)	Adams County or Jefferson County, via the Colorado Department of Revenue
Combined total	11.75% (Adams) / 11.50% (Jefferson)	Split across the rows above

That combined figure comes straight from Westminster's own published rate table, so treat it as solid rather than an estimate. Just keep in mind the city portion is the one most likely to move again, since it already changed once for 2026.

The good news is you likely won't be splitting that out yourself on every booking. Going through Airbnb's own Colorado tax page, the platform lists Westminster by name. It states it collects the 7% Accommodations Tax on any reservation of 30 nights or shorter, on top of the general Colorado state and local sales tax stack it already collects for every listing in the state. Vrbo is a different story. Its own help material only says it collects tax "in required jurisdictions" without naming Colorado specifically. Don't assume it handles this the same way until you've confirmed it with them directly.

You'll still need your own paperwork alongside whatever the platform withholds. That means a business and sales tax license from the city, at no charge, plus a Colorado sales tax license from the Department of Revenue, unless a marketplace facilitator is collecting every applicable state and state-administered local tax on your behalf. Meet that condition and you may be exempt from the state-level licensing and filing.

Where you do need the state license, it runs $16 plus a refundable $50 deposit and expires every odd-numbered year, per the Colorado Sales Tax Guide. The accommodations tax return itself rides alongside your periodic city sales and use tax return. Plan on that becoming routine, not a one-time filing.

Colorado Wide Short Term Rental Rules

That home-rule setup is exactly why Westminster's numbers look different from a neighboring city's, and it traces back to how little Colorado regulates this at the state level in the first place. Colorado's own nonpartisan Legislative Council Staff says it directly: there are no statewide regulations specifically governing short-term rentals. No state law preempts a city or county from licensing, zoning, capping or even banning short-term rentals. That's exactly the authority Westminster used to write its own ordinance.

What the state has done is clarify county power rather than restrict it. House Bill 20-1093, effective September 2020, let county boards license and regulate short-term rental owners directly, and pull a listing once a county reports a local license suspended or revoked. House Bill 23-1287, effective August 2023, added statewide definitions for "lodging unit," "short-term rental" and "vacation rental service." It standardized terms only, without capping fees or limiting zoning anywhere. Neither bill touches a home-rule city's own tax authority. That's why Westminster's accommodations tax sits entirely outside that framework.

On the tax side, every Colorado stay under 30 days generally owes state sales tax at 2.9%, plus whatever state-administered local, county lodging, or local marketing district taxes apply in that jurisdiction, per the state's Sales & Use Tax Topics guidance on rooms and accommodations. But that guidance stops at the city line. The Colorado Department of Revenue "does not administer any lodging taxes imposed by any municipality," the same document says plainly, which is exactly why a home-rule city's own accommodations tax, like Westminster's 7%, never shows up in the state's own DR 1002 rate lookup. You have to confirm it with the city directly.

The county lodging tax cap itself moved too. House Bill 25-1247, signed May 2025, raised the voter-approvable county lodging tax ceiling from 2% to 6%. That's a separate mechanism from Westminster's own city-level tax, though, and it doesn't change anything inside city limits on its own. For the broader statewide picture, our Colorado guide walks through how these pieces fit together across the state.

Does Westminster Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Given how loosely the state sits above all this, enforcement comes down to what Westminster itself is willing to chase, and the answer is complaint-driven rather than proactive. The city runs a 24/7 short-term rental complaint line at 303-867-7363, an online complaint form, and a separate non-emergency dispatch number for anything urgent enough to need same-day attention.

Property Standards officers handle the actual investigation once a complaint comes in. Westminster's Code Enforcement page describes a citation that requires compliance by a stated date, plus payment of whatever fine gets assigned, with appeal rights built into the municipal code. I couldn't find a published dollar figure for that fine on the city's own pages. The underlying municipal code text sat behind the same blocked portal mentioned earlier in this guide, so treat any specific number you see elsewhere online as unconfirmed until the city's own documents say otherwise.

The one-license-per-owner rule is worth watching closely here. It's only as strong as the city's ability to cross-check ownership records against applications, something the Deckard licensing platform is specifically built to do by tying each license to a named owner. And don't forget the HOA piece. That isn't the city's problem to police at all. A host can be fully compliant with Westminster's own license and still get shut down by an HOA that never allowed short-term rentals in the first place, so do check that box separately before you list anything.

How to Start a Short Term Rental Business in Westminster?

Assuming your situation clears all of that, working through these steps roughly in order will save you from paying a fee or gathering paperwork you didn't need yet.

1. Confirm you're the property owner and check your HOA first. Since the license fee doesn't come back once you've applied, settle the ownership question and the HOA question before you spend anything.
2. Confirm which county you're in. Westminster sits in both Adams and Jefferson counties, and that decides your final combined tax rate later.
3. Gather your three documents: a narrative or visual of the unit, the recorded deed of trust, and a signed life-safety compliance affidavit.
4. Apply through the Deckard licensing portal, with every owner's signature attached if the property has more than one.
5. Wait for city review, watch your email for the approval or denial notice, and don't book any stays until that comes through.
6. Apply for your business and sales tax license with the city, at no charge, and register for a Colorado state sales tax license if your booking channel doesn't already collect the full state and local tax stack on your behalf.
7. Set up your tax filing routine, since the accommodations tax return rides alongside your periodic city sales and use tax return going forward.
8. Diarize your renewal date. The license lasts two years, and renewal costs $200 plus a processing fee, so mark the calendar well before it lapses.

Who to Contact in Westminster about Short Term Rental Regulations and Zoning

Whichever step trips you up, Westminster splits the work across a handful of offices, and knowing which one owns your question saves an irritating amount of time on hold.

Short-term rental licensing and applications

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: 303-658-2342
• Apply online: the Short-Term Rental Licensing Portal

Complaints about an existing rental

• 24/7 complaint line: 303-867-7363
• Online complaint form: available through the Short-Term Rentals page
• Non-emergency dispatch: 303-658-4360

Business and sales tax licensing

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: 303-658-2008

Sales tax and accommodations tax questions

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: 303-658-2065

General code enforcement

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: 303-658-4432

Westminster City Hall

• Address: 4800 West 92nd Avenue, Westminster, CO 80031
• Phone: 303-658-2400
• Hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

What Do Airbnb Hosts in Westminster on Reddit and Bigger Pockets Think About Local Regulations?

I wasn't able to read Reddit directly for this guide, since its platform blocks the kind of automated access this research relies on, so what follows leans on a BiggerPockets thread I read in full rather than any kind of Reddit survey.

That thread dates back to when Westminster was still drafting its rules, and it captures how differently things turned out than most posters expected. One frequent poster predicted Westminster would likely go the same way as most Denver-metro cities and restrict short-term rentals to a host's primary residence. He cited a 2019 city survey where roughly two-thirds of respondents supported allowing short-term rentals but specifically wanted non-owner-occupied ones banned.

That's not what actually shipped, though. The May 2023 ordinance requires the applicant to own the property, not live in it. That puts Westminster closer to how the thread described Wheat Ridge, Arvada, Centennial and unincorporated Adams County at the time than to the primary-residence model residents had originally asked for.

The same thread compared notes on neighboring cities, and the contrast is useful if you're weighing Westminster against the rest of the metro. Thornton was described as requiring the property to be your primary residence, with at least half the unit occupied by the owner, for a $180 annual fee. Northglenn allowed non-owner-occupied rentals, but layered on a $15 business license plus a $175 new-application fee and inspections. Set against either of those, Westminster's $0 initial fee and two-year term reads as the lighter-touch option. It doesn't require you to live there at all, either.

Take that comparison for what it is: a snapshot from before the final ordinance passed, not a live read of today's sentiment. Even so, it's the clearest signal available that Westminster ended up more open to outside investors than its own residents originally pushed for. That gap, between what people expected and what the city adopted, is worth knowing before you write this market off based on an old thread. If the Westminster numbers work for your plan, run them against BNBCalc Markets for the wider Colorado picture before you commit to one address over another.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Westminster, Colorado in 2026?

Yes. Westminster licenses short-term rentals citywide under an ordinance City Council approved on May 22, 2023, covering single-family homes, duplexes, townhomes and condos, whether you rent the whole unit or just a room. You need a city short-term rental license, a business and sales tax license, and you must be the property's owner rather than a tenant. Each owner may hold only one licensed short-term rental in the city at a time.

How much does a Westminster short-term rental license cost?

There's no fee for the initial application. Once approved, the license lasts two years, and renewing it costs $200 plus a processing fee, as of July 2026. You'll also need a business and sales tax license from the city, which carries no separate charge. You may also need a Colorado state sales tax license, running $16 plus a refundable $50 deposit, if your booking platform doesn't already collect every applicable state and local tax on your behalf.

Can you rent out an investment property you don't live in as a short-term rental in Westminster?

Yes, and this is where Westminster differs from some Denver-metro neighbors. The city's application guide requires you to be the property's owner, but nothing requires you to live there yourself, and you can appoint a property manager and a separate responsible agent to handle day-to-day operations and city correspondence. The one real constraint is that each owner may hold only a single licensed short-term rental in the city at any given time.

What taxes do you owe on a Westminster short-term rental?

Stays under 30 days owe the city's 7% Accommodations Tax instead of the regular 4.25% city sales tax. On top of that sits Colorado's 2.9% state sales tax, a 1% RTD tax, a 0.10% Scientific and Cultural Facilities District tax, and a county sales tax of 0.75% in Adams County or 0.50% in Jefferson County. That's a combined rate of 11.75% in Adams County or 11.50% in Jefferson County. Airbnb collects and remits most of this automatically; confirm directly with Vrbo whether it does the same.

What happens if you operate a short-term rental in Westminster without a license?

The city treats it as a code violation, investigated by Property Standards officers after a complaint comes in through the 24/7 hotline or online form. A citation requires you to come into compliance by a stated date and pay whatever fine gets assigned, with appeal rights under the municipal code. Westminster hasn't published a specific dollar penalty schedule on its own site, so don't rely on a figure you see elsewhere without confirming it with the city directly.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.