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

Do you own a place in Aurora, Colorado and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that the city does allow it, provided you live there. Aurora sits just east of Denver. It spreads across Arapahoe, Adams and Douglas counties, and its code treats a short-term rental as any home rented out for under 30 days. The city will license you to run one, so long as the home is genuinely your primary residence and not an investment property you never sleep in.

That's the catch, and it's a real one. Aurora's city code bars anyone from operating a short-term rental unless the unit is where they live, caps a whole-home rental at 180 days a year, allows only one paying party in the house at a time, and requires a combined business and lodger's tax license before you list anything. Buy a second Aurora house purely to run on Airbnb, and city code rules that out from the start, unless you're able to turn it into a licensed bed and breakfast instead.

So let's walk through what running a licensed Aurora short-term rental involves in 2026: who qualifies, what the license costs, the tax layers that stack on top, how hard the city enforces its own rules, and who to call when you get stuck. Every figure below comes from Aurora's own municipal code, its Finance Department's short-term rental FAQ, and Colorado's state tax guidance, checked in July 2026. If you're deciding between an Aurora primary residence and a property elsewhere in the Denver area you could rent at full capacity instead, run both scenarios through BNBCalc first.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations Aurora, Colorado?

Running those numbers only matters once you know the rental is legal at all, and Aurora draws that line in one specific place: whether you live there. Under Chapter 26, Article V of the Aurora City Code, a short-term rental is any residential dwelling unit offered as lodging for less than 30 consecutive days, and the code defines "primary residence" narrowly: the place you usually return to and live, and you're only allowed to have one. That single definition does most of the work in this guide, since almost everything else in the ordinance hangs off it.

Section 26-219 spells out what's prohibited. It's unlawful to advertise a short-term rental without a general business license and a lodger's license, and unlawful to advertise one that isn't your primary residence, no matter who holds the deed. You can only take one booking at a time (renting the whole house to one group is fine; renting different rooms to different groups on the same night is not), and you can't rent an entire dwelling short-term for more than 180 days in any rolling 365-day period. That cap doesn't reach an accessory dwelling unit if you live in the main house on the same property, which is the one deliberate carve-out in an otherwise strict rule.

Booking service providers carry their own exposure too. A platform that takes payment for an unlicensed short-term rental, or one it knows or should know isn't the host's primary residence, owes $1,000 per violation per day, on top of the general municipal penalty. Section 26-220 adds an ongoing duty on the host's side: make a good-faith effort to prevent and quickly fix any impact on the neighborhood, and let the city inspect proof of residency whenever it asks.

None of this comes from Colorado itself. The state doesn't preempt local short-term rental rules at all, our Colorado guide covers that statewide layer in full, and every city, Aurora included, is free to write its own rulebook. Aurora chose one of the stricter versions available: owner-occupancy only, one booking at a time, and a hard cap on whole-home nights.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Aurora, Colorado

Aurora chose one of the stricter versions in the state, and that shapes who can get into this business here at all. Unfortunately for anyone hoping to buy a second property purely to run nightly rentals, that's not on the table in most of the city. Aurora's own short-term rental FAQ says plainly that homes you own but don't live in "are not allowed to operate as STRs in most residential zones."

There are two narrow paths around that. An owner-occupied home can become a licensed bed and breakfast, which needs a conditional use permit approved by the Planning Commission and is limited to certain residential zones. A property nobody lives in falls under boardinghouse rules instead, and those are restricted to higher-density or mixed-use zones, not ordinary residential neighborhoods. Neither is a quick substitute for a straightforward Airbnb listing, and both add a layer of zoning approval most hosts elsewhere in Colorado never have to think about.

Since I last checked in July 2026, the city says it's reviewing whether to let investment properties operate as short-term rentals at some point, though nothing has changed yet, so don't plan a purchase around it.

An accessory dwelling unit is the one genuine exception on the investment side. If you live in the primary structure, you can short-term rent the ADU on the same lot without the 180-day cap applying to it. And whichever structure you're renting, check your HOA covenants or your lease first. Aurora's own guidance is blunt about it: some associations and landlords don't allow short-term rentals, no matter what the city itself permits.

Since Aurora spreads across three separate counties, Arapahoe, Adams and Douglas, it's worth knowing that county rules can matter too if any part of your search moves outside city limits. Our Arapahoe County guide and Adams County guide cover the unincorporated pockets nearby, where the rules run differently from Aurora's own code.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Aurora, Colorado

Once you know which side of that line your property falls on, the license itself is the easy part administratively, even if it isn't free. Aurora bundles what the code treats as two separate licenses, a general business license and a lodger's tax license, into one application through its online Licensing Portal. Per the city's Finance Department, as of July 2026 the initial application and two-year license together cost $45, and renewing for another two years costs $27. Miss the 30-day window from the moment you start hosting and Aurora tacks on a $50 late charge. Don't wait to file until after your first booking lands.

The license runs two years from issuance, matching the general business-license term set in Chapter 86 of the city code, and keeping it isn't automatic. The Finance Department can suspend, fine or revoke it after notice and a hearing under Section 86-47. Any civil fine tied to that is capped at the same general penalty that applies to any unlicensed operator: up to $2,650, up to 364 days in jail, or both, with each day of a continuing violation counted as its own separate offense.

That penalty falls on you as the host. Booking service providers face a separate one, steeper on a daily basis: $1,000 per violation per day for taking payment on a listing that's unlicensed or isn't the host's primary residence. Once you're licensed, your number has to show up in every listing you post, on whichever platform you use, and the only way around including it directly is to book exclusively through a service that already has its own tax-collection agreement with the city.

Required Documents for Aurora, Colorado Short-Term Rentals

Posting that license number is easy once you have it, and getting it hinges on proving one specific fact: that this is genuinely where you live. Aurora's code inspectors have the authority to ask for evidence at any time, and the city's own FAQ lists what counts:

• A notarized affidavit
• A driver's license or state ID showing the property address
• Voter registration at that address
• Tax documents tied to the home
• Utility bills in your name at the property

Keep more than one of these current, because the city can ask for them again well after you're licensed, not just at application.

If you rent rather than own, get your landlord's written sign-off before you apply, since a lease that's silent or hostile on short-term rentals can undo the whole plan later even if the license itself goes through. The same goes for HOA communities: get that approval in writing and keep a copy, because Aurora's licensing process doesn't check your covenants for you. Watch out for older HOA documents especially, since plenty were written before short-term rentals existed as a category and read as an outright ban once a board decides to enforce them.

Insurance is worth double-checking too, even though the city doesn't make it a licensing condition. Aurora's own guidance is direct about this: most ordinary homeowner's policies don't cover paying overnight guests, so read yours before your first booking rather than after a claim gets denied.

On safety, the bar is lower than you might expect. Aurora doesn't require an in-person inspection before you can list. What it does require, under Colorado's carbon monoxide alarm law, is a working carbon monoxide detector in any home with a fuel-fired appliance or attached garage, and the city's own guidance strongly recommends smoke detectors too, noting your local building code may require them as well. Do check both before your first guest arrives, since you're the one responsible if something goes wrong.

Aurora Short-Term Rental Taxes

Getting the safety basics right is the last box before you can take a booking, and once you do, the tax clock starts running immediately. Aurora spans three counties, so more than one government has a hand in the total, and it's worth taking each piece separately before adding them up.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
Aurora Lodger's Tax	8.00%	City of Aurora
Colorado state sales tax	2.90%	Colorado Department of Revenue
RTD tax	1.00%	Colorado Department of Revenue
Scientific and cultural facilities tax	0.10%	Colorado Department of Revenue
County tax	0.25% (Arapahoe) / 0.75% (Adams) / 1.00% (Douglas)	Colorado Department of Revenue

Which part of Aurora you're in decides the exact total. Aurora's own lodger's tax page puts the combined rate at 12.25% in the Arapahoe County portion of the city, 12.75% in Adams County, and 13.00% in Douglas County, since each county layers its own separate rate on top of the shared city, state, RTD and cultural pieces.

Filing runs monthly or quarterly, whichever the city assigns you at registration, and returns are due the 20th of the month after the taxable period closes. A written agreement for 30 or more consecutive days by a natural person is exempt from the lodger's tax entirely, along with government and qualifying charitable stays, but the exemption only applies if the same person actually occupies the room that long, not simply because a business rents it past 29 nights.

Airbnb collects Aurora's own 8% lodger's tax automatically, per Airbnb's own Colorado tax page, which names Aurora directly among the cities it remits for. Vrbo doesn't specifically confirm Aurora on its own help pages, so treat that one as unconfirmed and check your account settings before assuming it's handled. Even where a platform does collect, you're still the one who has to hold the license and confirm the numbers land correctly, since Aurora puts that responsibility on the host, not the app.

Separately, you also need a Colorado state sales tax license, since renting under 30 days makes you a retailer in the state's eyes. Per the Colorado Sales Tax Guide, it costs $16 plus a refundable $50 deposit, and it expires December 31 of every odd-numbered year unless a marketplace facilitator is already collecting everything on your behalf, in which case the state may exempt you from that separate registration.

Keep in mind that your rental income is still ordinary taxable income on top of all of that, and the usual landlord deductions apply: mortgage interest, depreciation, cleaning costs, and a share of utilities. None of that comes from Aurora's own guidance, though, so run it past a tax preparer who understands short-term rentals specifically before you file.

Colorado Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

None of those state, RTD and cultural pieces are unique to Aurora, and that's worth understanding on its own, since it's Colorado, not the city, setting most of that tax machinery. Colorado doesn't preempt local short-term rental regulation at all. The legislature's own research staff says so directly: there are "no statewide regulations regarding STRs," per the Legislative Council Staff's January 2026 issue brief, which is exactly why Aurora, Denver and every other Colorado city can each write an entirely different rulebook. Denver has regulated short-term rentals since 2016. Aurora's own rules didn't formalize until 2021, then got tightened again in 2024.

What the state does is delegate and standardize, not restrict. House Bill 20-1093, signed in 2020, let county governments license and regulate short-term rentals and pull a platform listing once a county reports a suspended or revoked local license. House Bill 23-1287, signed in 2023, added the statutory definitions of "lodging unit," "short-term rental," and "vacation rental service" that counties now build their own ordinances around. Neither bill caps a local fee or blocks a city from banning short-term rentals outright, and Aurora chose the strict-but-allowed path over a ban.

On tax, every Colorado short-term stay under 30 days owes the state's 2.9% sales tax on top of whatever the city charges, and House Bill 25-1247, signed in May 2025, raised the cap counties can put to a vote on their own lodging tax from 2% up to 6%. Expect that number to keep moving in counties near Aurora, even though it doesn't touch Aurora's own home-rule lodger's tax directly.

Our Colorado short-term rental guide walks through the full statewide picture, including the sales tax licensing process every host in the state has to clear. And since Aurora sits right next to Colorado's biggest short-term rental market, the Denver County guide is worth reading too if you're weighing whether to expand across the city line.

Does Aurora, Colorado Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Whether Aurora actually enforces any of this the way Denver does is a fair question, and the honest answer is that Aurora runs enforcement more quietly. There's no in-person inspection before you get licensed, and the city doesn't publish an annual enforcement report the way some larger markets do, so I couldn't find a public count of citations issued, licenses revoked, or listings caught operating without one. What Aurora does say, in its own FAQ, is that it monitors licensing and tax compliance, responds to complaints through code enforcement, audits tax records, and can issue municipal court summonses and fines for violations.

The penalties themselves aren't soft, though. An unlicensed or non-primary-residence operator faces the general municipal penalty: up to $2,650, up to 364 days in jail, or both. Each day of a continuing violation counts as its own separate offense, so a listing that stays up uncorrected for a month can rack up a very different number than a single citation implies. Booking service providers face a steeper daily rate still: $1,000 per violation per day for processing payment on a listing they know or should know is unlicensed, which gives Airbnb and Vrbo a real incentive to check your license number rather than take your word for it.

In practice, that makes this a complaint-driven system, the same as most Colorado cities. A neighbor who suspects a house down the street is really an unlicensed short-term rental calls code enforcement at 303.739.7000, and the city investigates from there. The 180-day cap on whole-home rentals gives inspectors a concrete number to check against too, since exceeding it is itself evidence the home might not really be your primary residence anymore.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Aurora, Colorado

Once you understand how enforcement works, the sequence below is still the one that keeps you out of its way rather than in front of it.

1. Confirm the home is genuinely your primary residence, and that you're not already claiming another one, since the city can ask for proof of this at any point, not just at application.
2. Check your HOA covenants or lease in writing before you spend anything on furnishing or listing photos.
3. Apply for the combined General Business/Lodger's Tax License through Aurora's Licensing Portal, and pay the $45 fee.
4. Register for the Colorado state sales tax license too, unless every booking runs through a platform that already collects everything on your behalf.
5. Install a working carbon monoxide detector, add smoke detectors, then double-check your homeowner's insurance actually covers paying guests.
6. Post your license number in every listing on every platform you use.
7. Set your calendar so you never book two parties at once, and track your whole-home nights so you stay under 180 a year.
8. File your lodger's tax return on whatever schedule the city assigns, monthly or quarterly, by the 20th of the following month.
9. Sign up with Visit Aurora for free marketing support once you're licensed and paying tax, since it costs nothing and puts your listing in front of the city's own tourism channels.

Work through that list in order and the license, the tax filings and the 180-day cap mostly take care of themselves. What's harder to judge from the code alone is whether an Aurora primary residence earns enough to justify converting your only home into a part-time rental. That's exactly what BNBCalc Markets can help you check: run the numbers on the Denver market and see what a comparable listing nearby is actually bringing in, then weigh that against what your own house could realistically pull in before you commit it.

Who to Contact in Aurora, Colorado about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Comparing numbers is one thing, sorting out an actual application snag is another, and a handful of Aurora and Colorado offices between them handle almost everything a host runs into.

Business licensing and the lodger's tax license

The Tax and Licensing Division of Aurora's Finance Department issues the combined General Business/Lodger's Tax License and handles renewals, late fees and tax returns.

• Address: 15151 E. Alameda Parkway, Ste. 5700, Aurora, CO 80012
• Licensing phone: 303.739.7057
• Licensing email: [email protected]
• Tax questions: 303.739.7800, [email protected]
• Apply online: the Licensing Portal

Zoning, ADUs and conditional use permits

Questions about whether a specific property, an ADU, or a bed and breakfast conditional use permit is allowed under Aurora's zoning code go to Planning and Development Services.

• Phone: 303.739.7000

Neighbor complaints and code enforcement

Report a suspected unlicensed short-term rental, or a licensed one that's breaking the 180-day or one-booking-at-a-time rule, to Code Enforcement.

• Phone: 303.739.7000
• Online: Aurora's Contact Us page

State sales tax registration

The Colorado Department of Revenue handles the separate state sales tax license every short-term rental host in Colorado needs, on top of anything Aurora itself requires.

• Taxpayer Helpline: (303) 238-7378, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. MT
• Register: through the Colorado Sales Tax Guide

Free marketing support once you're licensed

Visit Aurora, the city's destination marketing organization, offers free listing help and visitor materials to hosts who are licensed and paying lodger's tax.

• Phone: 720.484.8902
• Email: [email protected]

Frequently Asked Questions

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

Yes, but only if the home is your primary residence. Aurora's city code allows short-term rentals under 30 days when you live in the unit, hold a combined General Business/Lodger's Tax License, and cap whole-home rentals at 180 days a year with only one paying party at a time. Investment properties you don't live in aren't permitted as short-term rentals in most residential zones, though an owner-occupied home can sometimes qualify as a licensed bed and breakfast instead.

How much does an Aurora short-term rental license cost?

The initial application and two-year General Business/Lodger's Tax License together cost $45, according to Aurora's Finance Department, and renewing for another two years costs $27. Apply more than 30 days after you start hosting and the city adds a $50 late charge, so it pays to file before your first guest checks in rather than after. The one license covers both the business license and the lodger's tax registration the code requires.

Can I rent out an investment property in Aurora on Airbnb?

Not under the current rules. Aurora only licenses short-term rentals where the operator lives in the home, so a property you own but don't occupy can't be licensed as a standard short-term rental in most residential zones. An owner-occupied home can apply for a bed and breakfast conditional use permit in certain zones instead, while a non-owner-occupied version falls under boardinghouse rules, limited to higher-density areas. The city has said it's reviewing whether to allow investment-property short-term rentals in the future, but nothing has changed as of mid-2026.

What taxes does an Aurora short-term rental host have to pay?

Hosts collect Aurora's own 8% lodger's tax, plus Colorado's 2.9% state sales tax, a 1% RTD tax, a 0.1% cultural tax, and a county tax that runs 0.25% in Arapahoe, 0.75% in Adams, or 1.00% in Douglas County, depending on where the property sits. That puts the combined rate between 12.25% and 13.00%. Airbnb collects Aurora's lodger's tax automatically, but hosts still have to hold the license and confirm the tax lands correctly, especially on platforms that don't collect it for them.

How many days a year can you rent an entire home short-term in Aurora?

Up to 180 days in any rolling 365-day period, per Aurora's municipal code. Go over that on a whole-dwelling rental and it becomes evidence the home isn't really your primary residence, which is the one thing the entire licensing system is built around. The cap doesn't apply to an accessory dwelling unit if the property owner lives in the main house, since that's the one carve-out the code makes for a second unit on the same lot.

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