When Colorado’s Covid-19 emergency orders dealt a disproportionate blow to vacation rentals in Summit County last fall, Ashley Kubiszyn recognized the need for a more organized, engaged, and unified voice to represent the industry’s interests.
Ashley is CEO of River Ridge Rentals, a property management company specializing in three- to eight-bedroom luxury vacation rentals in Breckenridge, Keystone, and Copper Mountain.
Pandemic orders bring Summit County vacation rentals together
In October 2020 after many families had already finalized their Thanksgiving plans, the state of Colorado issued an order limiting personal gatherings to no more than 10 people from two households.
For the most part, the order didn’t affect vacation rentals. Summit County was the only exception, Ashley said. County officials decided to apply the statewide personal gathering limit to vacation rentals.
Ashley reached out to other property managers and vacation rental owners to discuss what to do. They agreed that they should organize as a formalized group to communicate with the county the importance of keeping short-term rentals as an option for families and the procedures they had put in place to keep their guests and staff safe.
Short-term rentals have played an important role in providing safe places where families can safely meet during the pandemic.
Summit County was an especially attractive refuge for families. Home to the highest lake in America – Pacific Tarn – in the Tenmile Range and several world-class ski resorts, the county offers remote, scenic surroundings where families can spend time together in nature without being exposed to crowds.
“Our position was a vacation rental is someone’s temporary residence,” Ashley said. “Staying in a vacation rental with other family members or other people wouldn’t be considered a gathering because they are cohabitating together. A gathering is an event that has a start time and an end time.”
Summit County’s interpretation was especially bruising to River Ridge Rentals because the company specializes in larger properties. The company had to notify any family or group with more than 10 people or from more than two households that they would not be able to stay in Summit County. And in mid-December, the order became even stricter, limiting groups to only people from the same primary residence.
“Ultimately, we canceled a lot of people’s Christmases and New Year’s holiday vacations, and they would either split their group into multiple condos or go to nearby areas like Vail, Steamboat, or Aspen which were not applying that gathering limit to vacation rentals in the way Summit County decided to do,” Ashley said. “We were quite literally losing business and sending them down the road to a condo complex or county nearby.”
As with previous public health announcements during the pandemic, River Ridge Rentals sent SMS messages through the Breezeway platform to quickly notify guests who were affected by the order.
“When Summit County put those orders in place, it was a few days before Thanksgiving, and we had to get a hold of all of our guests fast and let them know what was going on, so that they could make their decisions about what they were going to do,” Ashley said.
Forming an alliance
While the owners and managers of vacation rentals were unable to convince the county to change its interpretation of the public health order, they did succeed in forming the Summit Alliance of Vacation Rental Managers (SAVRM).
Own or manage vacation rentals in Summit County?
Ashley initiated the conversation among property managers and owners during the Covid restrictions. Later, she and other key vacation rental managers in the community collaborated to form the alliance.
The leaders of the alliance met regularly during the Covid restrictions and thought their workload would ebb when the population began to get vaccinated and the county reopened.
Advocacy revs up amid proposed restrictions
Little did they know, their work was just beginning.
The county Board of Commissioners and municipalities quickly brought forth a series of proposals aimed at increasing affordable workforce housing. Some of those proposals would limit the number of short-term rentals in the county and were based on misconceptions about the effect of short-term rentals on the affordable housing stock, Ashley said.
More than ever, the industry needed to respond with a unified voice as well as share data and resources to refute the idea that stopping short-term rentals would somehow solve the county’s housing crisis.
The town of Breckenridge has twice in recent months mentioned the possibility of a moratorium on short-term rentals. In Frisco, a petition is circulating that would allow a short-term rental only in the owner’s primary residence. The county has also considered options to limit short-term rentals such as the idea of creating “opportunity” zones, which allow short-term rentals only in certain areas. Meanwhile, state legislation has sought to define short-term rentals as “commercial properties,” which would result in higher taxes.
The proposals are largely based on the misconception that outlawing or limiting short-term rentals would automatically mean that the properties would be turned into long-term rentals. However, a survey of more than 3,200 second homeowners in Summit County suggests otherwise: Most responded that if short-term rentals were prohibited, they would not rent out their second homes on a long-term basis because they enjoy staying in the properties themselves.
“They bought that house so that they could own a piece of Summit County where they love to vacation and recreate, and where they love to bring their kids and their grandkids to create lifelong family memories,” Ashley said. “They aren’t going to give that up just because the option to short-term rent goes away.”
Alliance members have collaborated to make sure they attend meetings of town councils and the county board of commissioners and have engaged in a campaign to write letters to the editors at local newspapers to present their position.
They plan to hold a town hall meeting on Aug. 17 for the lodging community and related industries to learn about the activities of the alliance and how they can help.
“We are working on getting together many different perspectives to show the breadth of the impact that vacation rentals have on our community. Many people don’t quite realize that vacation rentals are really the foundation of Summit County and all the wonderful things we get to enjoy,” Ashley said. “Without vacation rentals bringing in overnight visitors, our community wouldn’t look anything like it does today.”
Read more: The ultimate guide to building a short-term rental alliance.
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