Boulder, CO Short-Term Rentals: Host Platform Liability (2026)

Section 8-11-19 sits in Chapter 11 of Title 8, the lodging business assessment area chapter adopted by Ordinance No. 8663 (2024). It applies to every short-term rental accommodation and every hosting platform doing business inside the boundaries of any LBAA. Section 8-11-4 defines a hosting platform as a person who collects or receives a fee, directly or indirectly, for conducting a booking transaction using any medium of facilitation, including an internet-based platform, so the reach is wider than the large listing sites. A lodger is a person to whom lodging is being provided for compensation.

The default rule is a collection duty. When a rental owner employs a hosting platform to collect any funds from lodgers, subsection (b)(1) requires the owner to inform the platform that the funds collected for the stay include the sum necessary to pay LBAA fees or assessments. Subsection (b)(2) then requires the platform to set aside the necessary amount for that particular lodger's rental and remit it to the city. That obligation stands regardless of whether the owner gave the (b)(1) notice, so a platform cannot defend a missed remittance by pointing at a silent host.

The only exit is in subsection (a). A platform carries no collection duties if the rental owner gives both the city and the platform a written statement, signed under penalty of perjury by one authorized to bind the short-term rental accommodation, verifying that the LBAA fee or assessment will not be passed on to lodgers and will instead be paid by the owner directly from its gross proceeds from short-term rental accommodation or its other assets. Under (b)(2), the platform must hold that statement and be able to produce it when the city asks. Having the paper is the platform's burden, not the city's.

Subsection (b)(3) keeps the owner on the hook: nothing in the section relieves the short-term rental accommodation of its obligation to remit its own LBAA fee or assessment if a platform fails to discharge its duty. Section 8-11-16 adds that each LBAA imposes its fees and assessments in the manner set out in its establishment ordinance, and that an LBAA can contract with the city to collect and enforce those charges in a manner similar to the public accommodation tax or the short-term rental tax under Chapter 3-15. The city manager can adopt rules reasonably necessary to administer the chapter under Section 8-11-29.