Longmont, CO Short-Term Rentals: Occupancy Limits (2026)

Longmont's STR occupancy rule is codified in the program standards published on the city's STR program page and enforced through the city's STR license. The formula is straightforward: two persons per legal bedroom plus two additional occupants. The city publishes the worked example of a three-bedroom dwelling having a maximum of eight guests (3 x 2 + 2 = 8); the formula extends linearly (four bedrooms = ten, five bedrooms = twelve). 'Legal bedroom' means a room originally constructed as a bedroom and meeting current life-safety standards, including: smoke detectors in every bedroom and in the hallway or area outside bedrooms; carbon monoxide detectors within 15 feet of each bedroom where the dwelling has an attached garage or fuel-fired appliances; and an emergency egress path consisting of either a direct outside door or an egress window meeting minimum dimensions (minimum 20-inch clear width and 24-inch clear height; 5.7 square feet of openable area above ground level or 5.0 square feet on or below ground level; sill no more than 48 inches above the finished floor). Permits on file for basement finishes and additions are required for rooms in those areas to count as legal bedrooms. Any STR with more than five bedrooms rented as short-term sleeping space must be equipped with an approved fire suppression (sprinkler) system; this threshold mirrors NFPA/IFC residential occupancy classifications and is intended to address the increased fire-life-safety risk of larger transient occupancy loads. The whole dwelling can only be rented to one group at a time, so the occupancy cap is the total guest count for the dwelling rather than a per-room figure that could be sold to multiple unrelated parties simultaneously. Individual rooms within an owner-occupied dwelling may be rented separately only when the owner, agent, or property manager resides and is present during the rental.