Hi, I am a short-term rental owner and am entirely against the proposed legislation to commercialize our properties.

I’m not sure what the end goal is here. You currently have 2,500 short-term rental licenses and will easily lose 30% to 50% of those folks, which will limit the number of lodging days available in the market, which will diminish number of stays, which will diminish money spent in the county, and will also inundate the market with active listings, which will in turn bring down the values of homes, which will not only make short-term rental owners unhappy, but will also infuriate the residential home owners throughout Summit County as well.

Seventy-five percent of short-term rental owner’s are Coloradans, and a good portion of those could no longer afford their second homes with no or limited income. Vail associates and the cities and counties have had affordable housing problems for 40 years, and yet little has been done. Don’t blame us. We are not the problem.

My story is similar to many as I built my home in 2000 after taking a year off of work. I literally had to quit 11 months in to get a job and had to borrow $5,000 from my bank to put food on the table. Without income on my property, there is no way that I could have afforded it for the first 15 years.

My plight is one of many. Please don’t let greed and big business get in the way of a good thing. I imagine everyone that would read this looks for a short-term rental when they go on vacation. Please allow them to continue to do so.