As a full-time, voting resident of Keystone, as well as an Airbnb host, I am concerned with the first draft of the town’s short-term rental program. With my 10 years of work experience at a Keystone property management company, hosting a short-term rental for the last 11 years and my presence at numerous county meetings about short-term rentals since 2018 and attendance of 90% of the Keystone meetings over the last year, I fear our new town hasn’t got a clue.

Since Oct. 1, only 17 hotline calls were received in Keystone. This includes an entire busy ski season! On Tuesday afternoon, the discussion at the work session on developing a quick program to hold the town safe and quiet until they have time to work on a better program by 2025. 

What I heard was how to police the 2,000 hosts of short-term rentals with all these hypothetical problems so the few residents that complain about vacation rentals in their neighborhood will still vote for them in two years — all 17 of them!

Over the last year of developing meetings in Keystone, all I heard was less government and emphasis on community. But since Feb. 8, it has been more government and evidence that community means only registered voters, not the 2,000 short-term rental owners or 100-plus homeowner association board members and 2,500 second-home owners that have been doing a fabulous job keeping our resort town prosperous, safe, clean and beautiful — hence, only 17 Hotline calls in the last 8 months! Kudos to the “community” I know and love!