STR Lotteries

Per Steamboat Springs Revised Municipal Code, Section 12-574, when the number of available licenses in a Yellow/B Subzone exceeds the number of issued licenses, the Director shall conduct a lottery to issue any available licenses and establish the order of a waiting list for future licenses.  

How are lotteries conducted?

Lotteries for short-term rental licenses are run electronically. They are open to all members of the public who own property in the STR Overlay Subzone for which the lottery is being run.

  1. The city will provide public notice of an upcoming lottery, and property owners will have 30 days to submit entries.
  2. After all entries are validated by city staff, each entrant is assigned a number.  No one controls who has a better or worse number. It does not matter if you applied first or last; lottery numbers are random.
  3. Lottery numbers are then randomly sorted and ranked by running a neutral, third-party draw service (Random.org).  A waiting list is established based upon the result of the lottery ranking.
  4. Lottery results are posted online no later than one week after the lottery.
  5. City staff contact property owners in lottery rank order.
  6. If contacted, a property owner must submit a complete short-term rental license application and pay the associated application fee within 30 days. If this does not occur, staff moves on to the next-ranked property owner on the waiting list.

Have any lotteries occured?  

Yes, two lotteries have been run:

  • Subzone B1: Sunlight 
  • Subzone B2: Clubhouse

Subzone B1: Sunlight

Subzone B1 has a cap of 5 STR licenses.  Only 3 were issued in the initial round of STR licensing, giving the city the ability to issue 2 additional licenses.  In February 2024, a lottery was conducted to award 2 STR licenses.    

  • Full Record of the STR Lottery Subzone B1
  • Waiting List STR Lottery Subzone B1

Subzone B2: Clubhouse

Subzone B2 has a cap of 20 STR licenses.  Only 15 were issued in the initial round of STR licensing, giving the city the ability to issue 5 additional licenses.  In August 2024, a lottery was conducted to award 5 STR licenses.    

How do waiting lists work?

Only the subzones where lotteries have been conducted have waiting lists, and only the owners who participated in the lottery are eligible for placement on the lists.  

Waiting lists are maintained for one year.  If, during that period, a STR license becomes available, the City shall notify the first property owner on the waiting list that a license is available.  The property owner then has 30 days to submit a complete license application.  If no conforming application is submitted by the deadline, the city shall provide notice to the next property owner on the waiting list of the availability of a license.

How are owners informed of a lottery?

If a lottery is being conducted, City Staff publishes notice of availability of the Subzone and number of licenses in the local paper.  The information is also listed on our STR web site for a period of at least 30 days.  

Need help? Not sure if you qualify? Email Paula Ross, Short-Term Rental Technician, or call 970-871-8278.