Month: January 2019

Categories
Entertainment Events Travel

Maximize Your Vacation Rental During These Upcoming Colorado Events

Maximize Your Vacation Rental During These Upcoming Colorado Events:

Colorado is one of the premier winter destinations in the world and February is an exciting month that you surely won’t want to miss out on! These Colorado Winter Festivals are sure to attract large crowds and this is a great opportunity to keep your rental property booked out. An easy way to ensure that you are getting the most out of your short-term or vacation rental property is to have a company that does short-term rental management look after the property for you. The services provided through a rental-management company will save you time and money, while ensuring that you are getting the most out of your rental property. This February Colorado will host:

Aspen Winter X-Games

 

  • Date: Sat-Mon, January 25th-January 28, 2019
  • City: Aspen (Snowmass), Colorado
  • Winter extreme sports competition, music, food, nightlife activities

SIA Outdoor Retailer

 

  • Date: Wed-Fri, January 30th-February 1st, 2019
  • City: Denver
  • Outdoor industry product showcase

41st Annual Snowdown

 

  • Date: Wed-Sun, January 30-February 3, 2019
  • City: Durango
  • Parade, follies, and more

 

17th Annual CSCCI Chinese New Year Festival

 

  • Date: Sat, February 9, 2019
  • City: Colorado Springs
  • Cultural demonstrations, authentic food and music

 

Lake City Ice Climbing Festival

 

  • Date: Sat, February 10, 2019
  • City: Lake City Ice Park
  • Featuring men’s and women’s top-roped and lead speed competitions

 

Winter Warrior 10K Snow Traction Race

 

  • Date: February 10, 2019
  • Address: Silverton, Co (change of location from Durango, CO)
  • Snowshoe race includes a kids dash, 5K and 10K through the San Juan forest

 

106th Steamboat Winter Carnival

 

  • Date: Wed-Sun, February 6-10, 2019
  • City: Downtown Steamboat Springs
  • Ski races, ski jumping, ice sculptures, fireworks, a shovel race, street events, and more

 

12th Annual Cripple Creek Ice Fest

 

  • Date: Fri-Sun, February 8-17, 2019
  • City: Downtown Cripple Creek
  • Features ice sculptures in casino-friendly Wild West Cripple Creek

 

Colorado Pond Hockey Tournament

 

  • Date: Fri-Sun, February 15-17, 2019
  • City: Lake Dillon, Silverthorne
  • An ice hockey tournament sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon, with over $10,000 in cash prizes. It’s followed by the Apres Ice Party.

 

WinterWonderGrass

 

  • Date: Fri-Sun, February 22-24, 2019
  • Address: Steamboat
  • About: 12th annual festival showcasing national, regional and local bluegrass and acoustic roots music.

 

Denver Family Fest

 

  • Date: February 23, 2019
  • City: Denver
  • An indoor festival with a family friendly focus featuring kid-friendly activities, stages, and more.

 

Categories
Effortless Rental Group News Rules & Regulations

Proposed Changes in Denver Short-Term Rental Regulations

Earlier this month, Excise and Licenses (EXL) presented a draft of proposed changes to Denver’s STR ordinance. Aside from a couple of perfunctory changes, the main revisions involve primary residence requirements. The most contentious update is changing the definition of primary residence to “the place in which a person’s habitation is fixed and is the person’s usual place of return”.

EXL also has proposed striking the “two documents” requirement section (motor vehicle registration, utility bill, voter registration, etc) to prove primary residence and replacing it with what some have referred to as the ‘seven standards.’ EXL would be able to use these seven standards to determine primary residence, either at the time of application or in a hearing.

Many hosts feel these revisions infringe upon property rights, are difficult to enforce and are an overreach of EXL’s powers. MHH recommends reviewing the draft document, in particular, the ‘seven standards’ (Sec 33-53, Issuance or Denial) to better understand how these changes could impact your ability to continue hosting.

Proposed Seven Standards:

(1) Whether the applicant has or claims any other location for domestic, legal, billing, voting, or licensing purposes;

(2) Whether and how often the applicant returns to the short-term rental or resides at any other location within a calendar year;

(3) Whether the address listed on an applicant’s legal documents or tax assessment records is different than the address of the short-term rental;

(4) An applicant’s business pursuits, employment, income sources, residence for income or other tax purposes, leaseholds, situs of personal and real property, and motor vehicle registration;

(5)The number of days that the short-term rental has been, or will be, rented within the calendar year;

(6) Whether the applicant is actively deployed in the United States military; or

(7) Any other relevant information.

The draft document can be viewed at bit.ly/STR2020draft1

The hosting community feels that there is an overreach of power with how regulations are currently being enforced.  License holders with no filed complaints are being followed and photographed, neighbors are being questioned and affidavits sent to compliant hosts.  Investigations into people’s personal lives is a drain of the city’s resources.

The next STRAC meeting is on Tues, Feb 11 at 4pm and your presence and/or public comment regarding the draft document would be greatly appreciated.

Categories
Dining & Drinks Entertainment Guests Travel

Local Business Spotlight: Black Eye Coffee

Photo Credit: Black Eye Coffee (https://www.drinkblackeye.com/)

 

Black Eye Coffee

3408 Navajo St, Denver, CO 80211
6:30am-6pm
District 2 (Highlands)
drinkblackeye.com
Owner: Michelle Ackerman
Year opened: 2012
Number of employees: 9

About Black Eye Coffee

Like the iconic North Denver neighborhood that we call home, this place has a rich and robust history filled with plenty of heart, grit and good old-fashioned character. Long before it was a coffee house, this building was known for a different kind of brew—Coors beer, to be exact.

Mile High Hosts surveyed over 300 Denver guests in the fall of 2019 and what was discovered was a not-so-surprising trend; guests of short-term rentals spend a lot of time and money at local neighborhood businesses. One type of business was repeatedly called out and that was coffee shops.

We asked Michelle Ackerman, the owner of Black Eye Coffee, a few short questions to find out more about this observed trend.

 

How important is the business that the guests of short-term rentals bring to your business?

It’s significant. I know this because I get reports from the Google Analytics Tool for how many people are searching for us and from where they are searching. For example, I can see people are searching from Kansas City and they are searching for directions to the coffee shop. The number of people I can see conducting searches like this is significant. Locals obviously know where we are.

There are so many changes happening for local businesses. The city of Denver recently raised the minimum wage, and in addition, my rent goes up significantly each year. With these two challenges being my reality, losing short-term rental clientele business would make it extremely challenging for me to stay in business.

 

What do you believe short-tern rentals bring to small businesses?

What makes Denver a destination for all tourism is the number of great things we have to offer travelers. Short-term rentals play directly into that equation, delivering a repeatable source of new money to small businesses and neighborhoods. People enjoy visiting the local spots, the things people don’t have back home and without us, I think Denver becomes less of an attractive destination. Restricting guests from staying in short-term rentals impacts our Denver eco-system, small and large businesses alike.

 

There may be people that live in the neighborhood that may feel differently about STRs. What would you say to those that aren’t completely on board with home-sharing in their neighborhood?

There could be solutions that are a win-win. I don’t know what policies are being considered for the future but I think there should be more collaboration to find a solution that works for all. Maybe we all don’t get all that we want, but we can get a portion of it. I read a lot about the good neighbor policies that help eliminate the challenges that neighbors have are a great solution to help everyone see the benefit of short-term rentals.