Front Range STR Report
What the data actually says about the Front Range short-term rental market.
2026 edition · Colorado Springs & the Front Range
Supply is up, occupancy has softened, and national tools grade Colorado Springs a middling yield market. Read that alone and you would underwrite it as a market in decline. Read it with local context and you see the opposite: a market with a structural floor almost no other mountain-west metro has. This is the read, sourced and dated, from an operator who runs the market every day.
The market at a glance
Colorado Springs, by the numbers.
The headline picture from the published market tools. Treat these as directional market context, not a quote for your address: revenue varies widely by property type, location, and how well a listing is run.
- Active STR listings in the metro
- ~2,100
- Listing supply, year over year
- ~+15%
- Average daily rate (ADR)
- ~$158
- Median occupancy
- ~68%
- Median annual revenue per unit
- ~$40K
- Top-quartile annual revenue per unit
- $60K+
Active STR listings in the metro
Listing supply, year over year
Average daily rate (ADR)
Median occupancy
Median annual revenue per unit
Top-quartile annual revenue per unit
Figures are drawn from published third-party market data (AirDNA, Airbtics, AirROI) as of early 2026 and will move over time. Occupancy across the metro slipped roughly 2.9% year over year as supply rose, and Airbtics graded the market in the bottom of the national field for raw yield. We pull current numbers for your specific address on request.
The finding that matters
Colorado Springs is a year-round market because it wears a uniform.
The soft top-line hides the structural story. Most mountain-west leisure markets live and die by the season: they fill in summer and crater in the winter shoulders, where occupancy can fall toward 20%. Colorado Springs does not, and the reason is the bases.
Fort Carson, Peterson and Schriever Space Force Bases, the Air Force Academy, and Cheyenne Mountain generate a steady stream of relocation, temporary-duty, and event demand that published estimates attribute to a large share of local STR bookings. Crucially, that demand is counter-seasonal: PCS moves, TDY assignments, and house-hunting stays run mid-week and year-round, filling exactly the calendar that pure-leisure markets leave empty.
That is the number that should drive an owner's decision, not the metro-wide occupancy average. A soft average across 2,100 listings says little about a well-run, well-located home that captures the military layer. The gap between the median unit and the top quartile, roughly $40K versus $60K and up, is mostly operating skill and demand capture, not luck.
What it means for owners
How to read a soft market without misreading it.
Underwrite conservatively, not optimistically
Supply is up and occupancy is soft, so a projection built on last year's peak is a trap. We underwrite to a conservative floor and treat beating it as the job, not the promise. An inflated projection is how owners end up disappointed and how operators lose accounts.
The delta is operating skill, not the market
In a market where the median unit earns near $40K and the top quartile clears $60K, the spread is pricing discipline, listing quality, guest experience, and demand capture. That gap is precisely what professional management is for, and it widens, not narrows, when the market softens.
Position for the demand nobody else prices for
Most local listings are priced on a generic seasonal curve. Pricing deliberately for PCS, TDY, and the Academy's published event calendar captures mid-week and off-season nights the rest of the market leaves on the table.
Compliance is now part of the return
A tightening rule set means a permitted, compliant property is worth more than an equivalent one at risk. Keeping a permit current and a property inside the rules is no longer paperwork; it protects the asset and the income.
The regulatory backdrop
A tightening market rewards the compliant.
Colorado Springs runs a permit-based system with real teeth: non-owner-occupied rentals are barred in single-family zones, a 500-foot spacing rule caps density, and a permit lapses on non-renewal or on a change of ownership, with a lockout that can keep a property out of the market for up to two years. The city added an accessory-dwelling-unit restriction in 2025 and conducts primary-residence audits.
For owners, the takeaway is not fear, it is that permitted inventory is genuinely scarce and getting scarcer, which supports the properties that are compliant and correctly permitted. We keep a plain-language summary of the current rules in our owner guides, and we always point you to the city portal to confirm, because the rules do change.
How we built this
Methodology and sources.
This report synthesizes published third-party market data with first-party operating experience across the Front Range. Market-level figures (supply, ADR, occupancy, and revenue) are drawn from the named data tools as of early 2026 and are directional, not a valuation of any single property. The demand-share and seasonality reads combine those tools with our own operating pattern. Every figure here is public or clearly labeled as an estimate; none is presented as a proprietary measurement we cannot show. We refresh this report as the data moves.
Common questions
The Front Range market, answered.
Is the Colorado Springs short-term rental market oversaturated?
Supply rose roughly 15% year over year and metro occupancy softened by about 2.9%, so on a raw basis the market is more competitive than it was. But the metro average masks wide variation: a well-run, well-located property that captures military and relocation demand performs very differently from the median. Saturation is a real pressure on weak listings and a much smaller one on strong, professionally run ones.
How much can a Colorado Springs short-term rental earn?
Published market data puts median annual revenue near $40,000 per unit, with top-quartile properties clearing $60,000 and up (AirDNA and Airbtics, early 2026). The spread is mostly operating skill: pricing, listing quality, and demand capture. Those are market figures, not a quote. We pull current data for your specific address before we ever project a number.
Why is Colorado Springs a year-round market when other Colorado markets are seasonal?
The military economy. Fort Carson, Peterson and Schriever Space Force Bases, the Air Force Academy, and Cheyenne Mountain drive a large share of local STR demand, and that demand is counter-seasonal: relocations, temporary-duty assignments, and house-hunting stays run year-round and mid-week. That floors the winter, the season pure-leisure mountain markets rely on and often lose.
Should soft market data stop me from listing my property?
Not on its own. A soft metro average tells you the market is competitive, not that your specific property will underperform. It does mean you should underwrite conservatively and run the property well, because in a softer market the gap between a median operator and a strong one widens. That is exactly where professional management earns its fee.
Your address, your numbers
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