BAYFIELD – With no hotels to accommodate visitors, the town of Bayfield is turning to vacation rental properties to help provide places to stay and in turn bolster local tourism.

There are now seven vacation rentals, including three that were OK’d in the last couple of months.

“I think vacation rentals are popular because you make more money than a long-term rental,” community development director Nicol Killian said, adding that state landlord-tenant laws involving long-term rentals can get complicated.

With some of them being walking distance from nearby restaurants and shops, the hope is that it will help draw people to spend more time checking out in-town establishments and bring in some extra sales tax revenue.

“Wherever you stay is typically where you do your grocery shopping and get your fuel and tend to eat out at restaurants here,” said Rick “Mike” Gardner, who has a 900-square-foot vacation rental in northeast Bayfield. “The more people we have that stay here in town, where we don’t have any current hotels, the more people you have visiting downtown.”

Aside from bringing additional income, Gardner said his rental property “does provide a lodging alternative to the Durango hotels, which can be very expensive,” as well as an alternative to making the 20-mile drive from Durango to Bayfield to attend events such as weddings.

“The community in Bayfield has struggles because, of course, we have no hotels. So, I’m happy to have a place where people stay,” said Gardner, who manages reservations using the Airbnb app. “I leave flyers for the various restaurants around town so that they have places local to eat. … It’s good for the revenue for the town.”

Aside from keeping tabs on someone booking a reservation from out of town, Gardner said he recently had a newly hired teacher at Durango High School stay at his property for a week while searching for a new home.

Moody’s on Mill Street, a venue for social gatherings, owns two vacation rentals: a roughly 800-square-foot studio unit and a roughly 2,000-square-foot, three-bedroom house. Moody’s owner Tonya McKnight said her properties primarily put up out-of-town relatives and friends of residents who are celebrating events like weddings, family reunions and graduation parties. She believes the vacation rentals’ proximity to in-town shops is proving to have an economic benefit.

“Being on Mill Street, there’s so many restaurants. So, I know that a lot of my customers do like all the restaurants. They’ll still stay and just enjoy all the local attractions,” McKnight said.

Gardner, who has lived in Bayfield for nearly 20 years, said the demand for vacation rentals has surged over the last couple of years coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that people are drawn to the lower costs, quieter settings and the chance to learn about popular activities from locals.

Gardner also said that while the town just recently started requiring permits for vacation rentals, he’s been operating his for over seven years.

“I get families that stay. I get a lot of people just trying to escape the heat of Texas and New Mexico,” he said.

Killian said the town in 2022 capped the total number of its vacation rentals at 30 to make it manageable. Even so, they’re slowly becoming an economic boon.

“This gives us some lodging opportunities in the community,” she said.

Killian also said having vacation rentals in town will help incentivize visitors to stay in town to shop and dine, rather than settle for driving to and from Durango to do so.

McKnight, who is in her third year operating her vacation rentals, said people are drawn to her properties because they’re better able to experience that “old-time feel” walking along Mill Street.

Although Bayfield residents are eager to provide such lodging, there are still not only stipulations with their building permit to operate, but also stipulations they themselves tack on.

For example, Gardner said his rental property is a nonsmoking unit, which includes prohibiting cannabis use. The property’s occupancy limit is four people because the one-bedroom, two-bathroom unit, which also has a pullout couch, isn’t big enough to hold additional guests, he said.

Bayfield does not have a lodgers tax on its vacation rentals, so it uses sales tax to bring in revenue. La Plata County collects lodgers taxes that may involve Bayfield rentals.

Killian said income would originate from a rental tenant deciding to have dinner in town or making a quick trip to the grocery store.

“It could help with the economy. We could see some sales tax generation. Definitely, our restaurants could get a boom from some of these units,” she said.

As for the rental properties, Killian said landlords pay for their business license renewals every year and to re-up their permits every year.

McKnight said she collects both sales and lodgers tax revenue through her rental properties. If her properties have guests stay overnight, she collects sales tax for them. She doesn’t collect sales tax if guest do not stay overnight, though.

Gardner said he collects income tax revenue on his rental property, but Airbnb collects the lodgers and sales taxes as part of its service fees and sends those taxes to the state.

Killian said landlords must check in every year with town officials and let them know they’re operating their rental properties the same way when they renew their permits.

The vacation rentals, which must be at least 500 feet apart, must meet safety requirements, namely that smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, along with fire extinguishers, are working properly. They must also have windows that are large enough for someone to exit out of in the event of an emergency.

If the property owner does not live nearby, they must provide the town a local emergency contact and also list emergency information, trash collection schedules and other related information on the property for tenants, Killian said.

mhollinshead@durangoherald.com