The biggest cash cow in Breckenridge, vacation rentals, lost nearly $3.5 million over spring break during the industry’s longest slide since licensing.
The latest town tax receipts show Breck vacation rentals were losing money every month since August of last year, in part because of new regulations meant to limit rentals, but also because of dwindling reservations this ski season.
Breck’s other big tourism indicators, restaurants and retail, were down every month since December. Retail fell by nearly 9% in March alone. Breckenridge Tourism Office claimed lodging of all kinds was down by double digits this ski season, although it also said those losses were suspect.
In three months this ski season, January to February, more than 4,000 licensed rentals made $131 million, representing nearly 40% of all sales townwide. The town’s next-biggest money maker, the restaurant and bar industry, barely earned half of that.
But two years of mild losses turned sour this ski season, when the industry plummeted more than $7 million in one year. It was down more than $1 million in December.
Breckenridge vacation rental sales (January to March)
- 2022… $143.45 million
- 2023… $140.74 million (-1.9%)
- 2024… $138.34 million (-1.7%)
- 2025… $131 million (-5.3%)
This downward trend is partly by design. When the vacation rental industry erupted, Breckenridge cracked down on rentals through licensing, fees and rental zones. Town officials purposely wanted to lose hundreds of rentals through attrition, where grandfathered properties fail to reapply for a license or, even better, willingly convert to long-term rentals.
