Boulder Lets Tenants, Not Just Homeowners, Sublease for Sundance 2027
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Confirmed: Boulder’s Festival Lodging Rental License, the permit that lets people rent out housing during Sundance 2027, is not just for homeowners. City Council added a feature that lets tenants apply for their own license and sublease their rented home during the festival, as long as the property owner consents in writing. It carries a lower fee and a shorter term than the owner version. This is a separate track from the standard owner license we have covered before.
Last verified: September 9, 2026
Owner license vs. tenant license
| Detail | Status |
|---|---|
| Tenants may apply for a Festival Lodging Rental License with the property owner’s written consent | Confirmed |
| Tenant license fee is $75 for a one year term, versus $190 for a four year owner license | Confirmed |
| Rentals under either license are capped at 29 days per year, tied to city-approved Special Festival Events plus a buffer window | Confirmed |
| Owners typically seek 10 to 25 percent of a tenant’s rental income in exchange for consent | Reported, not yet confirmed |
The City of Boulder’s own announcement of the license update confirms the mechanics: applications enable “tenants in properties with Long-Term Rental Licenses to rent out their space,” but “tenants must receive the property owner’s consent to participate.” The license runs for one year at $75, compared with the standard owner license, and it applies to city-approved Special Festival Events plus a buffer of 10 days before and nine days after the event, which covers the Sundance 2027 window of January 21 to 31, 2027 with room on both ends. The city says licenses tied to this feature began issuing on May 4, 2026, and applications have been open since early April 2026.
City Council approved the underlying ordinance unanimously on April 2, 2026, according to Boulder Reporting Lab’s coverage of the meeting. The city’s housing manager, Jill Grano, framed the change as a fairness question, saying “there is an important equity component in allowing tenants to sublease, should the owner allow, and not just making this opportunity only for owners.” The ordinance leaves the revenue split between tenant and owner to private negotiation. Grano indicated in that reporting that property owners typically seek 10 to 25 percent of what a tenant collects, though that figure comes from the reporting rather than a city-set rule, so we are labeling it reported rather than confirmed. Council members flagged risk during debate. Councilmember Schuchard said she was “concerned that if things don’t go well in that partnership then there is probably a structural bias towards the landlord,” and Councilmember Adams said he could “see there being some tomfoolery here,” a nod to the potential for disputes between tenants and owners over consent or money.
Why it matters
If you rent your home in Boulder rather than own it, this is the mechanism that could let you legally sublease during Sundance 2027 rather than assume only homeowners can cash in on festival demand. It also means the pool of available festival housing may be larger than a simple count of owner-occupied listings would suggest. For the homeowner side of this same license, see our earlier post on how Boulder’s Festival Lodging Rental License works. If you are outside Boulder city limits, Boulder County has a related but separate process, covered in our post on short-term rental rules in unincorporated Boulder County. And for a sense of what rentals under either license might actually cost during the festival, read what lodging is expected to cost for Sundance 2027.
What we’re watching
We are watching for any city data on how many tenant-side licenses have actually been issued as the festival approaches, and for whether disputes between tenants and landlords over consent or revenue sharing surface publicly before January 2027.
