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Denver County, CO — Hotels Saturation

How many hotels exist per person present — residents plus daytime workers — by ZIP code, compared with the U.S. average. Establishment data: Census ZBP 2023. Population: ACS 2024 5-year. 37 ZIP codes analyzed.

Includes: Hotels · Motels · Motor inns. Counted together because official statistics use one 721110 code.

Measured density: Above average — 1.12× the U.S. rate (between 1.12× and 1.29× once withheld ZIP cells are counted)

Why a range: Census does not publish a ZIP-by-industry count when that ZIP has 0–2 businesses. 22 ZIP cells in this county are withheld, 11 of them with residents. Each could hold 0, 1, or 2 businesses: counting them all as 0 gives the low end, counting them all as 2 gives the high end — the data cannot say where the truth sits. The density range uses only the populated cells, since ZIPs without residents are excluded from per-person rates. How ranges work

Range spans the U.S. rate   Denver County hotels — 112–129% of the U.S. rate

146 hotels are counted in Denver County — 1.5 per 10,000 people present (residents + daytime workers), 112% of the U.S. rate of 1.4.

On the comparable ZIP set (ZIPs with a published count in every year), the total has risen 10% between 2015 and 2023 (126 → 138). That set is smaller than today's county total. 2020–2021 were pandemic-distorted, and Census rounds counts, so small moves are within noise.

Measured supply density is highest in 80249 (Denver), 80246 (Denver), 80203 (Denver) — well above the national rate. On measured density alone, the lowest-density residential ZIPs with a published count are 80205 (Denver), 80237 (Denver), 80222 (Denver).

Census County Business Patterns (2023) puts the county-wide count at 145 establishments, including locations in ZIP codes that do not map to a ZCTA — so it can run slightly above the sum of the ZIP rows on this page. It is annual, so it lags more than QCEW.

Measured density: Denver County sits at 112% of the U.S. rate for hotels. 11 ZIPs with population have no published count (each 0–2 businesses), so the true per-capita rate is between 112% and 129% of the U.S. rate. Why. The highest measured density is in 80249 and 80246; the lowest measured density is in 80205 and 80237.

This is a supply-side read: it counts existing hotels and the people present, not foot traffic, income, rent, or whether locals want more. Treat low density as a question to check, not an answer.

Hotels
146–190
published count; upper bound counts each withheld ZIP cell as 2 (22 cells) (2023)
Per 10,000 present
1.5
residents + daytime workers
U.S. average
1.4
per 10,000 present
County index
1.12×
vs. U.S.
Latest year (CBP)
145
2023 — $391M annual payroll
Residents
695,356
26 ZIPs with data
Workers
500,203
jobs located in county

Is the area growing?

Population
729,019
Census PEP, July 1 2024
Change since 2020
+1.6%
+11,399 people
Net migration 2024
+4,277
international +6,391, domestic −2,114
Jobs located here
554,332
LODES 2022, +4.7% since 2019

Denver County had an estimated 729,019 residents on July 1, 2024 — 1.6% more than in 2020 (+11,399). In the latest year it gained 7,652 people: births minus deaths +3,381, international migration +6,391, domestic migration −2,114. Components are published separately and may not sum exactly.

554,332 jobs were located in the county in 2022 (+4.7% since 2019), and 358,469 employed residents lived there (+1.5% since 2019). LODES counts wage and salary jobs covered by unemployment insurance plus federal jobs; it excludes the self-employed and military, and counts jobs rather than unique people. 2019→2022 spans the pandemic, so read it as one change, not a trend.

Population and migration say whether the customer base is growing. They do not say whether people want another business of this type. Definitions and limits →  ·  Full county detail →

ZIP gaining residents
2015–19 → 2020–24
Change
80238 Denver
+41.3%
80249 Denver
+27.8%
80216 Denver
+26.8%
ZIP losing residents
2015–19 → 2020–24
Change
80207 Denver
−19.3%
80219 Denver
−15.7%

ACS 5-year estimates for 2015–2019 and 2020–2024. Only ZIPs with at least 2,000 residents in both windows and a change larger than the survey margin of error (90%) are listed — small ZIPs move a lot on paper without a real signal.

Nonemployer businesses

Not shown. Census publishes hotels only combined with other traveler accommodation (NAICS 7211), so a hotels-and-motels-only nonemployer count is not published.

Census Nonemployer Statistics 2024 (NAICS 2022). We do not approximate this figure.

Saturation map

Each ZIP area is shaded by its density of this business type per person present (residents + workers) vs. the U.S. average. Click any ZIP to zoom to its boundary, see its numbers, and switch to aerial imagery. Individual mapped shops appear as dots at street level — Show locations zooms you in to them (scroll or double-click to zoom).

Basemap:
Under 50% 50–100% 100–150% 150–250% 250%+ 0–2 (not published) / no data ZIP total (dot size) Mapped shop (OpenStreetMap, street level)

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, tiles by OpenFreeMap.

White dots are ZIP totals from the official Census count — the bigger the dot, the more hotels in that ZIP. They are aggregated, not individual shops. Turquoise dots are individual locations mapped in OpenStreetMap, shown only at street level; they are crowd-sourced and indicative, may be incomplete, and do not equal the official counts. Only the official ZIP totals feed the saturation index.

Market trend — up 10% since 2015

Number of hotels in Denver County across 2015–2023, on a consistent set of ZIP codes present in every year — so changes are real, not ZIP-boundary artifacts. 2015/2018 are pre-pandemic baselines; 2020/2021 are COVID-distorted.

126
2015
140
2018
150
2020
150
2021
151
2022
138
2023

Highest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
80249 Denver
316%
80246 Denver
286%
80203 Denver
181%
80239 Denver
159%
80207 Denver
145%
80211 Denver
110%
80238 Denver
95%
80220 Denver
88%
80204 Denver
86%
80206 Denver
80%
80222 Denver
64%
80237 Denver
61%
80205 Denver
48%

Lowest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
80205 Denver
48%
80237 Denver
61%
80222 Denver
64%
80206 Denver
80%
80204 Denver
86%
80220 Denver
88%
80238 Denver
95%
80211 Denver
110%
80207 Denver
145%
80239 Denver
159%
80203 Denver
181%
80246 Denver
286%
80249 Denver
316%
Low measured density is not evidence of opportunity. A ZIP with few hotels may simply lack foot traffic, retail space, or demand. We rank only residential and mixed ZIPs here; employment hubs and visitor destinations are listed separately below. ZIPs where Census did not publish a count (0–2 businesses) are not ranked: they may be the least served of all, but the data cannot tell 0 from 1 or 2. Verify those locally.

Employment hubs & destinations

These ZIPs have far more workers (or visitors) than residents, so their counts are driven by daytime and visitor demand — not a place to read "shortage" from resident numbers alone.

ZIPNeighborhoodType ResidentsWorkersHotelsIndex
80202Denver Employment hub 18,589102,721 41 425%
80216Denver Employment hub 17,33038,527 9 178%

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

All ZIP codes

Click a column header to sort. Index = hotels per 10,000 people present (residents + 0.5×workers) ÷ the U.S. average. 100% = exactly average.

ZIPNeighborhood ResidentsWorkersHotels Per 10kIndexStatus
80202Denver 18,589102,721 41 5.9 425% Very high density
80249Denver 41,59031,405 25 4.4 316% Very high density
80246Denver 13,09714,291 8 4.0 286% Very high density
80203Denver 22,44127,108 9 2.5 181% High density
80216Denver 17,33038,527 9 2.5 178% High density
80239Denver 44,95628,211 13 2.2 159% High density
80207Denver 21,5426,818 5 2.0 145% Above average
80211Denver 38,17715,860 7 1.5 110% Above average
80238Denver 30,57514,786 5 1.3 95% Below average
80220Denver 37,2037,699 5 1.2 88% Below average
80204Denver 35,31830,228 6 1.2 86% Below average
80206Denver 24,38323,807 4 1.1 80% Below average
80222Denver 23,83819,908 3 0.9 64% Below average
80237Denver 23,38424,374 3 0.8 61% Below average
80205Denver 34,57121,516 3 0.7 48% Far below average
80201Denver —450 0–2 — — Not published
80208Denver —6,480 0–2 — — Not published
80209Denver 27,56410,348 0–2 — — Not published
80210Denver 39,11312,744 0–2 — — Not published
80212Denver 20,7465,591 0–2 — — Not published
80217Denver —416 0–2 — — Not published
80218Denver 19,14910,369 0–2 — — Not published
80219Denver 59,5236,077 0–2 — — Not published
80223Denver 19,24617,631 0–2 — — Not published
80224Denver 19,3525,913 0–2 — — Not published
80230Denver 10,4496,703 0–2 — — Not published
80231Denver 35,88315,771 0–2 — — Not published
80236Denver 16,8631,097 0–2 — — Not published
80250Denver —41 0–2 — — Not published
80264Denver 0569 0–2 — — Not published
80265Denver —418 0–2 — — Not published
80266Denver 041 0–2 — — Not published
80274Denver —126 0–2 — — Not published
80290Denver 474700 0–2 — — Not published
80293Denver 0182 0–2 — — Not published
80294Denver 012 0–2 — — Not published
80299Denver —12 0–2 — — Not published

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

Find an actual space in Denver

The numbers above tell you how the market looks. To find a specific storefront, these marketplaces list available retail space for lease.

LoopNet
Largest commercial marketplace
Browse Denver retail space →
Crexi
Free listings + market data
Browse Denver retail space →
CityFeet
Retail space for lease
Browse Denver retail space →

Open vacancy data (actual empty units) is only published by some cities; where it exists we show it directly. Listings above are third-party.

Census withholds some ZIP-by-industry cells to protect small businesses. 0–2 means the cell was not published (Census publishes industry counts only at 3+ per ZIP), so the ZIP is left unranked rather than counted as zero. ~ means the count is estimated from the broader industry group and can be off by a business or two.

Follow Denver County and hotels

When a data vintage changes or a section of this report is revised, we post it to a public update feed. No email address, no account, no tracking — and nothing is sent unless something actually changed.

Subscribe to updates (RSS) How these numbers are built →

Methodology & sources

Establishments. U.S. Census ZIP Code Business Patterns (ZBP 2023), NAICS 721110 — hotels (except casino hotels) and motels. Counts establishments with paid employees. ZBP is published annually with a ~2-year lag.

Fresh county signal. This industry has no clean QCEW series, so the freshest county signal is Census County Business Patterns 2023: 145 establishments and $391M in annual payroll county-wide. This count includes locations in ZIP codes that do not map to a ZCTA, so it can be slightly higher than the sum of the ZIP rows. CBP is annual and slower than QCEW. It cannot be broken down by ZIP.

Population. U.S. Census American Community Survey 2024 5-year ZCTA population (table B01003). Workers are the ZIP's total employment from the same 2023 ZBP file.

Demand ("people present"). Demand comes from residents and daytime workers: residents + 0.5 × workers. This is the single documented assumption in the model and can be tuned.

Index. index = (ZIP establishments ÷ ZIP demand × 10,000) ÷ the U.S. average for this industry (1.38 per 10,000 present). It is a supply-side density measure; it does not capture income, rent, tourism, or whether locals actually want more.

Read the full methodology →  ·  Data sources & vintages →

BizGapMap — free, no-login small-business saturation reports for major U.S. counties. Built entirely from public U.S. Census, BLS, and IRS data (ZBP 2023, ACS 2024 5-year, PEP 2024, LODES, QCEW, IRS SOI). No forecasts, no revenue guesses — withheld cells are marked, and the few derived counts are labelled as estimates.