In Vail Valley, our restaurants are more than just places to eat. They’re where neighbors gather, where first jobs begin and where communities are built. They reflect the creativity, diversity and resilience that define our city. But behind every meal served is a small business navigating one of the toughest operating environments in recent memory.

Running a restaurant has never been easy. Between tight margins, rising food costs, labor shortages and unpredictable demand, survival often depends on flexibility — especially when it comes to how our restaurants reach customers. That’s why the Vail Valley Partnership, and our members, are deeply concerned about House Bill 1210 and what it could mean for Vail Valley’s restaurants.

At first glance, HB 1210 is framed as a consumer and small business protection measure. But in practice, it risks undermining one of the most important tools many restaurants rely on today: delivery platforms that help owners reach customers beyond their four walls.

For many independent restaurants, third-party delivery platforms aren’t just a convenience; they’re a partner in growing their customer base and providing promotions. They allow restaurants to access new markets, increase order volume during slow periods and stay competitive in a quickly evolving marketplace.

What often gets overlooked in this debate is how critical promotions are to running a restaurant. Demand isn’t steady. Restaurants have lunch rushes, dinner rushes and long stretches in between where kitchens are staffed, food is prepped, and tables sit empty.

Delivery platforms are a tool to smooth that volatility. They can offer targeted promotions, discounts, free delivery or limited-time deals to bring in orders when restaurants would otherwise have none. These aren’t gimmicks; they’re essential levers used to manage a fragile business.

They also promote customer loyalty — from a Taco Tuesday promotion to targeted birthday deals, these discounted incentives keep people coming back again and again, bringing in revenue, keeping prices lower for families and ingraining businesses in the communities they serve.

In fact, recent polling from the Chamber of Progress shows that 70% of Coloradans prefer keeping access to targeted discounts over a system in which every customer pays the same price, and 63% say it is reasonable for loyalty programs to charge different customers different prices.

HB 1210 risks limiting how these promotions work in practice. If new requirements make it harder to structure or fund promotions, or if they increase the cost of offering them, restaurants will lose one of their most valuable tools.

Importantly, platforms often co-fund these promotions or provide the infrastructure to target the right customers at the right time. That’s not something most small restaurants could replicate — or afford — on their own.

If HB 1210 makes these promotions harder to offer, whether through added compliance burdens, pricing constraints or reduced platform flexibility, the outcome will be fewer promotions, fewer orders and more empty kitchens during off-peak hours.

Large chains might be able to absorb that shift, but independent restaurants just can’t. They don’t have big marketing budgets. They don’t have data science teams. Promotions through delivery platforms are one of the only ways they can compete for attention in a crowded market.

Take that away, and you’re hurting the customers and restaurants that policymakers say this legislation is designed to help.

That’s why 77% of Coloradans expect uniform-discounting mandates to backfire — saying stores would offer fewer discounts overall or stop offering them entirely. Coloradans see who gets hurt: people on tight budgets (59%), families with children (52%), deal-seekers (50%) and seniors (50%).

There’s value in transparency and fairness. Restaurants should understand what they’re signing up for, and customers should have clarity on pricing. But policy needs to account for how restaurants in Vail Valley and across Colorado actually operate day to day.

Promotions aren’t a side feature — they’re central to how restaurants drive demand, manage costs and stay open.

HB 1210 may be well-intentioned, but it risks weakening a system that gives small restaurants real tools to compete and grow.

And for many of our favorite Vail Valley establishments, that’s a risk they simply cannot afford.