The market I operate in is Denver CO.  

If you have a few rentals under your belt out of state and are familiar with how your team operates then I would dive into doing some value add deals as long as it's not down to the studs. 

The main thing though is to build your CORE 4 wherever you invest.

Appliances and fixtures were old and tired.Basically, the core bones of the property were good, but there were a lot of things that seemed ripe for easy improvement.The location was great, right next to the town’s primary commercial district, with a grocery store 100 yards away, coffee shop/bakery, Post Office, drugstore, hardware store, hair and nail salons, barber shop, dentist, bank, a half dozen restaurants, and a variety of other shops and services.

You do realize there are many already operating there?

I also mention that alterations like this is effectively a cancellation, and so close to the dates effected hurts my operation and should not be possible per cancellation policy. - Guest insists booking was made because of moderate cancellation policy.

I know they have regulations but it seems from the government website you can operate in commercial zones (C-2 C-3 C-4 C-5 UGCCC, IX, RF, RV, CX, SH).

A “sort of” competitor of mine who ran a small private lending fund was always operating in a fiduciary way vis a vi his investor’s capital.

How long has it been operating as a STR?

I work with plenty of out-of-state investors who are seeing great success here in Ohio.Read this article on the "core 4".