The Blacksburg Town Council unanimously approved updates to its homestay ordinance, including new enforcement rules for operators of short-term rentals on sites such as Airbnb.
Civil penalties of $500 will be issued to noncompliant homestays that operate without official registration or fail to comply with other requirements. Previously, criminal penalties of $1,000 were issued under an ordinance that was last updated nearly a decade ago, according to the town attorney, Lawrence Spencer.
The previous penalty in the town was not a jailable offense, Spencer said at an Oct. 13 council meeting, but the change was also an effort to match current state code, which limits the penalty to $500.
“I find those are easier to enforce. Going with civil penalties is kind of more appropriate in this situation,” Spencer said, “rather than treating a failure to register or other things as a criminal matter.”
Councilman Jerry Ford agreed.
“It seems more fair and in line with other similar offenses,” he said of the change to the $500 penalty.
For 2026, the town has issued 75 licenses for people who renewed their short-term rental license or applied for a new application, according to town documents requested by Cardinal News through the Freedom of Information Act.
It is unclear how many property owners in the town may be offering short-term rentals without registering. Blacksburg, with Virginia Tech sporting events, has a robust rental market.
Illegal homestays have become a problem in some localities. The city of Roanoke, for instance, received data from a private aggregating firm that showed hundreds of Roanoke property owners offering rentals were not properly registered.
“I would say that it’s not in response to a lot of violations,” said Andrew Warren, Blacksburg’s planning and building director, on why the town changes were made. “It’s really a matter of making sure we have the best tools to move forward as issues arise.”
The ordinance will also allow a lessee to operate a short-term rental as long as that person has permission from the property owner, but that is limited to hosting one unit in town — in accordance with state code. The town had long required that only a property owner could operate a homestay and that the owner be a permanent resident of the dwelling.
No one spoke during a public hearing that was opened prior to the council’s vote on the homestay revisions.
