Short-Term Rentals in Bedford County, Virginia

A real, sizable lake-driven STR market

Smith Mountain Lake and neighboring Leesville Lake drive a genuinely substantial short-term-rental market in Bedford County: more than 350 properties are currently registered near the two lakes. That's a large enough market that the county has built a dedicated regulatory framework around it, distinct from how it treats short-term rentals elsewhere in the county -- if buying property specifically to operate as a lake-area short-term rental is your plan, understand upfront that you're entering an established, actively monitored, and actively evolving regulatory system, not an unregulated gray area.

The 2023 ordinance overhaul: what it actually requires

Bedford County significantly tightened its short-term-rental ordinance in August 2023, in direct response to resident concerns about overcrowding and related issues near Smith Mountain Lake; the updated rules took full effect November 1, 2023. Under the ordinance, a short-term rental is defined as a residence offering one or more rooms for rent for stays of less than 30 days, and it comes with real, specific operational requirements: a required management plan submitted to the county, a mandatory local point of contact who lives within a 50-mile radius and can respond to the property in person during an emergency, limits on occupant numbers, required fire extinguishers and smoke detectors, and a rule that guests must park on the rental property itself rather than on the street.

Registration is annual and carries a real cost structure: a $50 registration fee due each year in the same month the property's original permit was issued, with a jump to a $500 application fee for anyone who fails to register on time -- a tenfold penalty that makes staying current with the county's registration calendar a real financial consideration, not a formality. Registered properties also undergo a yearly site inspection, which confirms that bedroom count matches the certificate of occupancy (catching any undisclosed room additions) and verifies fire extinguishers and smoke detectors are in place.

A distinctive requirement: mandatory septic pump-outs near the lake

Separately from the STR ordinance itself, Bedford County adopted a requirement specific to properties within 500 feet of Smith Mountain Lake: private sewage disposal systems on these properties must be pumped out at least once every 5 years, addressing concerns about septic capacity and water quality given how intensively many of these properties are used as short-term rentals. If you're evaluating a lake-area property for STR use, factor this recurring maintenance requirement and cost into your operating budget alongside the annual registration fee, and confirm your specific property's distance from the lake shoreline (the 500-foot threshold is measured from the water, not from a road or the county's own SML boundary line) directly with the county.

Before you buy for STR use

Because this ordinance was substantially rewritten as recently as 2023 in direct response to community pushback, treat it as an area of continued policy attention rather than a settled, static rule set -- a review of the ordinance's first full year of operation was anticipated for mid-to-late 2024, with possible further amendments depending on feedback to the Board of Supervisors. Confirm the current registration fee, inspection requirements, occupancy limits, and septic pump-out rule directly with Bedford County's Community Development / Planning & Zoning office before finalizing a purchase premised on short-term-rental income, and ask specifically whether any zoning-district-level restrictions (separate from the STR ordinance itself) apply to your target parcel.