Short-Term Rentals in Montgomery County, Virginia: Three Different Rulebooks

Blacksburg: a Homestay Ordinance built around bedroom count and a night cap

The Town of Blacksburg has regulated short-term rentals under its own Homestay Ordinance since it took effect on January 1, 2017. To qualify at all, the host must be the property's owner and must live in the home being rented -- this is not a framework that accommodates a pure investment property with no owner presence. Within that owner-occupied structure, the ordinance draws a distinction between two rental types: a 'Type A' rental, where no more than 2 bedrooms are rented out and the owner is present on the premises during the stay, and a 'Type B' rental, where either more than 2 bedrooms are rented or the owner is not present.

The night math matters: a host can operate Type A rentals for up to 90 nights total in a year, but of those 90 nights, no more than 30 can be Type B. In practice, that means a Blacksburg homestay host renting only a spare room or two with themselves present has the fullest 90-night runway, while a host who wants to rent out the whole home while away, or rent more than two bedrooms at once, is capped at 30 nights of that activity annually. Lodging tax applies on top of these rules, and the town's Planning and Building Department (540-443-1300) administers registration.

Christiansburg: a different mechanism entirely -- a primary-residence test

The Town of Christiansburg passed its own separate Homestay Ordinance in early 2019, and it does not mirror Blacksburg's bedroom-count-and-night-cap structure. Instead, Christiansburg's core test is whether the property is the operator's primary residence for at least 6 months of the year -- a requirement aimed specifically at allowing existing homeowners to rent out their home occasionally while excluding investment purchases made solely to run as a short-term rental. A buyer comparing a Blacksburg property against a similar one in Christiansburg should not assume the same numeric limits apply in both towns; the underlying qualifying test is genuinely different.

This research pass did not independently confirm whether Christiansburg's ordinance also imposes its own night-count or bedroom-based sub-limits on top of the primary-residence requirement, since this session's WebSearch budget was exhausted before that detail could be verified -- confirm the full current ordinance text directly with the Town of Christiansburg before relying on a specific numeric limit.

Outside both towns: no ordinance at all, just a case-by-case permit

For a property in unincorporated Montgomery County -- outside both Blacksburg's and Christiansburg's town limits -- neither town ordinance applies, and the county itself has no comparable blanket short-term-rental ordinance. Instead, operating a 'short-term tourist rental' in the county requires a discretionary Special Use Permit (SUP) from the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, evaluated under Section 10-54(3)(g) of the county zoning ordinance. This is a fundamentally different process from either town's rule-based system: rather than qualifying automatically by meeting a bedroom count, night limit, or residence test, each applicant goes through an individual public hearing and approval process, and the Board attaches its own conditions to each approval.

This is a real, ongoing process rather than a theoretical option -- Montgomery County's Planning Department posted multiple short-term tourist rental SUP approvals in 2024 and 2025 alone, including SUP-2024-00823 and SUP-2024-00866, both approved with conditions for properties in residential (R-2/R-3) zoning districts near Blacksburg. If you're evaluating a rural or exurban Montgomery County parcel specifically for its short-term-rental income potential, budget for the SUP process itself -- a statement of justification addressing the application's impact on county resources and its fit with the comprehensive plan, a public hearing, and a Board vote -- rather than assuming a simple registration will do, and understand that approval is discretionary, not guaranteed, even for an otherwise reasonable request.

What to check before you buy or plan a short-term rental here

• Confirm which of the three jurisdictions -- Blacksburg, Christiansburg, or unincorporated Montgomery County -- actually governs the specific address, since the rules genuinely differ and none of the three defaults to another's.
• If it's in Blacksburg: confirm current Type A/Type B bedroom and occupancy definitions and the 90-night/30-night math directly with the Planning and Building Department before assuming a specific rental plan qualifies.
• If it's in Christiansburg: confirm the current primary-residence test and whether any additional night or bedroom limits apply, since this pass could not verify that detail with confidence.
• If it's in the unincorporated county: budget time and cost for a full Special Use Permit application and public hearing process, and review recently approved SUPs for the conditions the Board has been attaching to comparable requests.