Loudoun STR Rules: July 1 Registration, Permit, 180 Nights

Jacob Mishalanie
Aug 16
11 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

A live calendar on Airbnb is not a Loudoun County permit. AirROI's Low badge is not a Loudoun County permit. The county packet this cluster opened on August 16, 2026 lives at loudoun.gov/shorttermrentals. Short-term rental, on that page, is a room or space rented for fewer than 30 consecutive days for a charge. Registration is annual and due by July 1. It is free. The portal is lfportal.loudoun.gov/Forms/Short Term Rental. Operating without that registration can draw a $500 violation. That is the first desk, not the only desk.

A zoning permit is still required. The fee the packet prints is $165, mailed as a check to Loudoun County. Accessory use is fewer than 30 consecutive days and no more than 180 days a year. Commercial Whole House is a different use. It may need a minor special exception or a special exception. Confirm the published year on WebLogis before you decide which paper you are holding. Some maps still sit under the 1972 zoning ordinance. Countryside and Sterling are the named examples, and some sit under the 2023 ordinance. Leesburg is not Middleburg. Purcellville is not unincorporated Loudoun. Towns and HOAs may add a layer the county page does not write for you.

Themarket reportis two AirROI town files, not a license; This page is the clerk stack: July 1, $165, 180 days, Commercial Whole House, eight percent transient occupancy tax, six percent Virginia sales tax, and a refusal to guess a town ordinance number this draft did not open. VA Code 15.2-983 exemptions exist; Exempt people still need the zoning permit; call the desk. Do not let a Superhost badge file the packet. This is not legal advice.

July 1 registration is free

Registration is annual, The due date the county page prints is July 1, The fee for that registration is zero. The portal is lfportal.loudoun.gov/Forms/Short Term Rental, Bookmark the portal the week you buy the house, not the week the first guest asks for the lockbox code. A free form still has a calendar, Missing July 1 is not a rounding error, The same page names a $500 violation if the rental is not registered. That dollar is a penalty, not a permit fee, and not a line you should budget as if it were optional marketing.

VA Code 15.2-983 exemptions exist. This page will not guess who qualifies. The county packet is explicit on one point this draft will repeat: exempt people still need the zoning permit. Do not stop at the free registration and call the house legal. Do not skip the free registration because you already wrote a check for $165. The registration and the zoning permit are two papers. July 1 is the registration clock. The zoning packet has its own intake.

Leesburg, Middleburg, Purcellville, and unincorporated Loudoun all sit under this county registration sentence unless a town desk tells you otherwise in writing. This draft did not open a town-by-town exemption chart. Hedge. If the published year is inside a town, call the town clerk after you file the county portal, not instead of the county portal. The180-nightpost is the use split that still sits behind the free form. A free July 1 filing is the start of the year, not the end of the file.

The $165 zoning packet

The zoning permit is not free. The packet this cluster opened prints $165. Mail a check to Loudoun County. The same packet asks for a parking drawing with at least one extra off-street space, a floor plan, and septic capacity if the house is not on public sewer. Those attachments are the job. A floor plan you sketched on a napkin after the first inquiry is how you donate a Saturday to a rejected packet.

One extra off-street space is the minimum the packet names. Photograph the space. Measure it. If the driveway already holds the household cars bumper to bumper, the extra space is not theoretical. Septic capacity is the other trap on western parcels. This page will not guess a bedroom-to-drainfield table. If you are not on public sewer, ask Health and Zoning what the existing system is rated for before you advertise eight guests. A listing that sleeps more than the septic can carry is not a marketing problem. It is a packet problem.

The $165 check does not decide accessory versus Commercial Whole House. That is an use question. The startup post is the rest of the cash stack, linens, photography, February carry, once this packet is real. Do not spend the linen budget before the published year is confirmed. Do not treat $165 as the only county dollar you will ever write. It is the zoning intake. TOT, sales tax, and a possible special exception are different desks.

Accessory 180 is not the whole house

On the county packet, accessory short-term rental is fewer than 30 consecutive days and no more than 180 days in a year. That is the accessory line. It is not a slogan and not a suggestion. A host who models 280 occupied nights on an accessory published year is modeling an use the packet did not give them. Thirty consecutive days is the stay cap inside the definition. One hundred eighty days is the annual cap. Both limits sit on the same accessory sentence.

A whole house can still be an accessory use if the county treats it that way on that published year. A whole house can also be Commercial Whole House, which is a different use. Do not assume that listing the entire dwelling automatically moves you into the commercial column. Do not assume that listing the entire dwelling keeps you inside 180 days. Ask Zoning, in writing, which use attaches to the parcel. WebLogis first. Then the question. Then the paper.

AirROI's Leesburg file already shows 35.2 percent of listings on a 30-night or longer minimum, and an average stay of about 7 nights. Middleburg averages 3.6 nights, with 25 percent on a 30-plus minimum; Those are vendor stay shapes, not zoning permission; Theremotepost is the desk product. This page is the cap; A 30-night stay on an accessory published year still has to live inside fewer than 30 consecutive days as the county defines the stay, or it is not that use. Confirm the counting rule with the clerk.

Commercial Whole House is a different paper

Commercial Whole House is not accessory use with a nicer photograph. The county packet treats it as a different use. It may need a minor special exception or a special exception. This draft will not guess which parcels qualify, how long that hearing takes, or what the extra fee is. Those answers live at Zoning and on the published year. If you need a year-round whole-house calendar, you are not filling out the accessory form and hoping the title is close enough.

Special exception is a public process. Neighbors can appear. A buyer who underwrote the house as a silent 365-night machine has not priced that process. A host already operating on a live calendar has not priced it either. Stop the model until Zoning says which use you have. Theinvestmentpost is why that answer belongs in the first week, not after the appraisal.

Towns may run a different paper on an incorporated published year. This page will not guess a Leesburg town ordinance or a Middleburg town ordinance this draft did not open. loudoun.gov/towns is the directory. Call the town if the published year is inside one. Unincorporated Loudoun is the county packet without that extra town layer, and it is still not a free-for-all. HOAs remain a separate contract. A special exception from the county does not rewrite a covenant.

Eight percent TOT plus six percent sales

Transient occupancy tax in this county is 8 percent. If the booking lands on Airbnb or VRBO, the platform collects that tax. If the booking is direct, the operator remits it. The desk is the Commissioner of the Revenue. Virginia state sales tax is 6 percent. Confirm the Department of Taxation the week you file. This cluster will cite a combined 14 percent guest-facing stack from those two desks. It will not guess a third local option this draft did not open.

Direct booking does not erase the 8 percent. It moves the remittance onto you. Thehow-to-marketpost can talk about a direct site later. This page will not let a host treat direct as tax-free. March 1 filings are the calendar the county packet names. BPPT and a business license enter the picture if the operation has more than 7 rooms. Most houses in the two AirROI files will not trip that room count. A large estate might. Count the rooms before you assume you are only a TOT filer.

Towns may add a tax this draft did not open. Hedge. Ask the town clerk and the Commissioner of the Revenue which return you file if the published year is inside Leesburg, Middleburg, or Purcellville. Do not paste a neighboring town's rate onto Washington Street. Do not paste Arlington's stack onto a Loudoun APN because the guest drove from DC. The 8 percent and the 6 percent are the two figures this page will defend. Everything else is a phone call.

Towns and HOAs

Middleburg is not Leesburg, Leesburg is not Purcellville, None of those three is unincorporated Loudoun. Towns may add rules, The county page itself points at loudoun.gov/towns, This draft did not open each town code. That is a hedge, not a loophole, If the published year is inside a corporate limit, the town clerk is a second conversation after the county portal. A county registration does not retire a town business license the town has not waived in writing.

HOAs are a third layer. Covenants are private. A zoning permit does not rewrite them. A Superhost badge does not rewrite them. Read the documents before you photograph the pool as a guest amenity. An architectural review that bans a lockbox is a real constraint. This page will not guess a county preemption sentence this draft did not find. If the association says no, the association says no.

Health Department review enters if you serve breakfast as a food service. A baked muffin on a plate is how hosts wander into a different license. Thevisitor guidecan name Stone Tower and Breaux as tastings the guest drives to. Your kitchen is not a tasting room unless Health said it is. Keep the welcome book and the skillet on the correct side of that line. A welcome basket left in the room is a different thing than a hosted breakfast service, and the line between the two is exactly the question Health will ask first.

What to hand the clerk

Hand the clerk a published year, not a vibe. Pull WebLogis. Know whether the parcel sits under the 2023 zoning ordinance or the 1972 ordinance. Countryside and Sterling are the 1972 examples the packet names. Bring the $165 check, the parking drawing with the extra off-street space, the floor plan, and septic capacity if you are not on public sewer. Bring the July 1 registration confirmation or file it the same week. Ask, in one written sentence, whether the use is accessory or Commercial Whole House.

Ask how the county counts a day toward the 180. Ask how it counts consecutive days against the 30. Ask whether a 30-night minimum stay is even available on an accessory published year. Write down the name of the person who answers. A hallway yes is not a file. Thefinancepost is why a lender should see that written answer next to the two AirROI medians, not next to a Low badge.

If the published year is in a town, take the same packet to the town clerk and ask what they add. If there is an HOA, take the covenants. If you plan to remit TOT on direct bookings, take the Commissioner of the Revenue's filing calendar and put March 1 on yours. None of that is romantic. All of it is cheaper than a $500 violation plus a cease letter the week Glenwood Park fills Saturday, April 18, 2026. Bring a folder, not a memory of a phone call, and leave the county building with a name and a date written down for every question you asked.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to register in Loudoun?

Yes — Loudoun County requires online registration by July 1 each calendar year at loudoun.gov/shorttermrentals, and there's no fee to register. Operators who skip it risk a $500 fine per violation. Virginia Code 15.2-983 lists some registration exemptions, but exempt hosts still need the separate zoning permit — registering isn't optional just because you think an exemption applies.

What is the zoning permit fee?

The zoning permit runs $165, payable by check or money order to Loudoun County, or online through LandMARC. The packet also requires a parking drawing showing at least one extra off-street space, a floor plan, and proof of septic capacity if the property isn't on public sewer. Those attachments are part of the application, not optional extras — missing one is the most common reason a packet gets sent back.

Does the 180-night cap apply to a whole house?

It depends on the use classification. Loudoun's Short-Term Rental-Residential Accessory category caps stays at fewer than 30 consecutive days and no more than 180 days per year. A whole-home rental can still fall under that accessory category, or it can be classified as Commercial Whole House, a different use that may require a special exception. Confirm the classification on WebLogis and with Zoning before assuming either cap applies to your address.

What taxes apply?

Loudoun charges an 8 percent transient occupancy tax, which Airbnb and VRBO collect automatically on platform bookings; direct bookings shift that remittance responsibility to the host. Virginia's state sales tax adds another 6 percent — confirm the current rate with the Department of Taxation. Together that's roughly a 14 percent guest-facing tax stack. Hosts with more than 7 rooms should also check BPPT and business license requirements, with filings due March 1.

Do town rules apply?

Yes, if the property sits inside an incorporated town such as Leesburg, Middleburg, or Purcellville. The county page directs hosts to call the town directly, since county registration doesn't waive any town-level licensing or ordinance. Unincorporated Loudoun follows the county packet without that extra layer. HOA covenants are a separate, private matter the county doesn't touch either.

Does an AirROI Low badge mean I can list tomorrow?

No. An AirROI "Low" competition badge or a low count of licensed listings says nothing about whether the county has approved your permit. Loudoun still requires the July 1 registration and the $165 zoning permit regardless of what a market-data tool shows. Exempt hosts under VA Code 15.2-983 still need the zoning permit — an AirROI screenshot won't satisfy the clerk.

What should I hand the clerk?

Bring the parcel's APN, a WebLogis printout showing whether it falls under the 2023 or 1972 zoning ordinance, the parking drawing with the extra off-street space, the floor plan, and septic records if you're not on public sewer. Also bring your July 1 registration confirmation or file it the same visit. Ask in writing whether your property is classified as accessory use or Commercial Whole House.

Is a 28-night stay a workaround?

No. Loudoun defines a short-term rental as fewer than 30 consecutive days, so a 28-night stay still counts as one. It also still applies toward the 180-day annual cap for accessory-use properties. Treating a near-month booking as a loophole around zoning rules is a mistake — confirm the counting rule with Zoning in writing before advertising it that way.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

A Loudoun STR Rules listing fails when the about block sells a costume overnight the driveway cannot keep. Guests who typed this published year deserve the hall and gallery that match the tax map.

We help Loudoun STR Rules hosts keep listing and marketing copy honest so a live calendar on Airbnb is not a Loudoun County permit stays true before anyone pays for more words. Neighbor mix-ups stay off the first paragraph. If the gallery still could sit on the wrong town, we rewrite the opening until it matches arrival weekend.

Reach out at crestcove.co or (256) 998-7502.