Roanoke County, VA Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Chapter 21, Article IX imposes the county's lodging tax on top of any other tax the law allows. Sec. 21-202 sets the rate at seven percent of the total rent a transient pays for a hotel or travel campground, and requires the tax to be paid to the operator or accommodations intermediary at the time rent is paid; if rent is paid in installments, the tax is prorated across each installment, and any unpaid balance becomes due once the transient stops occupying the space. 'Transient' under Sec.

21-201(a) means anyone occupying a room for twenty-nine consecutive days or less, and 'hotel' under Sec. 21-201(c) covers hotels, motels, inns, tourist homes, boarding houses, dormitories, apartment hotels and similar structures offering lodging to five or more persons at a time for compensation, so bed-and-breakfasts and larger short-term rentals fall under the same rate. Sec. 21-203 carves out exemptions: stays of thirty days or more by the same occupant, rooms paid for by a federal, state or county official on official business, rooms paid to a hospital, medical clinic, nursing home or home for the aged, and stays by an exempt foreign-government employee; no exemption applies unless it is claimed, under penalty of perjury, when the rent is collected.

Sec. 21-204 requires the tax to be stated separately from the room charge on the guest's receipt, and bars an operator from advertising that the tax will be absorbed rather than charged.