Loudoun County, VA Short-Term Rentals: Extended Home Share (2026)
Key Facts
- STR definition threshold
- fewer than 30 consecutive days
- 30+ day stay
- outside STR permit/registry rules
- Applies to
- both Whole House and Accessory STR
- Registration chapter uses
- same 30-day threshold (§1470.01)
- Other law still applies
- landlord-tenant law, HOA covenants
Summary
A Loudoun County rental of 30 or more consecutive days falls outside the short-term rental definitions entirely: the Zoning Ordinance's Chapter 12 definitions only capture stays of 'fewer than 30 consecutive days,' so a month-plus lease skips the STR registration, permit, guest caps, and safety-inspection regime altogether.
Short-Term Rental, Commercial Whole House: The renting of a not otherwise occupied single-family detached dwelling unit or a not otherwise occupied accessory dwelling unit that is accessory to a principal single-family detached dwelling unit, in which the entire dwelling unit is used for providing overnight accommodations for a period of fewer than 30 consecutive days in exchange for a charge for the occupancy or other consideration. Short-Term Rental, Residential Accessory: The renting of a portion or the entirety of a dwelling unit as an accessory use to a principal dwelling unit for a period of fewer than 30 consecutive days, and no more than 180 days per calendar year, in exchange for a charge for the occupancy or other consideration.
Full Breakdown
The Zoning Ordinance's Chapter 12 definitions draw the line that separates a regulated short-term rental from an ordinary, unregulated lease. 01 of the Codified Ordinances uses the identical 30-consecutive-day threshold to define a 'short-term residential rental' for registration purposes. 05 or Chapter 1470: no Zoning Permit, no annual registry entry, no per-night guest cap, and no smoke/CO-detector floor plan review applies to that longer arrangement under these specific provisions. That doesn't mean the arrangement is unregulated in every sense (ordinary landlord-tenant law, building codes, and any HOA covenant still apply), but it does mean the County's short-term-rental-specific permitting and capacity rules simply do not reach a stay of 30 consecutive days or more.
Violations & Fines
Because a 30-day-plus rental isn't a 'Short-Term Rental' under either definition, the Zoning Administrator cannot cite it for missing an STR Zoning Permit or registration; the risk instead runs the other way: a host who books guests for stays just under 30 days specifically to dodge a lease's protections, or who advertises what is actually a series of short stays as one long booking, can be found by the Zoning Administrator to be operating an unpermitted Short-Term Rental and cited under Section 4.03.05 and Chapter 1470.04's registration penalties.
Frequently Asked Questions
If I rent my house out for a full month or longer, do I need a short-term rental permit?
Does the 180-day annual cap apply if I do one long-term booking instead of several short ones?
Can I string together back-to-back 29-day bookings to avoid the short-term rental rules?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Loudoun County
Compare Loudoun County to another location·View the Virginia short-term rentals overview
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