Rockingham County, VA Short-Term Rentals: Host Presence Rule (2026)

Under Sec. 17-607 of the Rockingham County Zoning Ordinance, a bed and breakfast inn carries three supplemental standards on top of whatever zoning district permits the use. First is the host-presence rule at the center of the county's approach to short-term lodging: the owner or manager must live on site and provide full-time management of the premises at all times the establishment is occupied by guests, so an absentee owner renting the property out through an unstaffed listing does not meet the standard. Second, the code caps the size of the operation at five guest bedrooms for transient overnight occupancy, keeping a bed and breakfast inn distinct in scale from a hotel, motor lodge or larger event center use regulated elsewhere in the same section.

Third, food service is limited: the establishment may provide breakfast, but only for its own overnight guests, not as a walk-in restaurant open to the public. Together the three rules keep a bed and breakfast inn operating as an owner-managed, small-scale lodging use layered onto a residential or agricultural property rather than a standalone hospitality business. Because Rockingham County has no separate short-term-rental or tourist-lodging entry in its supplemental-standards list, the bed and breakfast inn standard is the operative host-presence rule for overnight paying guests in the unincorporated county outside Harrisonburg and the incorporated towns.