The Roanoker - September / October 2018 - 56

TH E H OME S IS S U E

of blighted properties and the amount
of money that my investor and myself
have spent, one would think I deserve
just a little bit more respect. But not in
the eyes of our city leaders."
Yoga instructor DEBBIE STEVENS
opened her home at the foot of Mill
Mountain to Airbnb during the
middle of 2017 and was delighted with
the result she saw before moving to
California at the end of the year. She
never completed licensing. "One of the
reasons I [didn't complete] it was the
expense," she says. "But I was happy.
Absolutely. It helped me keep the house
clean, on top of the laundry, and I met
interesting people." She canvassed her
neighbors before inviting guests in and
has had no complaints.
Laker occasionally rents his entire
house, staying with friends. "Most
people come, sleep and go. Some like to
socialize," he says.
Most Airbnbs don't provide breakfast,
though the Roanoke ordinance comes
under B&Bs. Roanoke City Councilman
Bill Bestpitch, who favored the city's
ordinance, is a former B&B operator.
Realtor Tony Seifred at Smith
Mountain Lake (Moneta) has been
renting rooms on lakefront for a year
and has a license with Bedford County.
He pays transient taxes and "The
experience is mostly good with some
crazy outliers," he says.

56

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018

DINA AND REGGIE BENNETT of
Mountain Shepherd Survival School in
Craig County found that it "was quite
easy once I knew the rules," says Dina.
"I understood that we had to pay sales
tax but was unaware of the transient
occupancy tax which is an additional five
percent of net sales. The Craig County
Commissioner contacted me about it and
invited me to her office to explain how
the process worked. I'm happy to pay the
extra tax to support the county."
Mountain Shepherd has a large
lodge and cabin-56 beds, up to four
in a room-that it opens for Airbnb
customers, who don't mind
sleeping in bunk beds far
from the urban world. Says
Dina, "They are looking for
a rustic mountain setting
and we provide that. We've
had guests from all over the
world."
Many of the Airbnbs
are spare, even Spartan,
and owners insist their
customers aren't looking
for luxury; it's about price,
sometimes as little as $30 a
night. Therefore, they insist,
they aren't competing for
visitors looking for highend accommodations.

BRIAN DUVALL (ABOVE)
"We never had to have a license and we never had
problems."
DINA BENNETT (BELOW)
Bunk beds way out in the country.

BRIAN DUVALL, a former executive
with the Salem-Roanoke County
and Franklin County Chambers of
Commerce (now with the Walla-Walla,
Wash., Chamber) had an Airbnb in
Boones Mill for a year, and found the
hotel industry unconcerned. "They seem
to understand that people who want the
Airbnb experience are not interested
in staying in a hotel for very specific
reasons," he says. "That it's a fairly small
percentage of the tourist population."
Duvall says his Airbnb was in Franklin
County and "we never had to have a
license and we never had problems
with hotels complaining or neighbors
complaining, but then we're out in the
country so we were unlikely to bother
anybody."
For now, the dust seems to have settled
on the controversy, the rules are in place
and are being enforced, and the Roanoke
Valley has caught up again with an urban
trend. Stay tuned, though. Who knows
what tomorrow will bring? I
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The Roanoker - September / October 2018

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