Town of Blacksburg will begin to collect taxes on Airbnb bookings

BLACKSBURG,Va. – A New River Valley town is about to start cashing in on a new source of income. Starting Aug.1, Airbnb will collect a 7 percent lodging tax on bookings in Blacksburg.

The town is the second Virginia locality to embrace the tax collection.  Blacksburg isn't the only town that's been looking to collect these funds.

“I know that Christiansburg is talking about how they can work with Airbnb. I think it’s very important as the town approaches this, that they are aware of the lack of data that Airbnb is not providing to the localities as they do collect taxes on the behalf the localities,” said Christiansburg resident Deveron Milne.

According to Airbnb, over the last year, there were more than 10,000 bookings in Blacksburg.