Davis, WV Airbnb & Short-Term Rental Regulations 2026

Regulation Overview

Gateway to Canaan Valley and Blackwater Falls State Park; a small mountain-tourism town where a years-long fight over a zoning/STR-cap ordinance ended in 2024 when voters rejected it, leaving the market unusually open for new investors right now.

After the town's proposed zoning ordinance (which included a 24-unit STR cap) was rejected by 60% of voters in June 2024 and the town's STR moratorium was lifted the same month, Davis currently requires only an ordinary building permit and business license to operate an STR — no cap, no owner-occupancy rule, no STR-specific zoning.

West Virginia State Law

State preemption: No state preemption. West Virginia has no statute barring local short-term-rental regulation, so cities, towns and counties set their own permitting, zoning and caps independently; the one state-imposed layer is a health permit.

Statewide rules: Every short-term rental must hold an annual health permit under West Virginia's General Sanitation Rule, issued by the relevant county health department (fee generally scaled to bedroom count). Operators must also obtain a business registration certificate (reported at $30) from the West Virginia State Tax Department before renting a unit for fewer than 30 consecutive days.

Taxes: West Virginia's state consumer sales/use tax (6%) plus a state lodging excise tax (6%) combine to roughly 12% on lodging statewide. Counties and municipalities may additionally levy a local hotel occupancy tax by ordinance — West Virginia Code sets a base rate of 3% with authority to raise it (reported up to 6% for counties under §7-18-2, and higher for some municipalities under §8-13-3) — the actual adopted local rate varies by jurisdiction and was not independently confirmed for every market below.

2025–2026 legislation: No statewide STR preemption or licensing bill was confirmed as enacted for 2025/2026. A hotel-occupancy-tax-rate bill (HB 4776) was tracked in legislative databases but its specific short-term-rental relevance and current status were not confirmed.

Davis Rules

Governing jurisdiction: Town of Davis Council (building permits/business licenses); no town-wide zoning ordinance is currently in effect after the 2024 ballot rejection..

• A Town of Davis zoning ordinance that had been eight years in the making — and would have capped short-term rentals at 24 units in a designated residential area — was rejected by voters in a Special Zoning Ordinance Election on June 8, 2024 (60% opposed).
• Following that vote, the Town Council unanimously lifted its moratorium on new short-term rentals, effective June 12, 2024.
• As of this research, anyone can apply for a standard building permit and business license to operate an Airbnb-style rental in Davis — there is no STR-specific cap, permit, or zoning ordinance currently in effect.
• Davis is the primary in-town base for visitors to Canaan Valley and Blackwater Falls State Park, driving strong seasonal tourism demand.
• Because the failed ordinance was specifically about capping and zoning STRs, and it was rejected relatively recently (2024), the town could reintroduce STR-specific regulation — this market's light-touch status should not be assumed to be permanent.

Not confirmed

We could not verify the following against a primary source. Confirm each with the jurisdiction before you rely on it:

• Building permit and business license fees for STR use.
• Occupancy limits, minimum stay, and any penalties for noncompliance.
• Local hotel occupancy tax rate for Davis/Tucker County.
• Whether any new STR ordinance has been proposed or discussed since the June 2024 vote.

Buyer Due Diligence Checklist

Before you write an offer on a short-term rental here:

• Get a written determination from the governing jurisdiction for the specific parcel. Verbal guidance from anyone else is not diligence.
• Establish which jurisdiction governs — city, town, village and unincorporated county can differ sharply within a few miles.
• Ask whether an existing permit transfers on sale. In many markets it does not, and a listing marketed as a running short-term rental may convey nothing of the sort.
• Read the HOA or condo covenants during your inspection period. Private covenants bind even where the jurisdiction permits the use.
• Model revenue against the legal occupancy cap, not the bedroom count.

Frequently Asked Questions