Keep your direct bookings. Hand us the taxes.
If you take bookings on your own site, by phone or by message, you are the one collecting Virginia's sales tax and your county's occupancy tax on every stay, and filing both, every month. A pay link moves that to us: you agree dates and a price with the guest as you always have, then send one link. The guest pays by card, HikeShenandoah collects the taxes at checkout and files them, and Stripe pays you.
Pay links are in a pilot with a few hosts while the tax registrations and rate approvals are completed. Ask to join at hello@hikeshenandoah.com; listing stays free either way.
How it works
- You and the guest agree dates and a price however you like: your site, a call, Instagram.
- Either put our "Book direct, taxes included" button on your site (guests pick dates and pay), or make a pay link on your host dashboard for a guest you already quoted: name, email, dates, your price, your cleaning fee.
- The guest sees every line, lodging taxes included, and pays on Stripe's secure page. No account, no guest fee.
- You get the confirmation with their contact details; the stay goes on your HikeShenandoah calendar export so your other sites block it.
- We collect the state sales tax and county occupancy tax on the stay, file them and pay them. You get a monthly statement.
What it costs
5% of the stay and cleaning fee when you bring the guest: the button on your own site, or a pay link. 8% when the guest found you on HikeShenandoah and booked from your listing. Card processing is included in both. The guest pays no service fee: the price you set, plus the taxes they would owe anywhere, and nothing else.
Compare: Vrbo charges you about 8% and the guest a fee on top; Airbnb takes 3% from you and more from the guest; booking on your own site means paying your card processor and filing the taxes yourself.
Payouts come from Stripe to your bank on your Stripe payout schedule, typically two business days after the guest pays. Stripe issues your 1099-K when the IRS threshold applies.
What stays yours
- Your calendar and your prices. A pay link needs no calendar sync and never shows availability.
- Your guest. Their name, email and phone are on your confirmation; you talk directly.
- Your cancellation policy: flexible, moderate or strict, shown to the guest before they pay. Refunds through the same card.
- Your ranking. Paying through HikeShenandoah changes nothing about where your listing sits; nothing paid ever does.
The tax part, plainly
Virginia treats a platform that takes the guest's payment as an accommodations intermediary: it collects and remits the retail sales tax on the stay and, since 2023, the local transient occupancy tax, and reports the property's address to the locality each month. That is what Airbnb and Vrbo do with their bookings, and what HikeShenandoah does with a pay link. A booking you take on your own site is yours to tax and file. Rates are taken from the state and county sources listed on each quote, and no rate is used until a person has checked it against the source.
This is a description of how the service works, not tax advice. Your own direct bookings outside HikeShenandoah still need your registration with Virginia Tax and your county.
Sources
- Retail sales tax on accommodations, Virginia Department of Taxation. Checked Nov 2, 2026.
- P.D. 22-144: guidelines for sales tax on accommodations, Virginia Department of Taxation. Checked Oct 29, 2026.
- Va. Code § 58.1-3826: transient occupancy tax on accommodations intermediaries, Code of Virginia. Checked Oct 29, 2026.
Ready when you are
Hosts with a claimed listing set up payouts once at Payouts in their account; pay links sit on the listing's booking page. During the pilot, email us to be added.