B&B and Vacation Rental Owners: Keeping Guest Rooms Dry Through Gettysburg's Slow Season
Guest rooms tend to go musty in the months they sit empty with the heat or air turned down, and the problem surfaces with the first guest of spring. At Gettysburg National Military Park, the National Park Service counted about 14,500 visits in January 2025 against about 105,000 in May, so a lot of rooms around town see a long quiet stretch. Keep humidity under 60%, as the EPA recommends, walk empty rooms after heavy rain, check bathrooms and under sinks with a moisture meter at turnover, and fix the water before you treat the room.
Is the first guest of spring going to be the one who finds the musty room? In a town where the visitor season swings as hard as Gettysburg’s, that’s the moment guest rooms tend to give up their secrets. Rooms that sat closed through the slow months with the heat turned down and nobody running the shower fan are where moisture quietly builds. The fix is mostly routine: keep humidity under 60%, as the EPA recommends, walk empty rooms after heavy rain, check every bathroom and sink cabinet at turnover, and find the water before you treat anything.
Busy months, empty months
The National Park Service’s own counts show how big the swing is. Gettysburg National Military Park logged about 14,500 recreation visits in January 2025 and about 19,000 in February, against about 105,000 in May and 98,000 in June. That’s not a count of B&B guests, but it’s a fair picture of when rooms around town are full and when they aren’t.
An empty room isn’t a problem by itself. An empty room with the heat or air conditioning turned way down, the door shut and a small leak nobody is there to see can be. The Census Bureau counts about 3.6% of borough homes as held for seasonal or occasional use, and every one of them has the same issue: days or weeks between visits when nothing gets noticed. The downtown and Old Town page has more on empty upper floors in town.
What the borough’s rules look like
You can’t separate lodging from the buildings it lives in, so it’s worth knowing the shape of the rules. Gettysburg borough’s zoning code defines a bed-and-breakfast as a single-family detached dwelling with a maximum of 10 rooms, run by people who live there, with at least one full bathroom for every four sleeping rooms. An inn is up to 20 bedrooms. Vacation rentals get one booking per unit per night, a local contact person within a 15-minute drive, and a notice posted inside the unit. The borough says short-term rentals need a Land Use Permit and a Certificate of Use and Occupancy.
Pennsylvania’s Department of Revenue applies the 6% state hotel occupancy tax to stays under 30 days, including bookings through online platforms. None of those rules mention mold. That part is on the owner.
The turnover moisture check
This is the five-minute walk I’d do between guests, or at least at the start and end of the slow season:
| Where | What to look and feel for |
|---|---|
| Bathroom ceiling and fan | Spots over the shower; a fan that actually pulls air and vents outside |
| Around the toilet and tub | Soft floor, loose tile, staining on the ceiling below |
| Sink cabinets | Swollen cabinet floor, a damp smell when the door opens |
| Windows and sills | Water staining, peeling paint, condensation in cold months |
| Outside walls behind beds and dressers | Spots or a cool, damp patch |
| Closets | A musty smell, especially on outside walls |
| HVAC units and their drain lines | Standing water, a dripping drain, a musty smell when it starts |
A moisture meter makes this faster and honest. A wall that reads normal is done. A wall that reads high gets a closer look before the next guest checks in. Mold around windows and sills and bath fans venting into the attic cover two of the usual suspects.
When a guest notices first
Platforms take it seriously. Airbnb’s rebooking and refund policy covers stays that aren’t reasonably clean or that contain safety or health hazards. It doesn’t name mold, but a moldy bathroom could fall under those terms.
So handle the room the way you’d handle any repair. Take it out of service. Find the water. Clean or remove what grew. Dry it, recheck it, and only then reopen it. The EPA’s guidance for larger buildings is to communicate with occupants and to schedule remediation for off-hours, which in a small inn usually means working around the booking calendar.
What not to do: book an ozone treatment and reopen the next day. Ozone machines don’t fix mold at safe levels, according to the EPA, and no machine fixes the leak behind it. More on that in what not to spray on mold.
A contractor’s tip for innkeepers
Keep a small notebook, or a note on your phone, of meter readings for each room at the start of each season. When a number jumps, you know which wall changed and roughly when. That’s the cheapest early warning you’ll ever buy.
This is John Calhoun at Mold Remediation Gettysburg PA. If you’re opening rooms back up after the slow months, I’ll walk them with a meter and show you the readings. For the full picture of what I do, see the list of mold services and mold remediation in Gettysburg, PA.
Sources
- National Park Service, IRMA visitor use statistics for Gettysburg NMP (monthly recreation visits, 2024-2025)
- Borough of Gettysburg zoning code, Chapter 27 Part 3 (bed-and-breakfast, inn and vacation rental standards)
- Borough of Gettysburg, FAQ: short-term rentals
- Borough of Gettysburg, Short Term Rental Application (PDF)
- Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, Home sharing and hotel occupancy tax
- EPA, A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture and Your Home
- EPA, Mold Remediation in Schools and Commercial Buildings, Chapter 3
- EPA, Ozone Generators that are Sold as Air Cleaners
- Airbnb, Rebooking and Refund Policy
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, B25004 Vacancy Status
Questions from B&B and rental owners
A guest left a review mentioning a musty smell. What should I do first?
Find out where the smell is strongest and why, before you reach for an air freshener or an ozone machine. Most musty rooms trace back to a bathroom without enough exhaust, a slow leak under a sink or toilet, a window or wall that's taking on water, or a room that sat closed and damp. A moisture meter and a look behind the furniture usually narrow it down fast. Fix the source, clean or remove what grew, then air the room out and recheck it.
Can I keep renting a room while mold is being fixed?
Usually not that room. The EPA's guidance for larger buildings is to communicate with occupants and schedule remediation work for off-hours, and in a small inn the simplest version of that is to take the affected room out of service until it's done and verified. Other rooms may stay open if the work area is contained and isn't on a shared air system. Ask your remediator to plan the job around your booking calendar.
Do I need a permit to run a short-term rental in Gettysburg borough?
The borough's FAQ says a Land Use Permit and a Certificate of Use and Occupancy are required to operate one legally, for homestays where the owner is on site and for vacation rentals where the owner lives elsewhere. The borough's short-term rental application adds that operators show registration for the Adams County hotel room rental tax. Check with the borough office for your property, since the rules depend on the zoning district; this isn't legal or tax advice. Outside the borough, ask your township.
Have John walk them with a moisture meter first
(717) 837-3115Request a mold assessment- Locally owned in Gettysburg
- Four years in business
- Independent, not a franchise