Owners of the long-established bed and breakfast Nesselrod on the New, Mark Gordon and Rebecca Parks, have opened The VT Inn, a B&B located between Virginia Tech and downtown Blacksburg.

Gordon and Parks have owned the house for four years but just opened it up for their B&B business on June 1. Before that, they rented out the entire house for game weekends.

“Mark bought the house, which was a rental property, and remodeled it,” Parks said. “He rented it to some coaches as well as some graduate students. And after the last set of graduate students moved out, he decided to turn it into a bed and breakfast, because at that point we were already running Nesselrod, and we just thought it was the perfect location.”

The inn is located at 204 Washington Street SW, which is in walking distance of Virginia Tech and downtown Blacksburg.

Gordon and Parks are finishing the process of redecorating the bedrooms in a Virginia Tech theme. There will be maroon effect, orange effect, and white out rooms.

With the bed and breakfast’s close proximity to Virginia Tech, Parks said that they hope to market it to a variety of people.

“Previously our market has been people who want to come down and party for the games, which is always fun” Parks said. “But in the future, we’re going to try to market towards people coming to Virginia Tech for conferences, families coming for camps, all sporting activities, and professors who are traveling and visiting.”

Parks and Gordon are excited about the new academic year beginning at Virginia Tech, as they anticipate traffic to the inn will increase with more activity around the campus. And while VT events will fuel a lot of the business for the new inn, other events can draw in guests as well.

Parks said that a wedding party recently stayed at the inn and that the guests utilized the back deck on the house for a post-wedding celebration. Nesselrod is also often used for weddings.

“Everybody loves it when they stay here,” Parks said. “It’s all about the location because you’re two blocks from Lane Stadium, you’re a block from downtown; the location just is it.”

You can make reservations by calling The VT Inn at 540.953.5050 or at contacting them at www.thevtinn.com. Both the maroon effect and orange effect rooms are $125 per night, and the white out room is $100 per night. There is also a room on the first floor, which is $150 per night and a loft that sleeps six, which is $200 per night. In addition, you can rent the whole house for $400 per night Monday-Thursday, $600 per night Friday-Sunday, and $900 per night for football games and graduation.

Lindsey Macdonald is a Virginia Tech student and an intern for the New River Voice.