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<\/p>\nEfforts to regulate short-term rentals in Pittsburgh are scheduled to come to a head in September, after council and the Planning Commission last week punted the issue to the other side of their August recesses.<\/p>\n
Paired together, the bills would limit current short-term rental operators from increasing the number of units they own and operate, said City Councilor Deb Gross. At the same time, the legislative package, if passed, would encourage homeowners to rent out accessory dwelling units or rooms in their primary homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople operating as scattered-site hotels \u2014 this bill makes this much harder to do, and rightfully so,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n
Owners and operators of short-term rentals say they welcome regulation, particularly licensing requirements. But they say efforts to curb short-term rentals through zoning will not benefit the region\u2019s overall housing stock.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not against regulation, but you\u2019re trying to regulate something you don\u2019t even understand,\u201d said Chad Wise, the founder of the short-term rental property management company HostWise Co.<\/p>\n
Curbing New Short-Term Rentals Amid Houses
The zoning bill, if passed, would distinguish between two types of short-term rentals:
Unoccupied, single-dwelling rental units with off-site ownersAnd owner-occupied rentals, which could include properties where owners rent out a room in their home or an accessory dwelling unit on their property.The zoning bill would restrict the former from taking root in residential areas zoned for single-family homes, duplexes or triplexes in the future. Owners of short-term rentals already operating in one of these zones could be grandfathered in by applying for a new certificate of occupancy showing that the property was already used that way.<\/p>\n
A valid certificate of occupancy would be required to get a license, according to the second bill. The license would also require owners to name a local operator and agree to only rent to guests who are at least 18 years old.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh\u2019s City Planning Commission will hold a hearing on the zoning bill on Sept. 8 and City Council expects to hold a tentative committee vote on the licensing bill on Oct. 21.<\/p>\n
Short-Term Rentals Concentrated in Hotspot Neighborhoods
Allegheny County\u2019s short-term rental market included roughly 3,800 available properties as of June 2026, according to AirDNA, a data and analytics firm that focuses on the short-term rental industry. About 80% of those listings were for entire homes, said Bram Gallagher, AirDNA\u2019s director of economics and forecasting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A mix of apartments (blue) and houses (orange) used as short-term rental properties dot the region but concentrate in Pittsburgh, according to data compiled by AirDNA. <\/p>\n
(Courtesy of AirDNA)<\/p>\n
The county boasts roughly 614,000 housing units, which means short-term rentals represent less than 1% of the region\u2019s total housing stock. But one of Pittsburgh\u2019s submarkets, which includes Bloomfield, Garfield, East Liberty and Larimer, accounts for 14% of the county\u2019s total short-term rentals.<\/p>\n
Another submarket that stretches from Pittsburgh\u2019s North Side to Sewickley accounts for roughly 18% of the county\u2019s total short-term-rental market.<\/p>\n
While briefing the Planning Commission on the zoning aspect of the legislative package, Gross of Highland Park said some streets in her district are peppered with keypad-accessible homes \u2014 signaling their use as short-term rentals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are just seeing more and more housing owned by short-term-rental operators and being removed as housing\u201d for residents, she said.<\/p>\n
Violence at short-term rentals has also rattled the city in recent years. Since 2022, two<\/a> fatal shootings<\/a> have occurred at Airbnbs in East Allegheny. Large gatherings have turned fatal at rentals in Philadelphia<\/a> and the Poconos<\/a>.<\/p>\n City Council\u2019s zoning bill would restrict all kinds of short-term rentals from being used for \u201cpublic assembly, recreational entertainment or hospitality activities,\u201d according to city Zoning Administrator Carolyn Ristau.<\/p>\n In Harrisburg, a bill co-sponsored by state Rep. Lindsay Powell, D-Troy Hill, introduced earlier this year after the New Year\u2019s Eve shooting<\/a> in East Allegheny, would create statewide safety standards short-term rental operators.<\/p>\n The Upsides: Jobs, Tourism Harward has been working with two people since who help with cleaning and landscaping the rental property.<\/p>\n There are also companies that manage properties for owners. Wise\u2019s HostWise Co is one of them.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also Megaclean PGH<\/a>, which manages roughly 100 short-term rentals in the Pittsburgh region, according to its co-owner Corey Diethorn. The company pays roughly $80,000 in wages each month, he said, which is split across 10 employees and several subcontractors.<\/p>\n About 26% of short-term rentals in the county are professionally managed, according to Gallagher of AirDNA. That includes properties managed by companies, such as Megaclean PGH, which are responsible for managing at least 21 properties.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just like short-term rentals are owned by these companies who are making all this money \u2014 it\u2019s not that. There\u2019s a whole ecosystem of cleaners, maintenance, landscapers, everything,\u201d Diethorn said.<\/p>\n Wise said Pittsburgh is \u201ca long way from being a tourist mecca,\u201d but that there are also \u201ca lot of properties that can pay for themselves as short-term rentals, but not long-term rentals.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike places such as Colorado, where month-to-month rentals are more common than shorter stays, Pittsburgh\u2019s short-term rental market mostly relies on visitors looking to stay only three or four nights. During the 2026 NFL Draft, for instance, roughly 75% of all available rentals were booked<\/a> for the first night of the three-day event. Those rates remained above 50% through Saturday.<\/p>\n At any given point during the year, roughly half of all short-term rentals in the region sit vacant.<\/p>\n Harward recently got married and moved well outside of the city with her husband. Now she rents both of her townhomes on the North Side.<\/p>\n She said she recognizes the short-term rental market has \u201cgotten much more corporate.\u201d But for her relatively small operation, one of the licensing bill\u2019s requirements that owners must live within 25 miles of the city would put her livelihood in jeopardy.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a scary possibility,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In 2017, Ellie Harward bought two side-by-side townhomes on Pittsburgh\u2019s North Side \u2014 a decision driven primarily by her 15-member family\u2019s need for space. But mortgage payments started to pile up, which led her to rent one of the properties on Airbnb.<\/p>\n