We have been asking to be regulated since 2017.
SteelSTRA is an alliance of Pittsburgh short-term rental owners, operators, property managers, cleaners and local businesses. We are unfunded and entirely volunteer-run — no budget, no staff, no outside money. What we have is nine years of showing up.
In 2017, more than 150 Pittsburgh hosts came out in support of Airbnb and VRBO collecting and remitting the 14% county and state hotel occupancy tax. We asked to be taxed like hotels, because we believed it was right.
That same year, four of our hosts were invited onto a City steering committee to help write short-term rental legislation. We have been at this table, constructively, for nearly a decade.
Three things we keep coming back to.
Balanced solutions
We believe in well-considered, forward-looking regulation. Rules that:
- Balance a neighbor's right to peacefully enjoy their home with a host's right to rent their property responsibly
- Empower responsible hosts to bring value to the local economy, while stopping bad actors — guests and hosts
- Are driven by facts and data rather than anecdote and hyperbole
- Are built together with the short-term rental community and its stakeholders
- Create a framework that makes for a better hosting and visitor community, not just a smaller one
Collaboration
The Yinzer spirit should be shared with everyone, not just our guests. We work to build real partnerships across the whole community — neighbors, local businesses and workers, operators, and city administration.
For Pittsburgh to build a sustainable future, all of those people have to solve these problems together. That has been our position through four separate rounds of legislation, including the ones where we were on the losing side.
Learning & understanding
Everyone should be continually learning. We keep our members current on industry news and best practices, and we hold each other to the standards of responsible hosting — including what it actually means to be a good neighbor.
We also work to bring facts, data and local voices into the conversation. When we cite a number, we show where it came from. See our sourced data →
Nine years of asking for the same thing.
Short-term rental regulation is not new to Pittsburgh, and neither are we. Here is the record.
2017 · The tax
A group of more than 150 local hosts came out in full support of Airbnb and VRBO collecting and remitting the combined county and state 14% hotel occupancy tax on our behalf.
It is worth being blunt about what that means: given the choice, short-term rental operators in this city asked to be taxed at the same rate as hotels. That is still the rate we pay today.
2017 · The steering committee
Four Airbnb hosts were invited to join a City steering committee formed to help create legislation regulating rentals of under 30 nights.
The committee was chaired by Councilmember Deb Gross, and included then-Councilmember Dan Gilmore, Rick Gastil of the Bureau of Building Inspection, and representatives of the Mayor's office.
2017–18 · The draft
That work produced draft legislation. Every host accepting short-term bookings would complete an online property registration providing the property address, details, and emergency contact information for the owner. Hosts would agree to follow applicable building, safety and fire codes, and would be held responsible for knowing and meeting them. Each building offered as a short-term rental would carry an annual registration fee paid to the City.
In other words: a licensing and registration system, written with host participation, nine years ago.
What happened to itIt was tabled — overtaken by the Rental Registration legislation and the litigation that followed. Pittsburgh still has no short-term rental registry today.
2022 · The first ordinance
After a shooting at a short-term rental over Easter weekend, Council introduced Pittsburgh's first STR licensing ordinance. Hosts raised the same concerns then that we raise now, and the resulting law did not take effect as written.
2026 · Where we are
Two bills are moving together: 2026-0008 creates licensing, and 2026-0009 rewrites zoning to control where short-term rentals may exist at all. We support a workable version of the first. We oppose the second as written.
The ask has not changed.
License us. Require a responsible contact who answers 24/7. Enforce noise, trash, parking and safety rules. Remove the properties that genuinely cause problems, using real data. And hold the guests who cause them accountable too.
- Registration and licensing for every short-term rental
- A responsible local contact, reachable 24/7
- Real complaint and violation tracking
- Enforcement on noise, trash, parties, parking and safety
- Removal of repeat nuisance properties
- Accountability for guests who cause nuisance parties
- The same 14% lodging tax a hotel room pays — which we already do
Our full policy framework → The standard we hold ourselves to → Frequently asked questions →