Pittsburgh City Council began discussion of a bill that would require owners of short-term rental properties to become licensed with the city in order to operate. But questions about how to improve the legislation took up most of the meeting — and one day after moving to expedite action on the bill, council postponed it for three weeks.
The bill was introduced Tuesday after a fatal mass shooting during a party at a short-term rental property on the North Side.
And on Wednesday, City Councilor Bruce Kraus brought up a slew of grievances with Airbnb, the firm which handles the booking for the North Side rental. Among his concerns: The difficulty of contacting Airbnb if there were problems with a property it listed.
Kraus said his office often receives complaints often about short term-rentals, including noise violations, waste management, overcrowding or late-night activities. He and a staffer in his office said the bill should require short-term rentals to have a local agent to respond to city requests and complaints.
"Airbnb provides no extra service, no extra liaisons that other companies have that we work with," said Bob Charland, Kraus's Chief of Staff. "So it really does fall on the property owner, who often is not a local agent, who's often hidden behind [a corporate identity], not even in the city of Pittsburgh to help us here."
"The onus is on you to prove this property is an Airbnb," Charland said. "They make you create an account and try to rent out the same property to prove that the property is an Airbnb."
Booking an Airbnb does require an account to look at properties, and a renter does not receive an address until after it has been booked and paid for.
The current council bill would address that problem by requiring short-term rental properties to be registered directly with the city. But Kraus said he'd love to do more to regulate the market.
He and Daniel Lavelle both cited an ordinance in Philadelphia, which requires a short-term rental property to be part of the owner's primary residence. Otherwise, the owner would be required to get a rental license that identifies the property use as a hotel.
Kraus said such a move "would solve a whole hell of a lot of problems," and Lavelle said it would be in the spirit of Airbnb's original purpose.
"Initially Airbnbs were 'I have a second floor of a home and I'm renting out the second floor,' or even some people may have extra space in the back yard," he said. "Or if you're going away on vacation for a couple of weeks and are renting out your home."
But the councilors said the rental properties were now often being used strictly to generate rental income by owners who lived elsewhere.
The draft of the legislation limits stays to a 15-day maximum, which Councilor Anthony Coghill said he was concerned about because some people rent Airbnbs for longer stays. Council President Theresa Kail-Smith said future revisions of the bill could address that, but she did not guarantee that they would amend it.
But other changes will also likely be considered.
Kail-Smith said that officials are also looking into whether they could provide incentives for "good" property owners.
Councilor Bobby Wilson said that he wants the legislation to include a requirement that short-term rental properties be marked as such with a sticker or a QR code. He also suggested that property owners be able to allow police to enter properties if they believe there is an issue.
Council ultimately held the bill for three weeks for officials to study and propose changes to the legislation. That came after council voted Tuesday to waive a rule that would ordinarily delay consideration of a bill for a week after its introduction.
