Price Township, Pennsylvania Short-Term Rental Regulations: A 2026 Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Price Township, Pennsylvania and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you can, and unlike a lot of the Pocono Mountains townships around you, there's no local short-term rental ordinance standing in the way. Price Township, in Monroe County, hasn't passed the kind of licensing law that neighbors like Polk Township or Ross Township already enforce.

That said, "no ordinance" isn't quite the same as "no risk," and it's worth sitting with the difference before you buy furniture. Short-term rental isn't a use the township's zoning code defines, which means nobody has formally said your property qualifies. The township's own guidance, as quoted by a Poconos vacation-rental brokerage that tracks municipal rules across the county, recommends getting a zoning variance or conditional use approval anyway, purely for protection if the rules ever tighten. I wasn't able to load Price Township's own site directly, since it sits behind a bot check that blocked every automated tool I tried, so that guidance comes secondhand rather than off the township's own page, and I've flagged it that way throughout.

So here's what this guide covers: what Price Township does and doesn't regulate, the county and state tax that attaches regardless of the local silence, how the zoning gap plays out in practice, and who to call when you hit a question the internet can't answer. Everything below is checked against Monroe County's own pages and Pennsylvania's own tax code as of July 2026, and where a fact came from a secondary source rather than the township directly, I've said so. Run the numbers through BNBCalc once you know what you're dealing with here.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Price Township

Since there's no ordinance to work around, starting a short-term rental in Price Township looks less like clearing a regulatory gauntlet and more like doing the paperwork nobody's forcing you to do yet. According to that same Poconos STR scorecard, Price Township "does not currently have restrictions concerning any type of short term rentals," and there's no permit, no license, and no fee attached to running one, at least not one the township itself imposes.

That freedom comes with a catch worth taking seriously, though. Because short-term rental use was never written into the zoning ordinance as a permitted use, your property doesn't have an official yes on file, it just has an absence of a no. That's the gap. Neighboring townships in Monroe County show what happens when a board of supervisors decides to close it. Polk Township prohibits short-term rentals outright in its R-1 residential district and requires a license plus inspections everywhere else, while Ross Township restricts them to its general and village commercial zones and keeps them out of residential areas entirely. Price Township hasn't gone that direction, but its own Board of Supervisors meets regularly and could vote to, which is exactly why the recommended move is a zoning variance or conditional use filing now rather than after the fact.

Don't skip that step just because nobody's currently checking. A variance or conditional use approval, once granted, tends to survive a later ordinance change in a way that "we've always just done it" doesn't. Monroe County has already built a Short Term Rental Model Ordinance that any township in the county can adopt wholesale, and its existence tells you the county expects more of its townships to formalize rules over time, not fewer. Price Township hasn't touched it as of this writing, but that's a snapshot, not a promise.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Price Township

That gap between "allowed" and "protected" carries straight through to licensing, because there isn't one, at least not from the township. Price Township issues no short-term rental permit and charges no annual fee for operating one, which puts it in a small minority of Pocono Mountains municipalities.

What you deal with instead sits one level up, at the county and the state. Monroe County requires anyone renting out a room, cabin, or home to overnight guests to register for its Hotel Excise Tax, and that registration functions as the closest thing to a license this business gets locally. You'll also want the Pennsylvania Sales, Use and Hotel Occupancy Tax License through myPATH, the state's free online tax portal, but only if you don't book exclusively through a platform that already collects Pennsylvania's hotel tax on your behalf. If Airbnb or Vrbo handles every one of your reservations, the state's own guidance says you don't need to register separately.

If you do go the variance or conditional use route on the zoning side, expect that to run through Price Township's Zoning Hearing Board, the standard venue Pennsylvania municipalities use for exactly this kind of request. I couldn't confirm a fee schedule for that process from a page I could open, so make sure you call the township's zoning and building department before you file anything, since a wrong assumption about cost is an easy way to waste a trip.

Required Documents for Price Township Short-Term Rentals

Assuming you're building the paper trail the township's own guidance recommends, a handful of documents do most of the work. None of them are unusual, but skipping one is how an application bounces back and costs you another few weeks.

• Monroe County Hotel Registration Application, the form the County Treasurer's office uses to set you up for the Hotel Excise Tax. This is the one document nearly every host in the county needs, ordinance or not.
• Proof of property ownership or a lease that permits subletting, since both the county tax registration and any zoning filing will ask who's responsible for the unit.
• A zoning variance or conditional use application, if you're taking the protective route the township recommends, along with whatever site plan or property sketch the Zoning Hearing Board asks for. Keep in mind Pennsylvania zoning hearings generally require public notice to nearby property owners, so budget time for that step rather than assuming a quick turnaround.
• Your Pennsylvania tax license confirmation, if you registered through myPATH because you don't book exclusively through a collecting platform.
• A short-term rental insurance rider or commercial policy, which the township doesn't mandate but which is worth getting anyway, since most standard homeowner's policies exclude paid short-term guest stays entirely.

Don't forget that the county registration and any zoning paperwork are separate processes handled by separate offices, so getting one done doesn't put you further along on the other.

Price Township Short-Term Rental Taxes

Once the paperwork question is settled, tax is the part that shows up every quarter, ordinance or no ordinance. Two layers apply to a Price Township short-term rental, and they stack on top of each other rather than replacing one another.

Tax	Rate	Collected by
Pennsylvania Hotel Occupancy Tax	6%	PA Department of Revenue
Monroe County Hotel Excise Tax	3%	Monroe County Treasurer

The state layer runs 6% of the rent under 61 Pa. Code Chapter 38, and "hotel" is defined broadly enough to catch an ordinary single-family short-term rental, not just a building with a front desk. That's why Act 109 of 2018 put the job on the platforms themselves: Airbnb and Vrbo have to collect and hand this tax over on your behalf, and Airbnb's own tax page backs that up, confirming it takes the 6% automatically on Pennsylvania reservations of 29 nights or shorter.

The county layer is the Monroe County Hotel Excise Tax, 3% under County Ordinance #2017-1, and it funds the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau's tourism promotion work rather than the county's general fund. Airbnb's help pages state it collects "locally administered occupancy taxes" on Pennsylvania bookings generally, without naming Monroe County by name, so I can confirm the mechanism exists but not that this specific 3% is definitely swept in on every booking. Given that uncertainty, register with the county Treasurer's office yourself and treat the quarterly return as your responsibility either way. I couldn't pin down the exact filing deadline from a document I could open, so call the Treasurer's office at (570) 517-3102 to get the current calendar rather than guessing at a date.

One more thing worth knowing: Price Township has no local lodging tax of its own. These two layers are everything. There's no third township-level charge hiding behind the county one, at least not one I could find any evidence of.

Pennsylvania Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

Zoom out from Price Township and the tax picture starts to make more sense, because almost none of it originates locally. Pennsylvania has no statewide short-term rental preemption law, and the state's own Joint State Government Commission staff study from March 2025 says as much directly: regulation is "a patchwork of primarily county and municipal zoning ordinances and regulations," and even the definition of "short-term rental" changes from one municipality to the next. That's precisely the patchwork Price Township and its stricter neighbors both sit inside.

What the state does provide is the tax layer you just read about, plus a light-touch registration system: there's no statewide STR license or registry, only the general Sales, Use and Hotel Occupancy Tax License through myPATH, and even that's optional if a collecting platform handles every booking. Three bills would change this further: House Bill 2303 would add a whole "Transient Lodging" chapter to state law with tiered operator categories and a countywide registry, House Bill 1256 is a separate Short Term Rental Compliance Act, and Senate Bill 1105 targets county-level hotel tax reporting, all three sitting in committee as of the most recent snapshot I could reach. None of them has passed, so don't plan around any of them yet. If you're comparing Price Township against markets elsewhere in the state, the Pennsylvania statewide guide walks through how that patchwork plays out region by region.

Does Price Township Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Given that the state leaves enforcement to the township, and the township still hasn't written STR-specific rules, the honest answer is that there's nothing local to enforce yet. No inspector shows up to check your guest count, because no ordinance sets one. No fine schedule exists for operating without a permit, because no permit is required.

That doesn't mean zero risk, though, since the zoning gap cuts both ways. If short-term rental use isn't a permitted use and a neighbor complains, a code enforcement officer has a plausible argument that your property is being used for something the zoning ordinance never authorized, and that's a real enforcement path even without an STR-specific law. It's a slower, messier process than a dedicated ordinance would create. It's not nothing, though. That's the whole reason the variance and conditional use recommendation exists in the first place.

The tax side is a different story, and it's the part I'd watch. Monroe County has a functioning collections office behind its Hotel Excise Tax, with registration forms, exemption paperwork, and a defined ordinance number backing it up, so that's the layer with real administrative teeth even while zoning stays informal. Add in that Monroe County has already published a model STR ordinance for townships to adopt, and that Polk and Ross Townships have already gone further than Price Township has, and the pattern reads like a county moving toward regulation gradually, township by township. From what I can tell, Price Township just hasn't been next in line. Not yet, anyway.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Price Township

1. Confirm your zoning district and how the township currently treats STR use there. Call the Zoning/Building Department before you assume anything, since the specifics didn't show up on any page I could reach directly.
2. File for a zoning variance or conditional use approval, following the township's recommended protective route, even though nothing forces you to.
3. Register with the Monroe County Treasurer's office for the Hotel Excise Tax Certificate, since this applies whether or not the township has an ordinance.
4. Decide whether you need a Pennsylvania tax license through myPATH, which you can skip if every booking runs through a platform that already collects the state's 6% for you.
5. Line up short-term rental insurance before your first guest, since a standard homeowner's policy typically won't cover a paying stranger in the house.
6. Set up your listing and keep records of every booking, including gross rent collected each quarter, since that's what the county return will ask for.
7. Watch for changes at the township level. Keep an eye on Board of Supervisors meeting agendas, because Monroe County's model ordinance means adopting stricter rules is a vote away, not a years-long drafting process.

Who to Contact in Price Township about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning

Two offices split almost everything a Price Township host needs to ask about, and they don't overlap much.

Price Township zoning, permits and the Board of Supervisors

The Price Township Municipal Building houses both the Zoning/Building Department and the Board of Supervisors, and it's the first call for anything related to your specific property's zoning status or a variance filing.

• Address: 10 Barren Road, East Stroudsburg, PA 18302
• Phone: (570) 421-2497
• Fax: (570) 421-8626

I couldn't confirm office hours or a direct staff email from a page I was able to load, so calling first is the reliable path here.

Monroe County Treasurer, for the Hotel Excise Tax

The Monroe County Treasurer's office handles hotel tax registration, the exemption forms, and quarterly reporting for every short-term rental in the county, Price Township included.

• Address: Monroe County Administrative Building, One Quaker Plaza, Stroudsburg, PA 18360
• Phone: (570) 517-3102
• Fax: (570) 517-3815

Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, for the state tax license

For the Sales, Use and Hotel Occupancy Tax License and questions about whether your platform's collection covers you, the state's revenue department is the office of record, reachable at 717-787-1064, with registration itself handled through myPATH.

Between those three numbers, you can cover zoning, county tax, and state tax without a single guess. If Price Township's numbers end up looking tight compared to other spots in eastern Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania market data on BNBCalc is worth pulling up before you commit, and county guides like Lehigh County and Bucks County show what a more built-out local licensing system looks like in practice, for comparison.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Price Township in 2026?

Yes, currently. Price Township has no short-term rental ordinance, so there's no permit, license or fee required at the township level. Keep in mind that short-term rental isn't formally defined as a permitted zoning use, either, which is why getting a variance or conditional use approval is the recommended protective step rather than a strict legal requirement. Monroe County's hotel tax registration still applies regardless of what the township does or doesn't regulate.

Does Price Township require a permit for short-term rentals?

No. Price Township doesn't issue a short-term rental permit or charge a licensing fee, unlike several neighboring Monroe County townships. What it does recommend, through its own zoning guidance, is a variance or conditional use filing with the Zoning Hearing Board, since short-term rental was never written into the zoning ordinance as an approved use. That filing isn't mandatory today, but it protects you if the rules change later.

What taxes apply to a short-term rental in Price Township?

Two layers apply on top of each other: Pennsylvania's 6% Hotel Occupancy Tax and Monroe County's 3% Hotel Excise Tax under County Ordinance #2017-1, for 9% combined. Airbnb collects the state 6% automatically on bookings of 29 nights or fewer. The county 3% is less clearly automatic, so register directly with the Monroe County Treasurer's office and plan on filing a quarterly return yourself.

Could Price Township ban or restrict short-term rentals in the future?

It's possible, and there's a real mechanism sitting ready for it. Monroe County has already published a Short Term Rental Model Ordinance that any township in the county can adopt, and neighboring townships like Polk and Ross have already passed their own stricter rules. Price Township's Board of Supervisors hasn't moved in that direction as of this writing, but a vote could change that at any regular meeting, which is exactly why hosts are advised to get zoning protection now.

Do you need short-term rental insurance in Price Township?

The township doesn't require it, but it's worth getting regardless. Standard homeowner's insurance policies generally exclude paid short-term guest stays, which means a claim during a booking could get denied under an ordinary policy. A short-term rental rider or a dedicated commercial policy closes that gap, and most hosts find it cheaper than the cost of one denied claim.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.