Scranton Short Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Scranton, Pennsylvania and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you can, as long as you're the one living there. Scranton rewrote its zoning ordinance in 2023 and, for the first time, gave short-term rentals a real legal definition: you have to occupy the dwelling at least six months of the year, guests can't stay longer than seven nights in a row, and in the city's densest residential streets you need a special exception from the Zoning Hearing Board before you can start.

That owner-occupancy rule is the catch, and it's not a technicality. Scranton's own Zoning Hearing Board denied a special exception in January 2025 for a Green Ridge house that had been run as a straightforward investment Airbnb, not a home its owners lived in, and the owners are now suing the city over it. If your plan is to buy a place in Scranton, furnish it, and run it as a nightly rental you never sleep in, that plan runs straight into the rule the board just enforced.

So this guide walks through what applies here in 2026: the zoning path and its special-exception fee, the documents you'll need, the state and county taxes that stack on a stay, how hard the city enforces this, and who to call when you get stuck. Every figure below comes from Scranton's own ordinance, Lackawanna County's own tax page, or a court filing I read directly, checked in July 2026. Once you've got the rules straight, run the numbers on your own property through BNBCalc before you commit to anything.

What are short term rental (Airbnb, VRBO) regulations in Scranton, Pennsylvania?

That owner-occupancy rule comes from a specific place: Scranton's Zoning Ordinance, adopted May 11, 2023 and effective December 20, 2023, which created "SHORT-TERM RENTAL" as a defined, regulated use for the first time. Before that rewrite, the city's zoning code barely touched Airbnb-style rentals at all, which is exactly why the current rules matter so much for anyone comparing an old listing or an old blog post against what's on the books now.

Section 2.2 of the ordinance defines a short-term rental as the use of a dwelling in which the owner rents any area of it to one or more people for compensation, on a temporary basis, whether or not it involves overnight accommodations. It says plainly that this is "also referred to as an 'Airbnb.'" Section 5.15 then attaches four conditions that apply everywhere in the city, not only in certain zones:

• The dwelling has to be your permanent address, and you have to occupy it for at least six months of the calendar year.
• All activity is subject to the city's noise, nuisance, and property maintenance ordinances, the same as any other household.
• A house guest convicted of disturbing the peace on the premises ends your right to keep operating, full stop.
• Guests are limited to seven continuous days.

None of that is negotiable through a permit fee. Layered on top of it, the city treats short-term rentals differently depending on the zoning district. In R-8, R-9, R-10, and R-11, the medium-to-high-density residential districts that cover most of Scranton's traditional neighborhoods, a short-term rental is an accessory use permitted only by special exception, a change the city made explicitly when it rewrote the ordinance in 2023. Starting the use at all also requires a zoning permit, since the ordinance treats any change in the use of a dwelling as something that needs one. I couldn't confirm from an official source exactly how the lowest-density suburban district (R-6) or the commercial districts treat short-term rentals, since the ordinance's use tables lost their column headers when I extracted the text, so check your own parcel's zoning district with the city before assuming either way.

Starting a Short Term Rental Business in Scranton

Given that special exception requirement in most residential zones, starting a Scranton short-term rental looks less like filling out a form and more like a small land-use case. If your address sits in R-8, R-9, R-10, or R-11, and most owner-occupied city neighborhoods do, you're filing an application with the Zoning Hearing Board and asking them to approve the use before you ever list the place.

That process is genuinely a hearing, not a rubber stamp. Applications are due three weeks before the hearing date, and the board's own rules require you to list every abutting and adjoining landowner and their address, plus a written statement justifying why the exception should be granted. The board meets monthly at Scranton City Hall, and it will weigh whether the use harms neighbors' health, safety, or welfare, whether it overburdens city services, and whether it changes the basic character of the neighborhood, considering noise, parking, and the like. The filing fee follows a construction-cost schedule: since a short-term rental application usually involves no construction cost, it falls in the base tier, $400. Don't confuse that with the $800 fee, which only applies to a special hearing scheduled outside the board's regular monthly meeting.

Be aware that the ordinance sets no numeric cap on how many guests you can host, unlike some cities that fix it at two or four. What it does fix is parking: you're required to provide one off-street parking space for every bedroom offered for rental, and that ratio gets checked at the same hearing. Keep in mind, too, that the owner-occupancy rule isn't a formality the board looks past for a well-run listing. The Green Ridge case mentioned above involved a corporate-owned property with a manager who cleaned it regularly and kept house rules, and the board still denied it, because the LLC that owned it wasn't living there. A tidy operation doesn't substitute for residing in the home.

On the tax-registration side, Pennsylvania has no statewide short-term rental license, so there's no separate state permit to chase before you start. What you likely will need is a Sales, Use and Hotel Occupancy Tax License from the PA Department of Revenue, but only if you don't book exclusively through a platform that already collects and remits the state's hotel tax on your behalf; more on that in the tax section below.

Required Documents for Scranton Short Term Rentals

Since the special exception hearing is where most of this gets decided, it's worth assembling the paperwork before you file rather than after the board asks for it twice. For the Zoning Hearing Board application itself, expect to provide the lot's location and dimensions, the existing and proposed use of the property, your name and address as applicant, the property owner's name and address if that's someone else, and a description of the proposed use in enough detail to show how many guests and bedrooms are involved. The Zoning Officer can waive a full site plan for a use like this, but you should still bring the parking layout that proves one space per bedroom.

Beyond the zoning file, there's a genuine gap in how Scranton's ordinances interact that I want to flag rather than guess at. Chapter 373, the city's separate "RENTAL Ordinance of 2022," requires a Rental License for any "Residential Rental Unit," but it defines that term to exclude "a Dwelling Unit in which the Landlord resides with one or more Tenants." Since a legal Scranton short-term rental requires you, the owner, to live there, a compliant, owner-occupied listing appears to fall outside Chapter 373's licensing requirement entirely, going by how the two ordinances read together. I couldn't find an official page that states this outright, so treat it as my own reading of the text rather than a confirmed city position, and check directly with the Bureau of Code Enforcement before you assume you're exempt. If your situation doesn't clear the owner-occupancy bar, though, you're not looking at a legal short-term rental at all, and Chapter 373's full Rental License, with its application, inspection, and insurance-disclosure requirements, would apply on top of the zoning problem.

For the tax side, gather your basic business information for PA's myPATH portal if you need the state hotel occupancy license, and the Hotel Tax Registration Application for Lackawanna County's own hotel tax, which is a separate filing from the state one.

Scranton Short Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you clear the zoning hurdle and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to work out, and it stacks in layers from three different governments. Here's how the pieces fit together:

Tax	Rate	Collected by
State Hotel Occupancy Tax	6.0%	PA Department of Revenue
Lackawanna County Hotel Tax	7.0%	Lackawanna County Treasurer
City Business Privilege & Mercantile Tax	Not currently assessed (since 2023)	City of Scranton / Single Tax Office

The state layer runs through 61 Pa. Code Chapter 38: a 6% excise tax on the rent for any room rented for under 30 days, which the Department of Revenue applies to single-family and condo short-term rentals the same as hotels. Under Act 109 of 2018, booking agents like Airbnb and Vrbo are required to collect and remit this tax on both your rent and their own fee, so if you book exclusively through a major platform, you generally don't have to register or file yourself. Book directly or through a platform that doesn't collect, though, and you'll need that Sales, Use and Hotel Occupancy Tax License from myPATH.

The county layer is the one worth double-checking with the county directly, because I couldn't confirm it applies to platform bookings from an official source. Lackawanna County charges its own 7% Hotel Tax under county ordinance #221, collected by the County Treasurer with a Hotel Tax Registration Application and monthly remittance reports. Pennsylvania county hotel taxes typically track the same under-30-day definition as the state tax, but the Treasurer's own page doesn't spell out whether Airbnb and Vrbo remit it automatically the way they do the state tax, so don't assume it and get caught owing back tax on a technicality.

The city layer, mercifully, isn't currently a factor. Scranton's Business Privilege and Mercantile Tax, which would otherwise apply to rental income under its "service" classification, hasn't been assessed for current-year activity since 2023, per the Scranton Single Tax Office's own FAQ page; the office now only collects on delinquent prior-year balances. Your rental income is still ordinary taxable income at the federal and state level, of course, with the usual deductions available, so don't skip that part on the assumption that the city isn't currently collecting a separate business tax on it. If you're weighing what a compliant Scranton listing might clear against other Pennsylvania markets, the Scranton market page on BNBCalc breaks the numbers down at the neighborhood level.

Scranton-wide Short Term Rental Rules

All of that tax stacking sits on top of a state framework that's worth understanding on its own terms, because it explains why Scranton gets to write rules this specific in the first place. Pennsylvania has no statewide short-term rental preemption law. The state's own Joint State Government Commission said as much in its March 2025 staff study, describing the regulatory landscape as "a patchwork of primarily county and municipal zoning ordinances and regulations," with even the definition of "short-term rental" varying from one municipality to the next. A couple of bills that would change that, including House Bill 2303 and House Bill 1256, are sitting in committee as of the most recent legislative snapshot I could check, and neither has passed. Until one does, Scranton's own ordinance is the operative law, not a placeholder waiting on Harrisburg.

Within the city, the rules that apply to every legal short-term rental, regardless of which zoning district you're in, are the same four from Section 5.15 above: owner occupancy for at least six months a year, a seven-night cap on any single stay, one parking space per bedroom rented, and full exposure to the city's ordinary noise and nuisance enforcement. Keep in mind that these aren't separate boxes to check once and forget. The occupancy requirement in particular is an ongoing condition, not a one-time approval, so moving out of the property mid-year genuinely ends your right to keep operating it as a short-term rental, not just a technical violation to clean up later.

Does Scranton Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Given how specific those citywide rules are, the natural question is whether Scranton actually polices them or just publishes them. The answer, based on the most recent case I could find, is that it does, and it does so through the same neighborhood-complaint and public-hearing process that governs any other zoning dispute here. In January 2025, the Zoning Hearing Board voted 3-0 to deny a special exception for continued Airbnb use of a single-family home at 809 Delaware Street in the Green Ridge neighborhood, owned by Jabez Realty LLC and operated by Peter Bonacuse and Rebecca Stokes. Green Ridge Neighborhood Association president Laura Agostini opposed the application at the hearing, and the board rejected it under both the old zoning code and the new one that took effect in December 2023.

The owners sued the city in Lackawanna County Court on February 14, 2025, arguing the rental predated the new ordinance and should be grandfathered in as a pre-existing nonconforming use. I couldn't find a reported outcome as of my last check in July 2026, so treat that case as still pending rather than resolved, but the board's own 3-0 vote already tells you how seriously an absentee-owned listing gets treated here, well-run or not.

The penalties behind that enforcement are real money, even if they read modest next to some cities. A zoning violation carries a civil judgment of up to $500 per violation before a District Justice, plus court costs and the city's attorney fees, and each day the violation continues counts as a separate offense. If your situation instead falls under Chapter 373's rental licensing rules, because you're not owner-occupying and don't qualify as a legal short-term rental at all, penalties there run from $100 to $500 for a first violation up to $500 to $1,000 for a third, with jail time as an alternative the ordinance explicitly allows for. Do check your own zoning district and occupancy plan against both of those before you assume a fine here or there is just a cost of doing business.

How to Start a Short Term Rental Business in Scranton

Given everything above, the order you tackle these steps in matters, since the early ones determine whether the later ones are worth the time and the fee.

1. Confirm your zoning district and your own occupancy plan first. If you're in R-8, R-9, R-10, or R-11 and you don't plan to live in the home at least six months a year, stop here; that's the exact combination the city has already denied and litigated over.
2. Contact the Zoning Officer (570.348.4193 ext. 4531) to confirm your district's treatment and whether a special exception applies to your address specifically.
3. Assemble your Zoning Hearing Board application, including the abutting-landowner list, your justification statement, and your parking plan at one space per bedroom offered.
4. File at least three weeks before the monthly hearing and pay the $400 base filing fee.
5. Attend the hearing. Expect the board to weigh noise, parking, and neighborhood character, and expect neighbors to show up if they oppose it.
6. Once approved, pull your zoning permit for the change of use before you list the property anywhere.
7. Register for PA's Sales, Use and Hotel Occupancy Tax License through myPATH, unless you're booking exclusively through a platform that already collects the state's 6% for you.
8. Register with the Lackawanna County Treasurer for the county's 7% Hotel Tax and confirm directly whether your booking platform remits it on your behalf.
9. Confirm your Chapter 373 status with the Bureau of Code Enforcement, since an owner-occupied short-term rental appears exempt from the separate Rental License but it's worth getting that in writing rather than assuming it.
10. Keep every stay to seven nights or fewer, and don't forget that moving out of the home ends your eligibility, not just your convenience.

Who to Contact in Scranton about Short Term Rental Regulations and Zoning

Whichever step trips you up, four different offices split this between them, and knowing which one owns your question saves a lot of time on hold.

City Planning and Zoning handles district questions, zoning permits, and violations.

• Phone: 570.348.4193 ext. 4531
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM
• Zoning Officer: Abraham Negron

Zoning Hearing Board handles special exception applications and hearings.

• Solicitor: Daniel L. Penetar, Jr., Esq.
• City Planner: Donald J. King, AICP, CFM
• Meets monthly at Scranton City Hall; applications due three weeks before the hearing

Bureau of Code Enforcement handles Chapter 373 Rental Licenses and inspections.

• Contact: Robin Selemba
• Phone: 570.348.4193 ext. 4555
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM

Lackawanna County Treasurer handles the county's 7% Hotel Tax.

• Treasurer: Angela Rempe Jones
• Phone: 570-963-6731
• Email: [email protected]
• Address: Lackawanna County Government Center, 123 Wyoming Avenue, 2nd Floor, Scranton, PA 18503

For the state hotel occupancy tax, the PA Department of Revenue handles registration through myPATH, and for the city's Business Privilege and Mercantile Tax status, the Scranton Single Tax Office (570-963-6756, 315 Franklin Ave, Scranton, PA 18503) can confirm the current, mostly dormant, state of that tax. General city offices reach 340 N Washington Ave, Scranton, PA 18503, (570) 348-4100.

What do Airbnb Hosts in Scranton on Reddit and Bigger Pockets Think about Local Regulations?

Given how narrow the legal path actually is, it's worth knowing what the conversation among hosts and investors sounds like before you commit. I couldn't get a clean read on Reddit specifically, since Reddit's own data policy blocks the kind of automated access this research would need, so I'm not going to pretend to have surveyed it. What I found on BiggerPockets skews toward ordinary buy-and-hold investing rather than short-term rental strategy: a live thread asking whether Scranton is worth buying rental property in frames the appeal entirely around affordability and long-term rent, not nightly-rate arbitrage.

My own read on why that is, and it's an inference rather than something anyone stated outright, comes down to the rules themselves. An owner-occupancy requirement, a seven-night cap, and a special exception hearing in most residential neighborhoods make Scranton a poor fit for the classic out-of-state Airbnb portfolio play, and the Green Ridge case above is exactly the kind of outcome that discourages it. If you already live in Scranton and want to rent out a spare room or a unit in your own building, the numbers can still work. If you're looking for a remote whole-home nightly rental to add to a portfolio, this isn't the market that rewards it, and the Pennsylvania statewide guide is a better starting point for comparing Scranton against Pennsylvania markets with fewer strings attached.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Scranton in 2026?

Yes, but only as an owner-occupied short-term rental. Scranton's zoning ordinance requires the owner to occupy the dwelling at least six months of the calendar year, caps guest stays at seven continuous nights, and requires one off-street parking space per bedroom rented. In the city's medium-to-high-density residential districts (R-8, R-9, R-10, and R-11), you also need a special exception from the Zoning Hearing Board before you can start. An absentee-owned whole-home rental isn't a legal short-term rental here, regardless of how well it's managed.

Do you need a special exception to run a short-term rental in Scranton?

In most of Scranton's residential neighborhoods, yes. The city's R-8, R-9, R-10, and R-11 zoning districts, which cover the bulk of its traditional housing stock, classify short-term rentals as an accessory use permitted only by special exception. That means filing with the Zoning Hearing Board, listing your abutting neighbors, paying a $400 base filing fee, and attending a public hearing where the board weighs noise, parking, and neighborhood impact before approving it.

How much does it cost to get zoning approval for a Scranton short-term rental?

The Zoning Hearing Board's special exception fee starts at $400 for projects with no construction cost attached, which covers most short-term rental applications. That figure rises on a sliding scale tied to construction cost for larger projects, up to $5,000. A separate $800 fee applies only if you request a special hearing outside the board's regular monthly meeting, which most applicants won't need.

What taxes do you owe on a Scranton Airbnb?

Three layers can apply. Pennsylvania's state Hotel Occupancy Tax is 6% of the rent, and Lackawanna County adds its own 7% Hotel Tax on top, for a combined 13%. Airbnb and Vrbo generally collect and remit the state's share automatically under state law, though it's worth confirming directly with the county whether your platform remits its 7% as well. Scranton's city Business Privilege and Mercantile Tax hasn't been assessed on current-year activity since 2023, so it isn't a factor right now.

What happens if you run an unauthorized short-term rental in Scranton?

The city can pursue a civil judgment of up to $500 per violation before a District Justice, plus court costs and its own attorney fees, and each day a violation continues counts separately. Scranton's Zoning Hearing Board denied a special exception for an absentee-owned Green Ridge Airbnb in January 2025, a decision the owners are now contesting in court, which shows the city is willing to shut a listing down rather than simply fine it and move on.

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