The Alabama Short Term Rental Alliance started the way most of these things do — with a handful of hosts comparing notes and realizing they were each fighting the same battles alone.
One operator in Gulf Shores was working through a local ordinance rewrite with no idea what had already been tried in Orange Beach. A property manager in Huntsville was untangling lodging tax obligations that a host two counties over had solved months earlier. Someone in Mentone was registering for a local tax the platforms don’t collect, and finding out about it the hard way. Different towns, different rules, same problem: no one was talking to each other.
Alabama has no statewide short-term rental license or registration. Regulation happens city by city, county by county, and that means the rules that shape your business get written in rooms you may not even know are meeting. Sometimes that works in a host’s favor. Often it doesn’t. Either way, decisions get made faster than any individual operator can track.
That fragmentation is exactly why we built ALSTRA.
We’re here to organize hosts market by market — from the Gulf Coast to the lake communities, from Birmingham to the Tennessee Valley — and connect those local groups into one statewide network. We’re here to make sure a host in Foley knows what a host in Guntersville already learned. And we’re here to sit down with local and state leaders as a credible, informed partner, arguing for rules that are fair, consistent, and grounded in evidence rather than assumption.
We also believe advocacy only works when it’s earned. Responsible hosting is not a talking point for us. Safe properties, honest listings, respect for neighbors, and full tax compliance are the standard we hold ourselves to, because that standard is what gives our voice weight when we walk into a council meeting. Hosts who operate well are the strongest argument we have.
Short-term rentals put visitors in Alabama’s restaurants, on its beaches, at its ballgames, and in towns that don’t have a hotel to offer them. The people running those properties are neighbors, small business owners, and retirees supplementing an income. They deserve a seat at the table when the rules that govern their livelihood get written.
Join us
Membership in ALSTRA means you’re not figuring this out alone.
You’ll get policy alerts when something moves in your city or county, plain-English guidance on state and local lodging tax obligations, education on operating safely and compliantly, and a direct line to hosts and property managers across Alabama who are solving the same problems you are. And you’ll be part of the collective voice that shows up when it counts.
Every member makes that voice louder. Every local alliance makes the statewide network stronger.
If you own or manage a short-term rental in Alabama, or you serve the people who do, we’d like you with us.
— The Founding Team
Alabama Short Term Rental Alliance