Here is a situation every Pittsburgher knows. The family is coming for Thanksgiving or Christmas. You have two spare beds and six people. Somebody has volunteered your couch. Somebody else has opinions about the couch.
You do not actually have to solve this by rearranging your house.
Put them in a whole home ten minutes away
A furnished home nearby gives your visiting family their own kitchen, their own bathrooms, their own bedtimes, and their own coffee in the morning — while everyone still spends the actual holiday together at your table. For a lot of families it costs less than a block of hotel rooms and it is a considerably nicer place to wake up on Christmas morning.
It also solves the thing nobody says out loud: everybody likes each other more with a little space. Three days of togetherness goes better when people can go home at night.
What actually matters when you are booking for other people
- Bathrooms, not just bedrooms. Six people and one bathroom is where holiday goodwill goes to die. Our Greeves house on the North Side, for example, gives every bedroom its own private ensuite — three bedrooms, three bathrooms, beds for eight.
- Parking. If relatives are driving in, free on-site parking matters more than almost anything else on the listing.
- A real kitchen. Somebody is going to want to bake. Let them.
- Book earlier than feels necessary. Thanksgiving and the week of Christmas are the two dates that go first in this city, and they go months out.
Make the visit worth the trip
If they are coming anyway, give them something to do. Our Christmas in Pittsburgh guide covers the lights at Kennywood and Phipps, the rink at PPG Place, and the Holiday Market downtown. The Pittsburgh food guide handles the meal nobody wants to cook.
Where to stay. Rivers & Steel City Homes offers full homes across the Pittsburgh metropolitan area — parking, a kitchen, and room for everyone who travelled in. 2,700+ guests since 2018; book direct and save 5–15% over Airbnb and VRBO. Lock in your dates at riversandsteel.com/search.
More to plan your trip: Things to Do in Pittsburgh · Pittsburgh Food Guide. Ready to visit? Find your stay »
