When it comes to short-term vacation rentals in Sedona, feelings are greatly mixed. And while they are legal to own and operate under state law, not every guest abides by the rules.

Now, the city has a better way of receiving and keeping track of those issues that may arise.

The city of Sedona, in partnership with the third-party vendor LODGINGRevs, has estab­lished a 24-hour hotline and incident reporting form that people can use to report concerns, issues or problems they have with a short-term rental.

“The first thing is that we actually know how many vacation rental units are listed in Sedona and the surrounding area,” City Manager Justin Clifton said. “With this informa­tion we can track trends and see if it’s a market that is expanding. But with LODGINGRevs we also have a streamlined system for registering emergency contact information and taking complaints.

“This should not only provide better response to short-term rental issues for residents but also gives us better and more complete information we can use to lobby the legislature and the governor for better laws and greater local control.”

Those who have issues with short-term rentals may call the 24-hour short-term rental hotline at 203-5110 or fill out the online incident reporting form either on the city’s website at sedonaaz. gov/str or directly on the LODGINGRevs website at lodging.munirevs.com/complaint/?citvid=688.

Information submitted through the hotline or an online incident reporting form will be shared with the person listed as the short-term rental operator’s emergency contact for a response. City of Sedona staff will take follow-up action as needed with the information that will be stored in a central database.

The passage of House Bill 2672 by the Arizona State Legislature in late 2019 gave towns and cities the ability to collect emergency contact information from short-term rental owners, according to a press release. “This process will evolve as we collabo­rate across the city manager department, code enforcement, police and other internal stake­holders to capture information and address issues,” said Megan McRae, the city’s management analyst. “As we build a database of valid and reliable data around impact, we will no longer need to rely on anecdotal or speculative information.”

The total cost of this program is $35,000, which includes $4,140 for the hotline component and the rest continued monitoring.

Last year, Arizona Rep. Bob Thorpe [R-District 6] met before a packed house at Sedona City Hall to discuss the topic of short-term vacation rentals. During that meeting staff said that the city does not appear to have a problem when it comes to “party” houses. To that the crowd let out a loud gasp.

“That was the first indicator that there may be problems people are experiencing that we’re just not aware of,” Clifton said in an inter­view with the Sedona Red Rock News in December.

During that interview Clifton said when coming up with the number of short-term vacation rentals in Sedona, it’s not just as simple as going on the various vacation rental websites and adding them all together because many homeowners advertise the same house on various sites. It’s also a matter of eliminating time­shares and even hotels that also advertise on those websites.

To make things even more complicated when determining how big of an issue short-term rentals may be, no figures were taken before the signing of Senate Bill 1350, which allowed short-term vacation rentals throughout the state in 2016 and prohibited cities and counties from regulating them. Prior to that, short-term rentals were banned in Sedona but were still operating illegally.

“We can hold the owner respon­sible, which I think we’d only do in good faith,” Clifton said in December. “If an owner says, ‘I’m willing to do anything to try and make sure my tenants are quiet and reasonable’ and we can see that, I don’t believe we’re going to be heavy handed. But for those who advertise that it’s a great place to party or are negligent in responding to issues, I don’t think we’d hesitate to use that authority and issue a citation.”

In regard to “party” homes, late last month Airbnb announced a global ban on all parties and events at Airbnb listings, including a cap on occupancy at 16. This party ban applies to all future bookings for Airbnb and it will apply indefi­nitely until further notice.

According to Airbnb spokes­person Mattie Zazueta, the company had taken numerous steps in the past year to address parties on its platform. In addition to banning parties and instituting an occupancy cap of 16 guests, previously announced a “party house” ban — meaning a ban on listings that create persistent neigh­borhood nuisance. The company also has new technologies to stop parties and a new community policy post-COVID requiring hosts and guests to adhere to local public health mandates limiting gatherings.

However, none of Airbnb’s new policies are enforced by other vacation rental companies. Houses that run afoul of Airbnb’s policies can use other booking companies or market themselves directly to potential renters.

For more information, or to find out how an incident you have called in or reported online is being handled, contact McRae at mmcrae@sedonaaz.gov or 203-5199.