Employee wages and recruitment, affordable housing, Verde Shuttle, the city of Sedona’s Sustainable Tourism Plan and other topics were all a part of Sedona Lodging Council’s meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 19.

Transit

With all of the discussion regarding hotel employment this week, members of the lodging council feel that it is essential to assist employees in getting from Cottonwood to Sedona for work.

Selena Barlow, an independent marketing consultant with Transit Marketing LLC, presented the new Verde Shuttle Employer Toolkit to the attendees. Barlow discussed the shuttle routes, with drop-off points close to the hotels to make the ride to work easy, safe, affordable and convenient for workers.

The Verde Shuttle added many upgrades to its service, including a revised schedule to better serve hospitality industry workers, she said. The schedule includes a 45- minute frequency, service until 10:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, and improved passenger information.

“How to ride” videos have also been implemented in both English and Spanish. Printed materials, including brochures, posters and time schedules, as well as the website, are written in both English and Spanish. The Verde Shuttle is operated by the city of Cottonwood and jointly funded by the city of Cottonwood and the city of Sedona and has been re-branded to Verde Shuttle from Verde Lynx earlier this year.

Spanish-Speakers

In addition, hoteliers discussed how to attract Spanish-speaking employees, specifically in Cottonwood. Julia Kaiser, general manager of Arabella Hotel Sedona, provided insights on how to reach potential employees.

“Over the years, we know that we have to target the Spanish-speaking labor force separately from everybody else,” she said. “They are more comfortable with their own culture. We specifically target these workers through our recruitment messages, which are in Spanish, not English. Overall, it’s pretty successful.”

Kaiser also mentioned that job fairs need to be redesigned.

“Our labor force does not go to a job fair since they can pick and choose where they want to work,” she said. “If we, as a lodging council, want to create an event, you want to be more relevant to those workers.”

Inflation

Steve Segner, president of the lodging council and owner of El Portal Hotel, said he is concerned about inflation.

“As housing goes up, they [employees] are looking at the employers to pay more. We are going to have to because we can’t hire robots,” he said. “We are going through an inflationary period and we are lucky that we are getting the rates that we get, but we are all going to have to open our pocketbooks.”

“We have new hotels opening, and I don’t want to see any of us stealing employees — that’s not good,” Cheryl Barron, general manager of Courtyard Marriott, said. “Let’s not go down that path. We can’t recover from something like that.”

Housing Shortage

The lodging council members also brought up additional housing options, which included manufactured homes in the Camp Verde area, building affordable homes at the Dells, an area outside city limits but owned by the Sedona that is located across from the wastewater treatment plant on State Route 89A. The goal is to make it a sustainable community.

Segner said he is a proponent of developing affordable housing.

“This is something that has to be on the fast-track,” he said. “This town is a factory. We don’t have workers and the income comes from us. We are all connected at the hip. If we don’t pay a living wage or [do something soon], we won’t be a viable business in the future.”

Secret 7 Update

Additionally, Sedona Secret 7 trails had some minor adjustments. Michelle Conway, director of marketing for the Sedona Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau, discussed Sedona’s Secret 7 hiking trails, a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service.

Recently, the Forest Service re-evaluated the trails and removed two trails from the original Secret Seven list, Baldwin and Huckaby, and replaced them with Aerie Trail and Airport Loop Trail. This was done to minimize congestion at the trailhead and trails.

Visitors to Sedona will be able to find these printed maps with directions to suggested hiking areas at the Visitor Center as well as area hotels once they are distributed.

Conway also spoke about Sedona Cares Pledge, a targeted marketing plan to inform visitors to respect our environment and way of life. The pledge consists of nine vows that can be accessed via a QR code, with the messages ranging from silence is golden, being careful with fire, staying on trails, safety first, leave no trace, parking, not defacing the environment, and being caring and considerate. It’s all part of city of Sedona’s Sustainable Tourism Plan, managed by the Sedona Chamber of Commerce, which includes Sedona’s Secret 7, Sedona Cares and Sedona Trail Keepers programs.