The city of Sedona’s data on complaints about short-term rentals has revealed that the city averages one and a half STR complaints per day, that complaints are most likely to be made during Sedona’s slowest visitation season, that 25 people are responsible for a third of all complaints and that two particular individuals skewed the complaint data with a disproportionate number of reports.
A total of 2,404 complaints were recorded between the launch of the complaint line starting on Sept. 9, 2020, and the end of December 2024. One hundred and fifty-seven complaints were made in the last four months of 2020, compared to 510 in 2021, 570 in 2022, 794 in 2023 and 473 in 2024. The average for the whole period was 1.53 complaints per day, which was lowest in 2024 at 1.3 per day and highest in 2023 at 2.18 per day.
Over the four full years of data, complaints were highest in June, at 308 total; July, at 225; and August, at 217; and lowest in February, at 140; December, at 150; and March and April, at 162 apiece. The four months of January saw a total of 164 complaints, against 167 for November, 172 for September, 181 for October and 199 for May. Daily averages ranged from 2.57 complaints per day in June to 1.24 in February.
As far as can be determined from the city’s data, approximately 757 individuals, or 7.7% of the city’s population, filed STR complaints during the past four years, averaging 3.17 complaints per person. Just 25 residents out of Sedona’s population of 9,819, or 0.25%, made more than 10 complaints each since the reporting system was set up, but their complaints accounted for 825 of the 2,404 submitted, or 34.3% of the total.
There were four residents who filed more than 30 complaints each. One of these residents made 94 complaints, mostly about addresses on Fawn Drive, Lynx Drive, Badger Drive and Indian Cliffs Road, almost all of which were related to trash. This resident’s complaints were concentrated in 2020 and 2021 and ended altogether in February 2022.
Another resident filed a total of 356 complaints. After making 12 reports through August 2022, the man then began making trash complaints about STRs over a year long period, reaching 36 complaints in May 2023, 103 in June and 33 in July before tapering off. He filed 13 complaints on Feb. 28, 14 complaints each day on June 1 and June 7, 19 complaints on June 27 and 18 complaints on July 11. On some occasions, he reported the same properties twice in one day.
Eliminating the 283 complaints that this resident filed in 2023 from the count would reduce the annual total for that year to 571, on par with 2022’s numbers.
Forty-two complaints were reported in the data as having originated with an “anonymous” person, while no names at all were provided for 194 of the complaints. Some complainants also used the fake email address “none@none.com” when reporting using the online form.
The total number of STR properties against which a complaint was filed over the four-plus-year period was approximately 588, or 48.6% of the 1,211 STRs registered with the city at the end of 2024. Those STR properties against which complaints were filed averaged just over four complaints apiece, or one per year. Only 49 properties, or 4% of licensed STRs, were the subject of more than 10 complaints apiece during four years; 781 complaints were made about these properties, an average of 15.9 apiece, or one every three months, and 32.5% of the total.
The highest number of complaints filed against any one property was 39 against 22 Hummingbird Circle, followed by 40 Cypress Court with 36, 550 Kachina Drive with 30, 19 Badger Drive with 29 and 350 Arroyo Pinon Drive with 25.
Residents of or visitors to Corral Road, Roadrunner Road, Indian Cliffs Drive, Inspirational Drive and Navahopi Drive were particularly active in filing complaints. Eleven complaints gave no address for the property being complained about other than “Sedona,” while 92 complaints gave no address for the problem property at all. In a number of instances, the complainants listed their own home addresses out of state rather than the address of the Sedona STR about which they were complaining, which included 63 addresses in California, 17 in Texas, 11 in Florida, six in Oregon, one in Georgia and one in Vermont.
More than half of all complaints — 1,413 — were made using the city’s hotline, while 991 were made online via the city website. The reason given for almost half of all complaints, or 1,062, was trash, followed by 465 for noise, 369 for “resolution,” 244 for “other,” 136 for lighting, 72 for parking, 34 for an illegal rental and 22 for the number of occupants at the location.
Two members of the Sedona City Council who have spoken from the dais about making use of the hotline themselves to complain about STRs in their neighborhoods also appeared in the complaint data. Councilman Pete Furman made a single noise complaint on April 16, 2023. Mayor Scott Jablow made 21 complaints between October 2020 and September 2024, primarily about trash.
