By Peter Cutler, Sedona Resident
(July 23, 2021)
There are many undisclosed problems with the proliferation of Air B&Bs in Sedona. When we only know half the story, the problems continue to grow. This letter is addressed to the Air B&B guests or potential guests, but it is also meant for all Sedona resident who are not yet aware of the very serious problem that is happening in our community.
The Hidden Side of Sedona Air B&Bs
Dear Sedona Air B&B Guest,
It can seem lovely and convenient to stay at a beautiful Air B&B in Sedona. But you only have half the information.
What you don’t see are the costs to the town and its residents.
Air B&Bs and short-term rentals are tearing apart Sedona’s neighborhoods, just like the one you’re staying in right now.
Many of the people working in the restaurants and other businesses here are homeless, some living in their cars.
You may have seen the hiring signs in the restaurants and other businesses that are now chronically short-staffed. Please don’t complain about the long waits. They are doing the best they can with the staff they still have.
The money you are paying to stay at your Air B&B is more than four times what our local residents paid for their long-term rental, so many of those long-term rentals are now gone. And so are the staff that used to work at the restaurants.
You’ve seen the wonderful advertisements and promotions inviting you to stay at an Air B&B in Sedona, but you have not seen what it costs the town, its neighborhoods, its residents, and its businesses. That’s a very different side of the picture, a side you have not seen before, a side perhaps you don’t want to see.
But it is reality. On your vacation, you may prefer the fantasy presented in the brochures and advertisements. They of course leave out the reality of the cost paid every day by Sedona and its residents, the growing homeless population, the people forced to leave the town they love and grew up in, the businesses unable to find employees.
When you make a choice to stay at an Air B&B in Sedona, it’s useful to have all the information. And now you have more than you did before. Now you know the hidden side.
There are plenty of hotels, motels, and B&Bs in people’s homes available.
For both your and Sedona’s benefit, choose wisely. Sedona thanks you.
Peter Cutler
Sedona Resident
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9 Comments
Mr. Cutler:
You need to get over your tantrums. You are coming across as strident and you are making a mountain out of a molehill. To believe you is to think Sedona is on fire and quickly burning to the ground. Things are nowhere near as bad here as you make it seem. I will admit I live in a gated community that does not allow AirB&Bs but I drive around Sedona all day and go to all the restaurants and deal with traffic but it can’t be as bad as you say. Restaurants are short staffed because of Covid and unemployment checks. Once they run out we will have no problem. And I commuted to work everyday of my working life. It’s a fact of life. And where are the wild parties and people infecting neighborhoods with loud noise? Also, remember this, a man’s home is his castle. Yes, there is corporate greed but that too is a fact of life. You need to calm down and breathe.
John Colazzi,
It seems you clearly have no idea what is going on in Sedona. Since you live in a gated community that does not allow Air B&Bs, you don’t have a clue what is going on in my neighborhood or all the other neighborhoods that don’t have Air B&B restrictions like yours, which is most of Sedona.
You might want to try to be a little better informed before making comments about things you don’t seem to know about. Evidently what I wrote didn’t help. You chose your lack of information and uninformed beliefs over information. How does that help?
Of course, you could also be joking, John, when you say that you live in a gated community that doesn’t allow Air B&Bs and you say it’s not as bad as I make it seem. If so, good joke, and I’m sorry I didn’t get it at first.
If you’re not joking, well, that’s another matter. I suggest you become a little better informed since you live here.
My apologies Peter. Because I have not witnessed something does not mean it is not real.I saw a woman at Safeway, well dressed and neat, who apparently was living out of her car that appeared stuffed with all her worldly possessions. I will try to be more sensitive when opening my big mouth before I truly understand. What is happening in your neighborhood? How bad is it?
Thank you, John. It’s bad. 50% of the houses on my street are now Air B&Bs, pretty much all owned by investors. Two more just sold recently. Most of the other neighborhoods without Air B&B restrictions are the same.
Thank you for understanding and being open to educating yourself.
There are far too many people working in Sedona who are in the situation of that woman at Safeway.
There is a large group attempting to work on this problem that I met with today. It’s very widespread in Sedona and many other places all over the US. Many cities and states have now put in restrictions or out and out prevent it, but the State of Arizona passed a law saying that the towns, like Sedona, cannot restrict them no matter what harm it causes. They have yet to change this law.
The only solution I can imagine is for pockets of Sedona to be sectioned into wards – which would be good for the future politics of Sedona – then form those wards into HOAs and write bylaws reverting back to the county’s short term rental of no less than one month – that would be February, with 28 days. The governor’s insane edict declaring his decree all powerful omitted HOAs and POAs. Other than a new governor overriding this fiasco, I see no way to stop the hedge fund people and corporations from buying up everything available and further ruining Sedona for what residents choose or are forced to stick it out. They paved paradise and opened AirBnBs.
Yes, that is a very good idea. I’m going to begin working on it in my neighborhood this week.
Peter Cutler excellent points and observations.
John Colazzi.
I’m not sure how you saw a “tantrum” in Mr. Culter’s observations.
The fact is that people have been kicked out of their rentals because people who own the rentals, do the math, $1000 to 1200 a month vs 150 a day. 3 to 4x the revenue.
I have a cleaning agency that comes in once every 2 weeks. Paying $20 an hour and $22 an hour for cleaning air BnBs. Almost impossible to get help.
Resturaunts like Cafe Jose closing 1 day a week as staff can only do so many 12 to 14 hour days. They are not the only ones having to make those decisions.
A personal friend has a good 5th wheel, waiting for an available spot in an RV park or long term lease at a combo RV park and permanent hook up lease.
The Red Rock News just ran an article on a couple living in a car, both with jobs here that had to drive into the city of Sedona when NFS closed the forest for 2 weeks. Decent hard working young folks, who have a gym membership so they can take a showers at the facility.
I personally look at a vehicle every day that shows up in the evening, all night then leaves in the day. Probably driving themselves to work.
The extra money the feds were giving to people I believe Ducey ended at the beginning of the month. That was pretty insane as businesses were roaring back, but human nature comes along in many cases and says “why work when I can make as much or more by not working”.
Resort towns, all over the west have this issue. In Jackson Hole people have to drive over a pass everyday as there is no affordable housing.
Here, lots of folks live in the Verde Valley and commute, however my son lives in Cottonwood and the number of houses in his neighborhood that are being turned into ABNB, VBRO etc is becoming alarming.
In addition, the one person who applied for the open council seat that has forgotten more about affordable housing than the entire council was passed over for a past council person. Takes leadership to at least start the fix.
Thom Stanley, the only thing that Ducey did, right or wrong was sign a bill that authorized people who own private residences to rent them out short term. It wasn’t an edict.
There have been some bills to put some more control back in the hands of cities.
One thing a city CAN do is enforce its local zoning laws. Something our past city attorney said he “didn’t have to staff” to do.
Maybe with the city flush with money and a staggering budget of $71 million (I think I saw that number) they can focus on this important issue rather than wasting time and money on things like CAP.
In the The Hegelian Dialectic – Problem Reaction Solution :
1 The government creates or exploits a problem blaming it on others (false flag). In this case, it’s Airbnb. By passing a bill that allows home hotels under the guise of helping private property owners make extra money by renting out a spare room, they have also (knowingly) created a housing shortage.
2 The people react by asking the government for help willing to give up their (property) (Constitutional) rights. In Sedona’s case, big businesses (ie Marriott) and investors have bought up homes and turned them into home hotels at the expense of the community and residential neighborhoods. The City of Sedona reacts by creating “Sustainable” Sedona to reduce the “Carbon Footprint” by 50% by 2030. This is also the UN’s Agenda 2030. Since humans are responsible for “Carbon footprint,” reducing the population by 50% becomes the goal. They will use the UN’s goals for depopulation as described on their website (look it up – Sustainable Sedona is in lock-step with the New World Order.) We are currently going thru a mass depopulation with the COVID virus, and next will be the economic collapse of the country. Only the elite will live in Sedona — workers will be replaced by robots and artificial intelligence. This is seen now at the grocery store where clerks were forced to take the experimental COVID vaxxx and self check out were installed. Within a few years those clerks will likely be too sick to work or dead and self check out will be as normal as self-serve gas stations. Already we are seeing Nursing homes close – where did those old folks go that the facility is no longer needed? Vaxxed. Gone. The borders are open and the deadly drug Fentanyl is coming across the border with the record number of (unhealthy) illegal immigrants. As this drug is passed around the low income and homeless communities, these communities will disappear as well.
3 The government offers the solution that was planned long before the crisis.
Google the UN Agenda 2030 and see for yourself.
It’s going to be a bumpy ride for the next 5 years or so. Keep your family close because we really don’t know how much time we have left.
Airbnb is the least of our troubles, but will be one of the first to self-correct as citizens become sicker and poorer. Our hope lies in clearing out corruption, having clear leadership, and honest elections, not to mention an awakened populace to see thru the lies.