Short Term Rentals
Unregulated Short Term Rentals Can Cause Problems
Short term rentals (STRs) are big business. Scottsdale, for example, now has more STRs than hotel rooms! Airbnb is a $199 billion company, and Expedia Group – which owns VRBO – is valued at $26 billion. Individuals and businesses are making a lot of money by renting out homes for short times.
Unfortunately, some bad actors in the business are causing problems for neighborhoods. Bad actors will rent out homes on a very short term basis – including “rent by the hour.” They will advertise homes as venues for large parties or events. Groups of strangers rent this houses for raucous parties and bacchanalia. Neighbors of these homes are subjected to loud parties, drunken people banging on their doors at night, and the sight of drug use and lewd behavior in plain sight. This is not being neighborly, this is running an unregulated hotel for profit, with no concern for the effect on the neighbors or neighborhood.
Arizona has lax regulation for short term rentals (STRs), due to Governor Ducey signing Senate Bill 1350 in 2016, which outlawed a city or town from prohibiting vacation rentals. Since then, out of state investors have been buying properties and turning them into unregulated hotels. No occupancy limits are enforced for STRs, so they can advertise absurd occupancy limits, such as “sleeps 38” in a house. They are a problem: 90% of Nuisance Party and Unruly Gathering violations are from STRs.
Your neighbors are organizing to fight back against unregulated STRs. Arizona Neighborhood Alliance (AZNA) & Neighbors Not Nightmares (NNN) are pressing state and local officials to control these businesses operating within our neighborhoods. They don’t expect much relief from the State House in 2022 due to the election year. Instead, they are focusing their attention on vetting next year’s candidates and endorsing those willing to help us save our communities.
Fall has arrived, and it’s now the High Season for visitors to the desert. If you are being affected by a STR, see the ACMNA website [Craig to provide link] for steps you can take right now to help fight back against this problem.
Fall is here and with it comes an uptick in visitors to the desert. While Arizona Neighborhood Alliance (AZNA) & Neighbors Not Nightmares (NNN) are pressing state and local officials to control these businesses operating within our neighborhoods, below are steps you can take right now if you are suffering with the noise and disruption of a neighboring Short-Term Rental, (aka AirBnb, VRBO, etc):
1. Document – Keep a journal with the dates/times of any issues, record excessive crowds at the house, and record loud parties from inside your own home to give a sense of the raucous party.
2. Call the police, not Airbnb – Most importantly, call Phoenix Police Non-Emergency Number 602-262-6151 and report a “Nuisance” at the address of the offending Short-Term Rental. Make sure you request to receive a “contact” from the officer. You may be able to receive a follow-up phone call instead of in-person. Ask the officer about submitting any recordings you may have.
Calling Phoenix PD insures that there is a record of the complaint against the offending house and allows the city to track repeat offenses.
Do not call AirBnb. There are many rental platforms being used these days so there is no guarantee the partiers rented through AirBnb.
3. If your neighboring Short-Term Rental is a repeat offender, contact your Phoenix Police Community Action Officer, Jared Sherman and pass along the house address and information.
4. If possible, install outdoor cameras that can record activity at the short-term rental.
5. Download a decibel App to track noise levels (an example is SPLnFFT Sound Meter v7.0 for iPhone). If need excellent documentation, you’ll need a more expensive, calibrated, sound level meter that is traceable to NIST standards, such as the Extech 407730-NIST Digital Sound Level Meter 40-130dB with NIST ($250).
6. Make sure the Short-Term Rental is on the NNN map. If not, contact NNN on their website with the address: https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1nb8cnmSZX8F8-ELj7h2h35KIOQv_50Ku&ll=33.57632959786811%2C-112.10296322674965&z=10
7. Subscribe to the NNN website and Facebook page for any future updates/changes to these and use the website to get more information and advice regarding this issue. https://neighborsnotnightmares.com/
8. Request a Homes Not Hotels yard sign: https://neighborsnotnightmares.com/yard-signs/
We plan to closely watch the next legislative session, but because 2022 is a big election year for AZ, we don’t expect much, if any relief to come from the state house. Instead, we will focus much of our attention on vetting next year’s candidates and endorsing those willing to help us save our communities.