IIt might not come as a big surprise, but Scottsdale is home to more short-term rentals than the entire city of Phoenix.
Scottsdale had 5,321 short-term rentals at the end of 2021 listed on Airbnb and/or Vrbo compared to 4,365 in Phoenix, according to AirDNA, an independent agency that monitors the performance of more than 10 million properties listed on one or more two online. platforms.
Ahwatukee accounted for just 175 of those short-term rentals in Phoenix, with 99 in 85,044 and 86 in 85,048, according to AirDNA data. ZIP 85045 had only 11 units available for short-term rental.
AirDNA data shows that while the vast majority of Ahwatukee rentals are full homes, some are studios or just private rooms in a home. Average daily rates for Ahwatukee rentals vary widely, from $60 a night to $462 a night. Phoenix’s average nightly rental rate was $164.
And the average Ahwatukee rental rating on Airbnb also varied to some extent, according to AirDNA.
For example, rentals at 85044 have an overall user rating of 4.37 on a 5.0 scale with 72% of all rentals rated 4.5 or better. In contrast, 85048 has an overall rating of 4.8, and 91% of all rentals have a rating above 4.5. For the 11 houses in 85045, the overall rating is 4.92 and all were rated above 4.5.
And while most Phoenix rentals offered internet amenities, washer-dryers, and kitchens, just under half have pools and far fewer have hot tubs. Ahwatukee rentals do better on pools, with over 60% of them equipped, and slightly better on hot tubs, but are about on par with Phoenix when it comes to cable TV with only about one-fifth of homes offering this equipment.
While Phoenix trumps Scottsdale in the Valley in the number of short-term rentals, it offers more places to stay than some of Arizona’s larger destination cities.
For example, there are 2,532 rentals in Sedona, where officials and business leaders have expressed concern over the lack of affordable housing for that city’s large number of hospitality industry workers.
Tucson has 3,414 rentals while Flagstaff has 1,830, according to AirDNA.
And Phoenix beats the next two cities in the Valley in the number of available rentals: Mesa has 1,040 and Tempe has 965, according to AirDNA.
While the total number of short-term rentals in Phoenix plummeted in mid-2020 amid the early months of the growing pandemic, “more properties came back online in the spring of 2021 as bookings picked up,” the agency said. AirDNA spokesperson Madeleine Parkin.
“One thing to keep in mind is that the short-term rental offer is much more flexible than in the hotel world,” she continues. “Property managers may choose to take their property offline for a month, for personal use or longer-term rentals, perhaps, and then return to short-term rentals when the market is more profitable – for example, in high season, whether it’s summer or winter.
Airbnb and Expedia Group released new data last week on the economic impact of short-term rentals in Arizona, showing the industry is big business in the state.
Short-term rentals generated 75,543 jobs in Arizona alone. This translated into an economic impact of $6.57 billion. Tax receipts were just over $538 million.
In Maricopa County, those numbers were 41,134 jobs, nearly $3.58 billion in economic impact, and just under $307 million in tax revenue.
Meanwhile, Airbnb released year-end data outlining its efforts to try to combat and stop unauthorized parties in Arizona throughout 2021.
In the summer of 2020, Airbnb took action to ban parties on its platform as part of its mission to prioritize public health in the early days of the pandemic as well as to try to prevent community disruptions and wild parties.
To help enforce its party ban, the company has rolled out a number of strategies aimed at blocking and stopping potential unauthorized parties while promoting safe and responsible travel.
More importantly, in 2020, Airbnb announced a new policy that prohibits guests under the age of 25 with no history of positive reviews from booking entire home listings in their area under certain circumstances. These guests are still allowed to book private rooms where usually the host lives on site.
In 2021, this anti-party “under 25” policy prevented or redirected approximately 11,000 people in Arizona from making local whole-home reservations.
Additionally, certain times of the year are more likely to encourage attempts to throw unauthorized parties. To help enforce its party policy during events like the 4th of July, Halloween, and New Years, Airbnb has introduced new rules to further protect hosts from unauthorized parties during these weekends.
The anchor of that plan for those weekends was a ban on one-night bookings in whole-house listings for guests with no history of positive reviews.
It affected over 3,200 people on July 4, over 2,100 people on Halloween, and over 2,900 people on New Year’s Eve.
“The vast majority of guests treat their hosts’ homes and neighbors with the utmost respect. Airbnb said in a statement. “These initiatives are about trying to find the needles in the haystacks and stopping potentially disruptive parties in service of our guests and neighbors.”
While rowdy behavior has been a major issue for authorities in Scottsdale — and to a lesser extent in Chandler, which has just 649 rentals — the problem doesn’t seem to be much of an issue in Phoenix, judging by the near- absence of any discussion by Phoenix. Municipal Council.
Still, cities and towns across the state have been pushing for the legislature to loosen its grip on the issue of short-term rental regulation that it took away from municipalities in 2016. That grip was loosened somewhat in 2018, when lawmakers allowed municipalities to impose fines on rental landlords whose properties become rowdy party houses.
Now, some lawmakers have introduced bills in the current session to completely block the state from regulating them and return that power to municipalities.
This effort split the Republican delegation, as Chandler Sen. JD Mesnard was submitting a weaker bill that would restore only a few powers.
The issue has been divisive in previous legislative sessions, with many owners of short-term rentals appearing to testify against any effort to limit their ability to use their property as they see fit.
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