Updated on August 14, 2023
Becoming president of Arizonans for Responsible Tourism was an unexpected twist in Linda Curry’s life path. She and her husband had been talking for years about whether to build a guesthouse next to their primary residence in northeast Mesa, an unincorporated part of Maricopa County near the City of Mesa.
“I could never really see the financial benefit of doing so, without delaying retirement,” Linda said. “Then I saw some of my neighbors renting out a guest suite or guesthouse on their properties.
“It just clicked, and I was like, ‘Oh, we could build it, make some money, pay off the construction, and then we’ll have it available for aging parents or whatever else life brings.’”
Two and half years ago when construction was completed, Linda listed the guesthouse on Vrbo and other major booking sites. Dubbed Casita de Curry, the 1,000-square-foot guesthouse has views of desert wildlife like quail, rabbits, roadrunners, bobcats, coyotes, and javelina.
“In the wintertime, the weather’s just gorgeous in our area, so a lot of people spend most of their time on the patio having breakfast or tea or coffee,” Linda said.
The abundance of short-term rental hosting
Hosting was an unexpected professional evolution for Linda. She owns a wellness company called True Balance Wellness and is the author of six books. Before that, she worked in the corporate world.
While she was first attracted to short-term rentals for the ability to generate revenue to help pay for the guesthouse’s construction, she immediately found that she loved hosting guests.
“We get a lot of outdoorsy people and hikers, and I’ve met so many amazing people,” Linda said. “And because it’s on our property, we get the advantage of meeting a lot of them.”
A guest from New York fell in love with Arizona during her stay and ended up buying a house in the area.
“We’ve been best friends ever since,” Linda said. “Crazy stuff like that happens, and you meet great people that you keep in touch with. So, I’ve just really loved hosting. It’s just really fun.”
Skyrocket to short-term rental community leadership
It didn’t take long for Linda to find another calling: advocacy and community leadership. After attending a leadership interest call hosted by Rent Responsibly for the then newly formed Arizonans for Responsible Tourism (AZRT) in early 2021, she was inspired by the advocacy mentorship of Dana Lubner, Rent Responsibly’s head of leadership development, and joined the board.
“I’m just the type of person that when I get involved in something, I jump in with both feet,” Linda said.
The statewide coalition was set up to give a united voice to operators amid a constant stream of legislation aimed at giving cities the ability to regulate – and even ban – short-term rentals.
One of the challenges that Linda has faced as a leader is engaging members of the coalition to speak out against legislation that could lead to bans on STRs. She educates others about what’s happening in other parts of the country to emphasize the importance of staying engaged in advocacy.
“Bad legislation can shut down your business overnight,” she said. “A lot of owners and hosts just don’t understand that, and they’re really not keeping tabs on short-term rentals in other areas of the country. So that’s part of our challenge is educating our members and trying to get people involved.”
Win-win victories in STR regulations
For years, Arizona cities had been trying to overturn a state law that prevented them from regulating short-term rentals differently from long-term rentals.
“We’ve been fighting for that fair regulation for a while, and we just had a huge success,” Linda said, referring to passage of Senate Bill 1168 in June.
SB 1168 created a win-win for cities and operators by giving cities more authority to suspend and revoke licenses of those with chronic violations while still preserving the law that protects STRs from discriminatory regulations.
The new law, which takes effect Sept. 24, passed just one day before the statutory end of the state’s legislative session on June 25, thanks to a compromise between STR advocates like Linda, city officials, and state lawmakers.
“Responsible short-term rental operators want some regulations so that we can get rid of the party houses and nuisance issues, because they give us a bad name,” Linda said. “They’re making neighbors upset, and we just don’t want that in our communities. All of us live here, too; we’re neighbors.”
Community building beyond regulations
Under Linda’s leadership, AZRT has become the go-to resource for STR operators in Arizona beyond regulatory advocacy. The coalition now has over 2,000 members who rely on the organization’s educational programs and resource content, like its own election center and voters’ guide and Arizona’s complex Transaction Privilege Tax (TPT) compliance.
When opponents blasted STR operators for low compliance with TPT, Linda came to the rescue. She got in the trenches at the Arizona Department of Revenue, researched the tax, consulted state experts, and created a webinar and TPT checklist to guide STR operators on how to properly pay the tax. The webinar, which featured a Department of Revenue compliance officer to answer questions, has helped to increase the rate of tax payments.
“There’s a lot of Facebook groups for Arizona short-term rentals in different cities and municipalities, and there are always so many questions and confusion about TPT because there are new hosts coming on all the time, so it’s nice that we have those resources available on our website,” Linda said. “That’s one of the ways that we’ve really built up our membership by offering resources like that.”
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