An early investor in Airbnb, Maui’s Bezos is moving into vacation rentals. What’s your take?
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46 thoughts on “Amazon’s Bezos: The Next Hawaii Vacation Rental Disruptor?”
An early investor in Airbnb, Maui’s Bezos is moving into vacation rentals. What’s your take?
Quite right! It seems to me it is very good idea. Completely with you I will agree.
No more thumbs down????
I’m taking a stab in the dark and guessing that whatever is decided in court next year won’t matter to these companies somehow. If 4 people purchase into the ownership, with the company owning at least part of it, there’s no rentals therefore no breach of the laws. That is a very simple way around the problem. Fractional Ownership, I like the idea.
from Outsider theory of Hawaii Affordable Housing…”Leveraging data from the Cato Institute, a nationwide analysis of median home prices and land-use restrictiveness yields results consistent with previous research that there is a statistically significant positive correlation between a state’s land-use restrictiveness and median home price. Moreover, the relationship between state median home prices and land-use restrictiveness is statistically stronger than the relationship between median home prices and the prevalence of out-of-state buyers”…Exactly what happened in California- it is 100% Difficult to build anything there because extreme environmentalists run the entire state & will not allow you to build due to “fill in the blank”…
We don’t want your ancillary income. Go away.
This reminded me of the Hawaii episode I just watched on “United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell”. Here is an article about it with a clip from the show: cnn.com/2022/08/18/us/hawaii-tourism-impact-united-shades-cec/index.html. I found the Hawaii episode very disheartening, especially because of the idea being floated that maybe the best thing we can do for Hawaii is just not come any more. And then the Bezos thing, which seems inconsistent with keeping the islands fully Hawaiian. It’s discouraging for me as an annual visitor for 3 decades. How can I make things better? Would love to know if our editors have seen this and what they think? And if other readers have seen the show and have comments? Thank you.
Hi Glenna.
No we haven’t seen it but will check it out. Thanks.
Aloha.
I think what’s the difference You own part of a home you get to use or lease out part of the year, no different than a time share, instead of a week in a timeshare you get a longer amount of time to do what you want with. or you can continue to rent a hotel or condo.
This sounds awful. Turning a people’s home into one giant resort/playground for the wealthy. I visit frequently because I have family and friends who live in Hawaii. It’s a struggle. And now they will be competing with the uber rich who come to play for a month or so. I read a lot of complaints lately about the quality of service decreasing in the hotels—who do you think provides this? Where do they live? Schools in Hawaii are among the worst in the nation. Hawaii needs to be lifted up, not trodden down by a much of foreigners/out-of-staters who only see it as their private island(s).
Sorry–“bunch of foreigners/…” (I thought I used to be able to edit my comments.)
I doubt it’s the uber rich buying fractional share of anything, thats why the prices are low. Uber rich don’t need fractional shares of anything. The people that live and work in Hawaii can take advantage of all the programs and lower income homes/apartments that are specifically built and income qualifying for them, that population would never be purchasing luxury places. It is a total shame the State doesn’t invest in their schools, greedy politicians would rather see a rail to no where than invest in the kids, thats shameful
Aloha, are these fancy homes doing anything to lessen our critical housing shortage? Sounds to me like another scheme for those that have to make more and leave those less fortunate in the streets. In the streets where then those that have drive by and say look at those lazy people.
becareful, those people lounging in the streets will get a movement going and want your house, you look rich to them
You folks that think out-of-state buyers are responsible for the housing affordability crisis in Hawaii have it all wrong. You all are just parroting each other because it sounds good and it’s easy to blame others. For the real culprit, look no further than your own government, which you seem intent on continuing to vote into office, even though their policies are completely against your own interests. Legislative policies are the main reason why you can’t afford a house in Hawaii. Read here:
grassrootinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/The-‘outsider-theory-of-Hawaiis-housing-crisis.pdf
P.S. This study has the REAL data and statistics, not anecdotal bellyaching. You can’t argue with the facts.
it is Always all Local Politicians Selling their constituents down the river- It all Begins and Ends Locally…Affordable housing begins and ends with sensible policies that actually have the Best Interest of Local People in Mind and Not the latest Power and Money Grab by these so-called “for the people” liar$$$$….you get what you Vote for! Vote the same and Nothing will Ever Change!
Exactly.. the voters here believe their politicians, whoever has the best rhetoric, wins, and then they do nothing for their citizens.. They know the people that actually look into their backgrounds don’t live in Hawaii, and can’t vote here, so they pander to the week. Go chase all those short-term rental owners, they’re the issue here in Hawaii.. knowing full well the majority of property owners can’t vote here.. sad buying of votes