Today Green confirmed plans for reducing Hawaii vacation rentals, and increasing visitor fees.
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192 thoughts on “Governor Confirms Maui Rental Moratorium, New $25 Tourist Fee, + Increase In Accommodation Tax Possible”
Home » Blog » Hawaii Travel News » Governor Confirms Maui Rental Moratorium, New $25 Tourist Fee, + Increase In Accommodation Tax Possible
And still the governor has nothing to say about the Long term renters that are losing their homes to fema. This is a critical problem and it is being swept under the carpet. Any landlord would take twice as much money for the long term rental, which leaves a lot of people out On the street. I have enough money to pay my own rent and cannot find a place to live.
I have to ask again, weren’t the full-time residents of Maui, and Hawaii in general, the ones who sold their properties to people who do not live in the state of Hawaii?! Were they forced to sell?! And now the buyers are being demonized. I see the need for more housing and I don’t own any property in Hawaii, but at the same time, it seems strange that parties who engaged in consensual real estate transactions are being treated this way.
Richele. I have also had this thought; just did not know how to state it. Thanks for doing the job for me. The people who purchased the land to build the condo complexes had to buy it from someone. I always assumed it was locals who sold it
These condos were built by off island builders many decades ago. Even where I live, many owners are investors, i.e. companies, not individuals. Saying that the land was sold by locals, those locals didn’t receive much for their land back then. Some were coffee plantations, sugar plantations etc. I do know some locals who are now in their 60’s who say their grandpa didn’t know any better back then. Can you blame them?
I love Maui, and just visited there in December 2023 for 10 nights. To say it was very expensive is an understatement. We stayed in a condo, and bought groceries to help cut down on costs, however with our Canadian dollar and the increasing cost to visit there and now adding addional taxes and fees I highly doubt we’ll be able to vacation there. Such a shame.
Aloha BOH! While I am not opposed to the visitor’s fee, there needs to be a way to track it so we don’t pay it multiple times in one visit to Hawai’i, especially for those of us who island hop and stay at multiple hotels and vacation rentals throughout our trip.
I do not make four times the money I would make on a long Rental. I pay $8655 a year in property taxes I pay 17.5 TAT GET and MAT taxes. I pay 30% income tax. Plus all my overhead my managing fee my cleaning fee. I would love to put my condo up for long-term rental but then I wouldn’t be able to visit Maui. We are just making it this year. I think we’re gonna lose money because of the fire. we have only one property. We had to move off island because we needed to work and put our condo up for rent so we didn’t have to sell our home in Maui. That is the only home we have.
Why don’t they just shred the Constitution while they’re at it. There is this Itty bitty clause about imminent domain that the Hawaiian govt just doesn’t seem to care about. Most of those short term rentals are out of the price range of the average Hawaiian if they were to be sold. I wish Hawaii would make up it’s mind…they want tourist dollars, but whine when their high taxes and fees to slow down the number of visitors, actually decreases tourism.
Green is quickly passing up Abercrombie as the worst Governor in Hawaii History!
The next headline may be “Governor destroys tourism in Hawaii…Unemployment skyrockets!”
They are making it an easy decision to vacation someplace besides Hawaii !!
They are pricing them selves out of the market??
He wants to cater to the rich by making it harder and more expensive for middle-class tourists (the great unwashed) to visit. Have you noticed how many billionaires have bought up land? The locals will become serfs or Nevadans.
Hawaii has been my go-to vacation over the years. The “Aloha Spirit” was something I looked forward to at each visit…smiling faces, beautiful music, Hawaiian culture, etc. Unfortunately, I am no longer able to afford the exorbitant fees added to the cost of visiting. Thank you, Hawaii, for many wonderful memories!
Don’t worry about missing the”Aloha Spirit”now, it was burned up in the Fires.
I was there in October,sad but true.
And taking it out on Tourists is so wrong.
Boom, there it is. Pretty much as I called it. $25 “Climate Fee” and small accommodation tax increase most people will handle. But STR moratorium: Correct me if I am wrong, but people own STR’s with hopes of recouping some expenses of second-property ownership and using it themselves once or a few times a year. While the Governor’s offer (demand) seems attractive, forced conversion to long-term pretty much kills that dream. Fewer would want to buy a part of the dream if those are no longer the rules. Or maybe I am mistaken. I don’t have a dog in this race, but I pretty much use STR’s when I travel to Hawaii. (So I do have a dog in this race!)
A friend of mine working for an Oahu nonprofit did a detailed study on this across neighborhoods. He found that here are many kinds of vaca rental scenarios here. The less harmful ones are the kind you describe. The bigger problem are the more hyper-commercial „hosts“ who own multiple properties and units, living elsewhere. These are seriously damaging our neighborhood housing stock and also crowd out the more benign „local aunty rents her ohana cottage“ type. Or, off island owners who substitute their income by vaca renting.
So I have been monitoring the comments on other articles about the same basic topic and not one person thinks taxing tourists in order to make up for the governments misuse of taxes they already collect is a good idea.
Perhaps there needs to be a comprehensive audit done first to see where all the money already collected by the state actually goes? If not, you simply add more money to the mismanagement government and reduce tourism overall, which will lead to less income overall.
““We’ll invest it for beach preservation, fire breaks, and other measures,” said Green.”
This is hilarious…..beach preservation…uhmmm global warming and rising sea levels….more devastating storms and tides will not be stopped.
Fire breaks were the responsibilities of the islands for decades and now you want to address it…you’re waaay to late.
“Other measures” means let’s line the pockets of the bloated government agencies that haven’t been doing their jobs for decades and only want to collect pensions, not their jobs.
He must be a comedian.
May someone provide info on the current state of fishing for housing near whalers village in kaanapali? Are there fewer people needing housing than when the movement started? Trying to plan a vacation in Maui for April but have not been able to get on details on this when calling hotels. Does anyone know the approximate number of families currently without housing camping and fishing at the beach near the whaler on kaanapali? Thank you!
I am interested in finding this too. For many reasons, one is I do not want to spend thousands of dollars to vacation where there is protesting on the resort beach area and to see them is very sad to me. I am also beside myself that Gov. Greene makes it impossible to depend on a resort rental if we decides to designate a “rental” for ltr housing for the displaced. It appears from social media posts that many are left without a rental and are scurrying to find a replacement unit before their flight takes off in the very near future. This is not how I want to plan a vacation.
Easy decision. Vacation in South Maui. South Kihei & Wailea are beautiful.
This is the worst idea I’ve ever heard. To convert short term rentals to long term is the dumbest idea! What do you think most local people do for a living? In one way or another, they work in the hospitality industry. If the visitors stop coming, news flash! local people won’t be living here because they won’t have a job! It’s taking away jobs from housekeeper, handyman, property mangers, etc! Plus most local people don’t want to live in a small (which the majority of them are) vacation rental. Put yourself in the owners shoes. Doesn’t make sense for them either. No tourist = no tax money for the state. Green and the state are going down a slippery slope. He should not be in office!!
ditto!
The article also stated “He also reiterated that 52% of short-term rentals are owned by non-Hawaii residents and that 27% of short-term rental unit owners own twenty or more units.” This is another problem as this money does not help the local people or housing.
Rory those multiple units owned by single people do put money into the community. Who is paid to clean them between visits? Who manages them? Who maintains them? Where do the people spend their money when they stay in them? It’s easy to say “stick it to the wealthy” until you realize the wealthy support the community more than you realize.
You have a valid point that they put “some” money back into the community, but they still make enough money if they rent one of their 20+ units to someone who lost their home in the fire whether than money comes from the victim’s insurance, the Red Cross or FEMA (although not my favorite).
Oops Guv Green… Careful what you wish for.
Raising taxes beyond 18%? where does it end ? Every problem ends with raising taxes? 18% already leads all jurisdictions and people are already turning away from Hawaii in drives due to Costs + Taxes + FEES on everything.
I’d be more focused on the short term rental owners who want o help and are apparently turned away at every point along the way. Some serious dysfunction appears to be happening.
correction….Alot of serious dysfunction happening
The Fifty Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that government confiscation of property can be done by “eminent domain” and provides that the property owner must then be compensated at market rates which likely means appraised market value.
New fees to feed an over sized buracacy, only part will reach true target. Look in the mirror Hawaii.
Governor Green wants to put a moratorium on short term rental travel starting March 1st, and add additional fees that tourist are required to pay. I own two weeks at SOK and have for years. I pay all my taxes, fees, etc. then travel and spend plenty of money contributing to the economy. Now I’m expected to continue paying taxes and then some and not use my place? How is that right? I work very hard, pay my bills, taxes, mortgage, etc. and have never had anyone offer to pay my bills for me. What is insurance, FEMA, all the taxes we pay for? All rentals Gov Green is going to turn into long-term are those residents going to frequent all the restaurants, bars, tourist events. Who’s going to make up for the lost revenue?
I agree with everything you state. I can tell you that Gov. greene apparently is not thinking beyond Re-election. It is all political. It is catering to the locals wishes, whose that instead of becoming self sustaining, are protesting on the beaches, others are bullying the tourists on social media. Greene is more concerned with social media popularity and re election than the bottom line.
I just love politicians who are so far removed from reality.
I despise people who vote for the same party time after time and them complain about high taxes.
Oh David, if I was not married, I would marry you. I state this all the time. I honestly have not seen so much dumbing down of humans in my life. Its sad, and mostly scary.