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
It would be irresponsible to continue down the path of Hawaii for tourists and off island investors instead of residents.
With the advent of working from home there should be offices for temporary use to encourage a new type of workforce that doesn’t depend on tourism.
Where does all this leave those of us who have made reservations? We are planning our 30 year anniversary! We have already paid for our condo,our airfare,our car rental!!! Now the governor can’t make up his mind on short term rentals! We are suppose to arrive on March 4,are we gonna have a place to stay?? This trip has been in the planning stages for over a year!!
FYI
Palm Springs capped Airbnb rentals. Now some home prices are in free-fall
msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/palm-springs-capped-airbnb-rentals-now-some-home-prices-are-in-free-fall/ar-BB1h7Hme
Have always loved visiting Hawaii. We had a trip planned before the fires happened and are still going through with it-very mixed feelings. Feels like they don’t want people like us to visit Maui anymore so we will see how it goes. Maui will always be special to me but there are other places.
I understand the need to convert short-term rentals to long-term for the those impacted by the fire. I totally support that! You have got to take care of the residents!! The governor keeps increasing fees to visit the state, last week it was $50 – this week tax increases to 18%. When you couple that with $50 resort fee and $75 for parking (both are per day) in Honolulu or a $45 resort fee and $45 for parking (again, per day) in Hawaii (Big Island) – it’s becoming clear, you only want the extremely rich to come to the state. My wife and I have come to Hawaii for 40 years. We have volunteered to help those in need while we were there. During the last few trips, we have departed feeling unwelcome. Our trips are about to end!!
So Hawaii intends to add more
tax to their already tax full coffers. Maybe if they took care of some of their decaying slum like pu lic facilities , then I would gladly pay this increase.
The amount of tax money the State gets each day from room tax is absolutely enormous.
Tax increases will push people away and have them go else where . Hawaii is quickly becoming a play ground for the elite like Mark Z and Ophra W.
We 3 have stayed at the Royal Lahiana 6 times since 2003. We love the Hawaiians. They work diligently so we can enjoy our stays. They, along with the islands themselves, need to be respected. May God continue to bless them, as we do when there by giving them rides when seen walking to work or when their car broke down. More caring & love needs to be spread everywhere in this world & never taken for granted. But with rising inflation, it would be helpful if people in their 70’s could get reduced flights & stays also as we do not see ourselves being able to afford to ever come to Maui again. Love to Hawaiians & Maui!!! Thank you for your blessings to us in the past & we were so devastated by your losses even more!!!! We pray you can rebuild!
it’s all about land grabbing and politicians lining their pockets, none of it will go to native hawaiians or the islands, never has never will. let only the owners of the rentals decide what they want to do. also Hawaiians don’t sell your property and then complain, no one forced anyone to sell.
Where was the help/support before the fires for the Natives?why are you not taking from the rich who own homes/land? is this is just a ploy to get the natives off their lands so the gov can take their natives homes/land from them and sell it to the rich. taking vacation homes is not the answer and the gov has no right to take from them. Build new homes for those Natives on Their land asap who lost theirs and the insurance are refusing to cover or the insurance companies lost the natives paperwork. Green has plenty of money to do so if he wanted. what next? arrest the natives who know better and refuse to leave their properties cause they know it will happen?
So sad what is happening in Hawaii. We have loved vacationing there for years and will miss it. Sadly, we don’t feel welcome there anymore.
There many vacant buildings on island. Why are we not renovating these buildings/factories to make apartments for those that can do apartment living. Make them affordable and there would be lots of folks that are living 2-4 people in a house to make rent that could live in these and free up houses for family’s that need more space and have kids. We could house more quickly with existing buildings. Then land is not being taken up and can remain nature and not bring more debri to the island for new builds as well. There is funny math that has been going on since the fires where are the millions raised why aren’t we using this to fund housing creation? Why are our locals living on beaches
This is good, vacation rentals are out of control! Wild that 52% of short term rental owners don’t even live in Hawaii.. all of that rental income getting sent back to who knows where. Time to take the houses back. No houses = no workers = no economy.
Can we do this on Kauai also?
I agree it’s our of control with 52% living off island and worse, 27% own 20 or more. Maybe instead of taxing visitors, tax owners a higher rate that have more than one vacation rental . This may push them to sell the excess to permanent residences. Then give a tax break to owners who live permanently for 5 or more years.
Most short term rentals were not designed to be lived in long term. There is very little storage and very little parking, and in general a smaller living area. Also, most short term rentals are near the beach and are to expensive for most to afford. Converting short term rentals is not the answer to the problem. The answer lies in getting the state government to plan and quickly approve the building of residential condos and houses in areas that are affordable. It can be done, you just need to make them do it. Don’t forget the government works for you the people of the state!
There is a lot of frustration with mainland / foreign ownership. I think this may be misdirected. A lot of retirement aged folks have saved for decades to have a vacation home which they rent the rest of the year. Your ire at grandma and grandpa in New York is probably not the right place.
What has transformed the face of short term rentals to be predatory is corporate ownership and wealthy hedge funds getting into the market as an investment vehicle.
What is Vacasa doing to contribute? Are they willing to give up a few short term rentals? Of course not because it’s corporate or shareholder profit for them.
I get the message, visit one of other islands to avoid pricing penalties.
Hawaii will be pricing ourselves out of tourist travel. Then where will the economy be?
As far as the short term vacation rentals I have to agree along as they have a full kitchen etc. Full time rental, guarantee rental income and lower property tax.
What I don’t get is spending money on fire breaks. Land owners are responsible. Pass an ordnance making it maditory to maintain your property
I agree with you Jay. Homeowners should be responsible for putting up firebreaks for their houses.
One decides to live somewhere and build a home, one should build it to suit the elements in that environment.
That is done everywhere across the world.
Just keep squeezing the money out of the tourists and sooner or later there won’t be any coming to Hawaii…apparently that is the goal here.
Will Maui focus on AirBNB/VRBO and rental units that had initially been approved and built as long term properties and subsequently were Allowed by Maui’s Government to revert to short term rentals? Maui’s Government needs to recognize their role in helping to create this problem.
Absolutely. And there are reportedly several Thousand illegal short-term rentals on Maui, openly advertised, without permits and not paying any transient vacation rental taxes. Why not start there, and with making it eaiser and faster to build more housing?
Governor should not allow non native Hawaiians to buy houses instead of constantly trying to nickel and dime tourists to raise money.
So housing purchases based on race? I think the 14th Amendment and the Equal PRotection Clause might have something to say about that. Its unconstitutional, period.
I do not believe US law allows for discriminating in that way. If it did, California would be much less overcrowded.
It sounds like corporations may be invovled when over 25% own over 20 homes. Maybe they own a thousand who knows.
These proposed increases combined with grocery and restaurants increases will keep a lot of people including myself from coming back. As much as enjoy Maui I can stay an extra week to 10 days in Mexico or Belize.
A $25 fee when they arrive and check into a hotel or short-term rental. This modest fee is far less than other fees.” He said that would immediately generate $68 million in annual revenue. “We’ll invest it for beach preservation, fire breaks, and other measures,” said Green.
Why not use this money to build long term housing?
That is the problem right?
So people are homeless because of the fire, so help them. Don’t burden other people and take their income away, that is just making a bigger problem that now affects even more people. It was not the fault of the tourists but you are going to add another fee for them and not put the money generated to the problem of housing. So now less tourists will come and businesses will fail.
When FL, LA etc were hit by the storms, flooding etc and all the houses were destroyed the Govt didn’t come in and tax all the future tourists to death so they could rebuild everything. If there isn’t a place to live then what are you waiting for, get your insurance check and find a place, which may not be on Maui, to live. I’m not trying to be insensitive but at some point life has to go on, kids, families etc need structure and it is the Government’s sole responsibility to completely house everyone. Lahaina area is not going to be built up for years.
How about the State set up a dashboard that shows where all of the tax that is collected from vacation owners actually goes? Unfortunately, there’s a significant lack of transparency, and as we know there’s always going to be some level of bureaucratic waste/misuse. Yes, I realize increasing the sales tax would be the third rail for a politician, but let’s be realistic. 4% is ridiculously low in a modern society that is wanting to make significant cultural improvements.
bureaucratic waste/misuse
Respect the culture
We have a trip planned for Maui in April. I think it’s time to cancel and go to Mexico instead. Went to Mexico during Covid, liked it, returned twice and now though we would returned to Maui. Cost is certainly at less 50 to 75% higher than previouly (there is a limit of spend to value) and worse is we are really feeling like we are not welcome in Maui.