More taxes are confirmed for your Hawaii hotel or vacation rental. Prepare for some sticker shock.
230 thoughts on “Honolulu Latest to Hike New Accommodation Tax: Highest in US”
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Jen B: What you say is correct, but they will now be taxing the visitors twice. The State gets its cut and that goes to infrastructure and promotion of the State, and now the Counties are getting a cut as well. If I pay $500/night for 5 nites that is $2500 + $450 for just one of the taxes! This will be a National News Story, and it just speaks GREED. Where is the Aloha here?
Anyone that can afford a $500 a night hotel room shouldn’t have any problem paying the taxes on that room.
Not necessarily, maybe they have been saving for years to come and m no ow you just put it out of their reach again. Put yourself in their place could you afford such an increase? Maybe you could but not everyone that travels to Hawaii is independently wealthy. I’ve spent the better part of the last 20 years promoting Hawaii and telling people how affordable it is. Won’t be able to say that now.
Maybe it’s looking at better ways to bring both sides together.
Not necessarily! Some save for years for that one ‘very special’ trip. But many will re-think a trip to Hawaii. Your money goes a lot further elsewhere.
It is the principle of the thing. “Hey, let’s close down the state and bankrupt a lot of our businesses and make our citizens ‘escape’ to other areas to work and then we can make it all up with new HIGHER taxes in no time flat! Right?” It is called GREED.
What did the state do with all the gov’t bail out money? It’s Just sad. Very sad.
So disappointing to see the elected officials’ greed. Once the world opens up, I suspect that many of the vacationers will abandon Hawaii.
No offense, but..good. We’re way beyond capacity, our ability to manage and what can be reasonably absorbed by the local population, roads, etc. There’s a breaking point, and we’ve recently reached it. Thanks
If we don’t come, your taxes will go up!
We must not depend on tourism for our survival.
What will Hawaii depend on then?
Helen W: What an interesting comment. No more sugar, no more pineapple. Real Estate and Tourism is the deal … I would say it is a bit late now.
That is funny right there! Without tourist how would the state survive? Didn’t covid open your eyes or was it nice living off the government?
None taken, David. When your property taxes, state income taxes, and other local taxes start to rise quickly (because of a lack of tourism dollars), I won’t say I told you so…ok, I might. 😂
BoH, you are definitely right. Hawaii absolutely needs a marketing arm for tourism, and HTA better get their crap together quickly, because they’re going to need a better worldwide marketing plan at this rate.
We just sold our Maui ownership at Nanea Ocean Villas, because we found a far better deal in Mexico, and with far more Options. It’s closer; it’s just as warm; it’s just as clean (at least in the tourist areas, which we only leave for group tours), and the US dollar goes twice as far.
I had a feeling this was where the state Government was headed, and it’s apparent we made the right decision. It’s inevitable that local and state taxes are next. If they raise property taxes, that will be the straw that breaks this camel’s back. Hawaii was going to be the place I retired, but I want to live comfortably, not in poverty. The middle class is being abolished faster and faster, and the state of Hawaii is not hindering that process at all in the last year and a half.
Mahalo for the info, you two! 🤙
Hi Jim.
Thank you. We have a feeling you’ll be heading this way again soon, in any event.
Aloha.
As visitor arrivals to Hawaii have broken records, adjustments for inflation show total visitor spending has declined over the last 30 years. In 2018, 9.8 million people visited the Islands and spent $17.6 billion. In 1989, 6.5 million visitors spent $18 billion in 2018 dollars.
Those extra visitors are wearing down our infrastructure and nature itself, but there’s no extra money for repairs or improvements.
Money doesn’t grow on palm trees so we have to get the money somewhere or all those amazing places people want to visit will no longer be worth the trip.
Thank you for explaining this.
Ummm, you do understand that $100 in 1989 is equal to nearly $220 in 2021. The inflation rate between then and now has increased nearly 120.00%, over a this 32 year period; yet, the cost of products and services has increased well over 200% on almost Everything! A gallon of gas is around 300% higher, from $1 (or so) in 1989 to around $4.00 today. In 1989 it was less than $200 for a family of 4 to attend a popular Luau, and we paid $600 for 4 people in October 2019…an over 200% increase. Let’s not even talk about the cost of milk…it’s well over 100% more than the average cost on the mainland.
The middle class, who used to drop that 18 billion dollars, no longer can spend 200 to 300% more for vacations, when the value of their money is less than HALF of what it was 30+ years ago. So, they plop their A$$ on a beach, and spend Far less on ridiculously priced excursions.
This isn’t the tourist’s fault that they can’t afford to fund Hawaii’s tourist industry. The federal and state Governments are widening the gap and suffocating/eliminating the middle class. You know, those people who used to spend their two weeks annual vacation in Hawaii every year. Hell, most can barely do one week now, if that! I’d wager the average Hawaii tourist’s vacation time has dropped by about half, during that time period…
And you do understand, Jim, that Native Hawaiians can’t afford to live here? And more and more they are being pushed out of areas they used to live and recreate in? Please spare me the woes of the tourist.
The highest Electricity costs in the Nation, the highest Gas Prices in the Nation, where is Atomic Energy, where. Are the Wind Turbines, the State has a notoriously high Unemployment Compensation (that happens to be over $500,000,000.00 upside down) and with the Federal contribution, kept Citizens from going back to work! The Hawaiian people are not being served by their elected Officials, the inflationary pressure being placed on all States will make it worse as everything has to be shipped in.
Yes, the tax rate is going to be high. Since it seems many don’t want to pay that much just how are Hawaii and the Counties supposed to fund infrastructure, police, fire, hospitals, emergency services and such that all who go there want to use?
And yes, as costs go up some people will be priced out. Have to choose based on what is affordable.
Infrastructure and all other things are paid via state taxes and the Hotel Tax. There is no need to tax the Tourist again. Then they are paying twice.
We Love Maui and have been coming for 30 years! Have to say, it’s getting harder and harder to afford to come, especially with our families!
Thanks for all your info and keeping us up to date!
L
Well, it’s been fun… but won’t return to Hawaii. The world is a big place and its time to explore other places.
Aloha Guys
I’m not sure this increase in taxes is only going to increase the illegal rentals of bedrooms using Air B&B. If Hawaii wants to increase the number of visitors who have monies,there going to have to think carefully about cause and effect and take their time in getting the problem correct. We too want to visit a decent place.
Here is another nail in the coffin of the Aloha spirit the islands were renowned for. It appears to me that the people of Hawaii no longer wish to attract tourists, or at least tourists who are not wealthy. As a retiree from the east coast, a trip to Hawaii has always been pricey, but the new fees being charged to travelers might just price Hawaii out of the market foe folks like me.
It’s not about wanting only visitors who spend a lot of money here, Hawai’i needs to be more independent and self sufficient, e.g. agriculture, using more of Nature, cleaner and less polluting of the Aina, repurposing, solar, etc.,etc.
Aloha BOH Bro’s
No one should be surprised, especially for Maui, where Mayor Victorino has during many interviews openly spoken about raising taxes on short term rental condos to discourage budget travel.
Second part of the plan is to force short term rental condo owners to sell their properties to a resident on the island, which an earlier commentator stated he or she has planned to do.
So you reduce over tourism and help resolve part of the housing shortage with this tax plan.
It will be interesting to see who purchases these short term rental condos mainland folks looking to relocate or island residents. I know currently there’s a bidding war on any reasonable priced condo that goes on the market.
It’s to be expected, prices go up for everything. I booked a ticket for later in the year, pre-pandemic the flight from the W Coast was $500, now it’s $900. I did find a cheap place to stay though…you’ve just gotta look around. Travel costs money. This tax increase won’t keep me from returning to Hawaii.
I understand how it feels when you have to cancel travel plans. However, you also have to consider that the needs of Hawaiians come before yours. Native Hawaiians can barely afford to live here, so many won’t find it too sad that you find a 3% increase in taxes more than you can spend. There are more tourists here right now than there were this time in 2019. And that doesn’t even include international travelers who normally make up a large percentage of visitors AND spend more than US visitors do. (So they’ll fill any gaps you leave when you stay home.) Tourism is not sustainable in its current form. The residents want change, and thankfully those who represent them are listening. We should all be so lucky.
Tourism numbers are considerably down vs. 2019.. What Hawaii is experiencing is a blip in tourism for a few months as the scared people feel safe to travel now.
You weren’t here for the recession. A smaller decrease in tourism caused catastrophic hardship back then. This will be worse when the free money stops flowing and evictions and foreclosures are allowed to restart.
On top of that, the State and Counties are trying to oppress the already reduced tourist numbers…
Simply unbelievable the short sightedness in this State.
Factor in, other than tourism, the State has no meaningful industry to replace it. Is Hawaii going to battle it out with Iowa and Nebraska for corn production? Or CA or FL for fruits and vegetables? Or any other country for Coffee, bananas etc… There are individual farmers who own more crop yielding land than most Hawaii Counties have in total crop yielding land.
Tourism in its current state isn’t sustainable, and residents are understandably upset by not being able to get in/out of their neighborhoods or enjoy their trails and beaches. If we started returning land to Hawaiians, perhaps it could be more competitive produce-wise. It would have been nice if alternatives could have been developed during the pandemic, but most people were struggling to survive and/or had other things to worry about. Perhaps you can channel some of your negative energy into coming up with some other ideas instead of just complaining about changes you aren’t happy with.