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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More taxes are confirmed for your Hawaii hotel or vacation rental. Prepare for some sticker shock.
Comments are closed.
Thanks for the update, BOH. Not sure if I missed this in the article… what is GST? Obviously, some type of tax. 😉
Hi Babette.
Hawaii GST (also called GET) somewhat akin to sales tax https://tax.hawaii.gov/geninfo/get/#:~:text=Hawaii%20does%20not%20have%20a,and%204%25%20for%20all%20others.
Aloha.
Americans hate to pay taxes. Hawaii is an expensive place to visit. Everything is more expensive than when I first visited, as an adult, in the seventies. What isn’t?
There are lots of places I cannot visit in the US because I’m not crazy rich. But, my family and I will still visit Hawaii when appropriate because we choose to not because we feel entitled to.
Our home is a vacation rental when we are off island, and is booked solid (including us) through next summer. I suspect not a single one of them will cancel over the tax increase, but we’ll find out.
And, if the consequence of this tax increase is that there are fewer tourists, very few people on Kauai will complain. Even the people who show up and pay all the taxes will be a little better off with less other tourists here at the same time.
Less tourists are good- an attitude that seems prevalent
It is very prevalent. Just send your money, but otherwise stay on the mainland.
Aloha!
So I am paid up 100% for my trip in late October. Will they now charge more?
There will come a time when Hawaii will tax itself out of the tourism market if this continues, especially when hotels are raising prices, trying to recoup money lost due to COVID closures. Visitors will start looking more seriously at other tropical locations that cost less to visit.
Thanks for keeping us up to date.
Definitely an increase in taxes for hotel and resorts accommodation will not motivate tourists like me to visit Hawaii. It is already so expensive the way it is now. They are already charging tourists for everything. A paradise vacation that we are looking for may not be a Paradise after all.
Thank you for the information. This makes my condo rental on Kaua’i even less competitive. TAT and GET makes it close to 20%. At some point vacation folks will look for other places to stay.
I think its absolutely suicide for the county of Kauai, tenants are already paying nearly 15% and now its going to be 18% on a $5,000 room stay that’s an additonal $900. WTH, there will be a time when the vacationers will start to look elsewhere as they already have, to spend their hard earned money, the answer isn’t always taxing the people that put food on our plates, its better management of the existing funds at the county level, that is what we need. Look at the job the Mayor did during the pandemic. Terrible I say. Let me ask everyone, are you better off today than before the pandemic? Ask the Mayor if he gave up 1/2 of his salary. You know he didn’t.
Hawaii is in big trouble, failed Leadership at Governor. Governor Ige trying to overcome shortfalls during his Lock-down, purloined the Sales Tax Revenue from Maui, Kauia, Lanai, the Big Island and placed in the States General Fund, now the roller coaster of Mayor’s who during the Lock-down had the in-employed collecting lucrative State Un-Employment + Federal $300.00, when things got better in late Spring, business could not get people to come back to work, the Bain of all the high unemployment States, NY, NJ, Ct., Pa., Mi., Ill., Wisc., Wa. Ore., Ca. and NM, all over 7%. With Hawaii’s Plan more then $500,000,000.00 upside down, and now the ongoing dog-and-pony show over Masks, Vac’s, has stalled a great rebirth in Tourism, people will choose other locations, Hawaii is great, Paradise, but normal Airfare’s, today’s Car Rental Situation, Limited Dining, will challenge even the largest Hotel Groups, if expectations and diminished Value are there from previous experience. The Japanese are sophisticated travelers now, they’re not back yet, it seems there is a backlash against Mainland folks, given the luxury of big Paychecks and and the reduced traffic that was brought on by the Tourism slowdown from March 2019. Confusion over Masks, there and in transit, talk of Vac’s Mandates and moving away from the “72 Hour Test”, will kill Tourism with this Tax! This January would be my 85 trip to the Islands, all 7-10 days, all Moana, Royal Hawaiian, Hyatt (Kaanapali, Poipu and Waikiki) Ritz Carlton going back to the Stouffer Waiohai and Wailea (later Rennassaince, now Hyatt) in the late 1980’s.
Hi, I enjoy your newsletter and look forward to each one. My husband and I have been coming to Hawaii since 1968. I know, we’re old 😊. We missed our March trip this year and are really looking forward to our 2022 trip. However, it really seems that the elected officials want to put the burden of their poor decisions solely on the faithful tourists. If these taxes go up much more it will certainly cause many to look elsewhere.
Aloha,
Debbie S