Hawaii visitor spending in 2023 hit a 30-year record due to sky-high costs. Now rates are changing while luxury is out of vogue.
Hawaii visitor spending in 2023 hit a 30-year record due to sky-high costs. Now rates are changing while luxury is out of vogue.
Besides paying taxes, the costs for our short term rental have increased dramatically post COVID. Our HOA increases, due to rising insurance primarily, and cleaning service increases have made it difficult to keep costs low enough to attract the low budget, demanding travelers we’ve seen this year. We are Hawaii snow birds and find we are leaving our condo vacant where we rented it pre pandemic to avoid the drama. Closing down STRs will not force us to a long term rental, simply lose a condo that a family could use in the summer.
Maui will be hurt very badly if the governor will not see the effects his curtailment on short term rentals will in fact become a reality
I own a one bedroom condominium in Kihei and just that one unit brings in about 10. 000 dollars in accommodation taxes per year, not to mention the close to 10000 dollars property taxes I pay per year. There are a out 400 units in my Kihei complex.
Has the governor even ever run the numbers and what is happening to all the money we apartment owners bring to Maui
Just saying
Accomodation costs are way, way out of line. This, combined with the anti-tourist sentiment, and noises around altetnate accomodation ( STR) esspecially on Maui its easy to see why numbers are down. Lots of other choices to travel where costs are less and tourists are welcome and appreciated. I understand Maui needs to recover and find places to live for displaced persons, but i dont believe chasing the main source of income away is neither wise or prudent
It is my guess that you need to look at the value received. Sure, it costs a lot. Are the roads in good shape and able to handle traffic? Are the beaches accessible with plenty of (reasonable) parking? For example, at our favorite snorkel beach a parking fee was implemented in ’23. Seemed high, at $12 for 4 hours but all the money went to the beach for maintenance and improvements. For the first year. They couldn’t tell us where the ’24 money was going. And parking at one Farmer’s Market was about $10 for 15 minutes. The money spent needs to show return in increased value of the experience.
In other news, the Fishing for Housing advocates have packed up and gone home.
Great news! So scary people.
Wow. Yeah can’t have those Hawaiian people on our tourist beaches. Not the people who are actually native to the land and have deep spiritual & cultural connection to it. Can’t be having the Hawaiians advocate for themselves. I know, I know you love Hawai’i & it’s culture. If only the Hawaiians would learn their place so you can get back to drinking your mai tai, golf & making money from renting to other people like you. No Hawaiians no Hawai’i
Florida is up 4 million from 2019. Slightly down from their record in 2022.
Wish I could put my finger on the difference in policy since 2020. Nope, drawing a blank.
Oh well.
It costs money to run this state. If tourists don’t pay for it, residents will have to.
Just return from Maui it was a business/volunteer/memorial last week. The Norwegian word ufdah is very appropriate. Since we are front liners we wore masks to protect our patients. People came right up to us and coughed on us. Our rental car was vandalized and we were verbally abused in the local food market. We overheard local’s bragging about how much money they were getting. Where they were staying in their cars and keeping the rental money and so on. Our vacation rental company provided a condo with no working refrigerator, so add the cost of eating our meal out. They thought it was funny when we called their office, talked over us, or just hung up. I wish Maui good luck… You’re biting the hand that feeds you. So very 😢 sad!
Hotel rates are unstable
Mark my words, they ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. 2024-25 visitor numbers and revenue are going to end up a lot worse than “slightly down”, for a multitude of reasons already discussed here ad nauseum. The numbers will provide the proof.
And then Hawaii, trying to get rid of more Airbnb. The affordable alternative to the high priced hotels.
They have to decide what they want at the state capital. Smaller crowds or more income? They can’t have it both ways.
Keep greedily raising taxes, fees, and prices and watch your tourism shrink. Keep lecturing visitors on how to conduct themselves and see more shrinkage (not that I am defending bad behavior). Just be careful what you wish for!
And stop complaining when you get what you wanted!
Hawai’i isn’t the only beautiful place in the world. Just look at Instagram and other social media! And while on the subject, why does Hawai’i seem so underrepresented there?
Time for the politicians to get their act together before things go from bad to worse.
It’s not as though people haven’t been warning about this for quite some time as witnessed by comments on this forum. Weather the pain level reaches a point at which locals make enough noise for the powers that be to start making some changes is yet to be seen.
I am currently on Kauai and foreign tourist numbers may be down but they are still coming as I have run across a number on my visit so far.
As note to the many people who have commented that Hawaii prices have risen so high that they no longer consider vacationing here, I suggest that they no longer plan on an over-priced hotel stay. Here on Kauai, there are farmstays which are more reasonably priced. Shop around online and you can find accommodations at these fine places or at less-desirable but also available Princeville condos for $250 per night for a couple and $300 per night for a party of four. There is usually a reasonable outclean fee and the ubiquitous 17.962% State and County taxes. Combine that with a Turo car rental and and a reasonably economical Kauai vacation is still possible and available.
It should be noted that less-desireable does not mean less nice, just less pricey than an over priced 5 star hotel.
How is a farm stay different than VRBO or Airbnb? Please explain, I really don’t understand the difference.
Also, one farm stay I found in Kauai charges a $195.00 cleaning fee, talk about price gouging.
I think after covid they are disinfecting as much as they are cleaning. At a cost of $195 do we really need to sterilize everything each time there is a turnover? I would opt for less scrubbing and fewer chemicals being introduced into my environment which should hopefully cost substantially less while still being sufficiently healthy.
Where it not for the fact that my grandchildren live in Kailua on Oahu, I would never return to Hawaii given that I can no longer do a short term apartment or cottage rental. If I want a beach vacation, I will now go to Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands where I’m sure I will feel welcome. I no longer feel welcome in Hawaii
Room rates on Kona and North Kohala shores are too high for most locals. Discouraging.
Even with Kama’aina rates most places are still too expensive for the local population. We live south of Hilo and love to come to the other side of the island to vacation but will have to pass on it this year.
Going to Paris in a few weeks. We thought about Hawaii, but hotel costs are way too high. I can choose hotels on the outskirts of Paris with great metro trains to go anywhere in Paris – so we don’t need a car to have a spectacular vacation. Any extra that we pay in airfare is more than saved with hotel & car rental savings. And, Paris is Paris – while I just watched a Hawaii YouTube advising me to study Hawaiian history before visiting so that I don’t offend the locals. (Parisians all seem to Americans on principle – demanding no obligation to them.)
Same for us! We are passing through Hawaii (3 hour layover) heading to Japan for 3 weeks in November. Would have gone to Hawaii but prices are ridiculous. Same exact thing. Staying outside of Tokyo, excellent train transportation too.
My wife and I have been going to Hawaiian Islands for 30 years. If any one thing is discouraging us is the cost of accommodations. We went to Europe for 3 weeks for less money than the cost of 2 weeks in Hawaii.
We just spent a week on Maui and a week on Oahu. Despite being raised on Oahu from the 1950s Hawaii is forever changed. We went there to try and help Maui get the electricity and water required. After interviewing hundreds of people, I can find no reason to ever return. My first trip to Maui was in 1954, my last was about a decade ago.
If you lowered your flight and hotel accommodation, you would have more people traveling to Hawaii islands the cost are to high,