As overtourism stirs backlash here in Hawaii and across Europe, Airbnb is pushing back—hard. In a recent Financial Times interview, the company’s public policy chief argued that short-term rentals are unfairly targeted while hotels quietly drive far greater tourist volume. “It is totally unfair,” said Theo Yedinsky. “The reality is overtourism is really driven by the hotels.”
The situation is eerily familiar to anyone following Hawaii’s mounting friction over vacation rentals. Just as European cities like Madeira (Funchal), Venice, Barcelona, and others move to slash listings, many in Hawaii want to do the same. While politicians promise reduced crowding and restored housing, the policies may inadvertently shift the problem rather than solve it.
Hawaii’s struggles with balancing tourism growth echo those seen in Europe, where misaligned policy responses have similarly exacerbated challenges more than fixing them.
A policy mirror, from Barcelona to Maui.
In Barcelona, the city recently ordered Airbnb to remove over 60,000 listings. Lisbon froze new licenses. Amsterdam restricted rentals to 30 days per year. Despite these moves, most cities still report record visitation in 2025. Hotel chains have expanded, prices have risen significantly, and resident frustration hasn’t disappeared in the way it was hoped it would.
Hawaii appears to be on a similar trajectory. Maui’s sweeping proposal would phase out thousands of legal short‑term rentals in apartment‑zoned areas—units that have housed generations of repeat visitors. In our article This Isn’t Just A Ban. It’s Maui’s Breaking Point, we documented how the move is prompting packed council hearings and emotional testimony from both residents and travelers. Lawsuits are almost guaranteed to follow.
Yet state data shows that most Hawaii visitors—nearly 70 percent—still stay in hotels, not vacation rentals. Those numbers have held steady, even as vacation rental demand has softened considerably.
On Maui, many short-term rentals operate in apartment-zoned areas that abut resort corridors—especially in places like Kaanapali and Kapalua, where hotels and apartment-zoned condos coexist. These units were grandfathered in under the Minatoya Opinion and now face pressure to revert to long-term housing.
Why Hawaii vacation rentals get the blame.
Part of the answer lies in perception. Hotels are primarily clustered in designated resort zones. While legally allowed in certain areas, vacation rentals are often located near long-established residential neighborhoods, especially on islands where zoning boundaries aren’t always apparent to the public.
That proximity in part fuels political pressure. It’s easier to respond to frustrated neighbors than to confront deeper structural issues in Hawaii’s tourism model. The result is a sustained focus on vacation rentals, even though they represent only a small part of where visitors stay.
As one reader recently said, “The issue isn’t just Airbnb. It’s also policymakers failing to plan for sustainable tourism growth.”
Policy shifts, visitor numbers don’t.
In Fading Aloha: Hawaii Vacation Rental Demand Plummets, we reported that bookings and rates for short-term rentals have dropped across the state. The visitor count, however, hasn’t taken any significant dive. People are still coming—they’re just shifting back to hotels.
Europe has seen the same pattern. Limiting short-term rentals didn’t curb tourism there either. Instead, it concentrated demand in hotel corridors and drove prices much higher. Housing pressures continued, infrastructure remained stressed, and policymakers wondered why their fixes weren’t working.
Airbnb’s latest argument isn’t entirely wrong.
Airbnb has plenty of critics, and many deserve to be heard. The platform still battles illegal listings, fee transparency issues, and guest service inconsistencies. In Why Airbnb Reviews Are Mostly Fake, we explored how its feedback system discourages honest criticism and rewards silence over accountability.
However, Airbnb’s current defense is less about individual hosts and more about the policy environment in which they operate. The company says it’s being used as a symbol while hotels continue to grow unchecked.
That defense is gaining traction for a reason. Hawaii’s hotel industry is more powerful than ever. Room rates remain at record highs. Assorted fees and taxes can easily add up to 50 percent or more on top of base rates. And yet policy discussions rarely center on hotels—just on removing rentals.
A longtime visitor recently told us, “We’ve come every year for two decades. We’ve always stayed in a condo. We supported local businesses and never caused problems. Now we’re treated like intruders.”
The deeper question: who benefits?
As short-term rentals are squeezed out, the hotel industry gains market share. This brings predictable tax revenue, union contracts, and centralized control, but it doesn’t reduce the number of visitors. It simply channels them into bigger, more profitable properties with less neighborhood visibility.
The consequence is clear: the perception of action without as much real change in impact as residents expect.
And for travelers, especially longtime returnees who relied on condo rentals, the shift feels personal. As we explored in Return Visitors Won’t Pay? Hawaii Knows Who Else Will, many of those travelers are bowing out. Meanwhile, the state appears increasingly willing to trade them for high-spending newcomers who won’t ask hard questions.
Hawaii may be repeating Europe’s mistakes.
Across the Atlantic, cities that cracked down on Airbnb dealt with the same volume of tourists, less diversified lodging, and housing costs that still outpaced income. It’s the same situation Hawaii now faces.
On Maui, the mayor’s proposal is moving forward despite concerns over job losses and tax shortfalls. On Oahu, enforcement of rental restrictions continues with intensity. At the state level, leaders are betting that cutting rentals will reduce strain, even if no corresponding cut in arrivals is planned.
But if Hawaii wants to avoid Europe’s outcome—more expensive, more centralized, and more fragile tourism—then the strategy may need to change.
Hawaii still has time to get this right.
The Airbnb debate is no longer just about housing or noise. It’s become a referendum on who gets to shape the future of Hawaii tourism—and who gets left behind in the process.
As Europe’s experience shows, targeting short-term rentals may seem decisive. But unless visitor numbers, hotel expansion, and long-term visitor planning are addressed in tandem with vacation rental controls, it’s unlikely to solve Hawaii’s problems entirely—it may just rearrange them.
Hawaii’s tourism challenges are real, and so are residents’ concerns. But blaming vacation rentals while hotels expand and policies stay reactive risks repeating the pattern that European cities already regret.
This isn’t about Airbnb alone. It’s about how Hawaii defines responsible tourism—and whether the next chapter will fix what’s broken, or rebrand it.
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Maui needs to rezone most of the parking lots and single family only neighborhoods in Wailuku and Kahului for small to midrise residential, like we are trying to do in Seattle (against NIMBY opposition). Adopt zoning there, for the new units that will be built, that ban STR’s. Maui also needs more public transportation.
Problem is a political science problem: Maui electeds are elected by the people who are there now (many who are NIMBYs), not people who live off the island and visit or own property, or might move there to work and live.
The complaint of over-tourism isn’t heard by the hotel industry, from what I’ve seen. Why was the cute little King’s Court tourist spot, a piece of history, demolished so one of the largest hotels can go up in its place in Waikiki? Think about it. Why the need for another giant, towering hotel when the hotel industry is complaining the AB&B is taking there customers. The private rentals that are legal and pay three same taxes as hotels aren’t the over-tourism problem, in my opinion. The illegal, non-tax-paying rentals fall into a different category that doesn’t benefit Hawaii, only the owners of such property.
Finally! Airbnb is fighting back.
This divisive-issue is driven entirely by the hotel lobby, which is likely the wealthiest lobby in the country. The big guys against the little mom and pop guys.
Banning short-term rentals hasn’t freed up the housing market, because the housing issue never came from short-term-rentals. It’s a policy issue.
Anyone who has ever tried to get a building permit will know this to be true.
As far as most Airbnb reviews being mostly fake, I totally disagree. Both guests and hosts are annoyingly encouraged by Airbnb to leave reviews.
I would think that overtourism is probably driven more by the airlines than hotels. Wouldn’t people be more likely to respond to an ad for super cheap flights than for a hotel room?
They may not be the only reason tourism has blown up, but by providing a lower cost option you’ve opened up a new destination to those who couldn’t previously afford to come, very basic economics.
Adam, you have a good point. Don’t forget the hostels, which are the cheapest of all. Now, with the airline changes towards more first class and more business class, the air fare may have some affect on the volume of tourists.
It’s more the hotels than anything. They have huge lobby power and very deep pockets. Also, and think about this, all those massive hotels going up all over the place – they block the natural view in Every Direction in Waikiki. It makes the place obsolete to locals and anyone who doesn’tfeel the need to shop at Louis Vuitton. They build massive structures and no one says a thing. But, some owners of Private Properties want to make a couple bucks and they are treated like they’re the devil. It’s the hotels who are the problem. Leave the STRs alone.
This isn’t about actually passing this law. Any half rate lawyer will tell you that it will be thrown out, at great expense to the county.
What they are doing is driving people out with the fear. Short term rentals are down through nothing but fear. Owners of the STRs will have to decide to hold on or cash out at a loss. Some are over-extended and will be forced to sell.
I went 27 years between Maui visits, 1995-2022. One only needs to take a walk on Ka’anapali from the Hyatt, north to
Honua Kai, to see the expansion of the resorts along that stretch. Vacation rentals are not the only reason tourism increased. If you build it, they will come.
Similar thing happens in Napa. The county will not allow wineries (not grandfather in) to have more than 15 visitors a day I believe it is in their tasting rooms in an effort to curb tourism because the locals complain, yet there is no limit on building hotels. People come to Napa to go wine tasting, not stay in a hotel all day long.
More crp to the pile. We stopped going to Hawaii almost 3 years ago now because of all this political cr1p stuff, where we used to go at least 1Ytwice a year. There has not been a single day where I get in one of my emails propaganda, advertising, promotions, incentives, giveaways and discounts to go to Hawaii by the hotels, and Hawaiian Airlines and American Airlines – 7 days a week, non-stop, the push is on. So who’s to blame for over tourism????
Social media is to blame for everything. The insecurity of social media wannabes ruined the islands and hiking trails everywhere just to have that shot to share. Matter of fact social media will be the death of us all!
Air BnBʻs arguments are disingenuous in the extreme. Together with VBRO, they are tech companies that rapidly accelerated the availability of short-term vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods. Without them, there wouldnʻt have been as many lodging options, keeping visitor arrivals at more sustainable levels. Far too many people bought up properties with dreams of renting them out to tourists. That massively drove up home prices. And in the case of Maui, rampant corruption allowed developers and the real estate industry to run roughshod over county planning and zoning.
The problem is how to put that genie back in the bottle and fix this mess. Bill 9 doesnʻt really accomplish much in a practical sense. Itʻs pure political cover for massively inept and feeble-minded politicians. Developers and the real estate industry need to be held hostage until true affordable housing is built.
In other places? Sure. But not in Hawaii. Condos have done short term rentals for many decades predating widespread use of the Internet. The first time I went to Hawaii was before any of these websites existed. We went to a travel agent and they had booklets of places to pick from. The agent then phoned the listening agent, we wrote a check and off we went. The place we visited was 20 y/o already, and was owned by a part time visitor who did STR when not there. Today it just changes the ease of renting, not how much is done.
Facts:
– Short-term rentals have been a staple in Hawaii for 60+ years.
– Airbnb, VRBO, etc. didn’t become major platforms until 2016.
– There have been No new short-term rentals built since 1989. All new complexes built after that do not allow short-term rentals.
So, any claims of “rapidly accelerated availability” of short-term rentals is simply false. The same number of short-term rentals have been available in 2025 as there were in 1989. In fact, thousands of illegal short-term rentals were removed from the platforms a couple of years ago, with the introduction of TKS registration numbers. There were also caps put on TVR homes in all zones, except the Hotel zone.
Now, if you want to count a hotel room as a short-term rental, that’s another story. Hotel rooms have had “rapidly accelerated availability”, with new hotels and hotel expansions being built without pause. The majority of overtourism woes lies squarely on their shoulders.
My wife and I have vacationed on Maui every other year for the last 20 years. Our last few visits just were not enjoyable, despice them being the most costly of all our visits to Maui. The Aloha is gone. Nearly every shop and every resturant we visited, felt as if it was only about collecting tourist dollars. We’ve made the decision to not return and have easily found other destinations. So count us as two less tourist spending thousands of dollars on you island.
ditto here. And it makes me very very sad to say this as anyone who knows me, knew that I spent years since 6th grade taking college courses, and studied everything there is on the land, history, and it’s people on the Hawaiian Islands. I became an oceanographer and everthing about me was Hawaii, Hawaii. My last trip was so sad. There were a couple waiters that were just nonchalant. Yes, we took in account the horrible loss on Maui. And this is horrible. I donated tons of money, but did not wear a tea shirt stating that, so locals had no idea what I did for them, yet, The Aloha was too much to ask. Now I am saying Aloha.
I am not speaking about nor to second home/vacation rental owners who do not reside in HI FT. For residents, in many areas, the drumbeat of tourism invades many aspects of our lives. Some might be positive, some are less so. There is a dire shortage of affordable housing here. That is a fact. There is also a shortage of water. That is a fact. Tourism impacts both of these things.
So then, add our neighbors renting in residential neighborhoods to tourists, many of whom chose Air B and B because it is cheaper than a hotel, but then treat our neighborhoods with a type of lack of care that is often present on hotel properties…it is just another bridge too far for many of us. Many of us who are also against hotels developing more as well.
Also, we don’t come to your community and denigrate your political choices. Yet people here, in this forum, are continually tell us that about ours. Enough already.
Diana, I dont blame your reply if others are abusing your neighborhood. I will never understand that since my husband and I have been renting vrbos in neighborhoods there for years and years and were always respectful, quiet, and treated the space like it was ours which we honor. The places we stayed, we never experienced anything bad, but then again, maybe the type of clientele and the rates they charged kept it at bay. Of course we had to stop renting from them about 10 years ago since they went to long term rentals. Its too bad that parents dont teach their children respect. Its all about parenting.
I think that any reasonable discussion regarding the lack of affordable housing cannot be had without pointing out the many governmental failings over the last few decades.
This isn’t a new problem and nothing of any significance has been done to address it.
If that, in your opinion, is denigrating your government, so be it. It is the root cause of this issue. Unless there is significant governmental reform the lack of housing will persist.
If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always had.
Agreed!
I live in a county that parallels Kauai in two ways. It’s about the same land area, and the same population. What’s drastically different is we have about 1/6 of the revenue since we don’t have the flood of tourism taxes Kauai gets. Hawaii doesn’t have good things due to a lack of good governance.
No water? None of the islands except Kaho’owalwe is a dessert. Parts are dry, but if they collect water from the windward side there is plenty. They simply don’t manage it. The plantations did infrastructure for irrigation a century ago and the government today won’t.
Only Oahu can claim a lack of buildable land. The rest have plenty.
Well there is that freedom of speech thing. Feel free to comment about anyone else, it is your right and I support it.
I’m also a taxpayer there. I own two weeks of a time share. The assessed value of the unit and my home come out about the same. The taxes on the condo are TWELVE times higher than my house. I’m paying Hawaii half as much as I pay my county, one for 2 weeks vs the who year for my home.
Doesn’t it offend you at the waste? There is so much money, the government could easily afford services on what they collect.
Why not get rid of the bad apples instead of a broad sweep one way or the other?
“ On Maui, the mayor’s proposal is moving forward despite concerns over job losses and tax shortfalls.”
BOH, you must be getting confidential info the rest of us aren’t. Last I heard, the Minatoya proposal was just this week starting to be looked at by one of the council subcommittees. The decision about the bill, pass or fail, is weeks away.
Please provide sources in your articles. Please share with us where you are getting your intel about this bill “moving forward”.
We’ve stayed in Kaanapali Al most every year since 1994. Always the same condo. Same owner. Same great vibe. This year we’re feeling less sure. It’s not the same—and we fear it may never be.
Hawaii’s problems can be traced to the locals voting for incompetent politicians. Follow the money.
BOH is spot on this article 😊mahalo
We are long time repeated visitors to Hawaii staying 90% of the time in condos.
We like to dine out, shop at local grocery and cook some of our own meals. If we can’t stay in condos and the value proposition is not there we will go somewhere else. We can afford the hotels, but don’t want to.
Hawaii does not have a monopoly on beautiful places.
IMO traveling to Hawaii is never a need other than employment or because you live there. People somehow have the if I don’t do it now I’ll never ever be able to afford it later mentality. Is it a goal, dream, or just a bucket list item? Go before Hawaii prices triple, quadruple, etc.
Over tourism might be seen now but fee’s, taxes, and hotel rates IMO the real question is for How Long? Sometimes because of all the people and crowds it don’t feel like a vacation and the hype out weighs the reality. IMO it’s not the air bnb’s fault. It’s the tourist who desire or want that’s the majority and very few ever need.
We were booked for a three-week stay but are now considering canceling. Not because we’re angry—because we’re unsure we’ll even be allowed to stay where we usually do. This kind of uncertainty isn’t sustainable for travelers either.
I totally support returning some properties to local housing, but what’s happening feels like a purge. Families who’ve come here for decades are being told they’re not welcome. It’s painful to watch the aloha spirit unravel like this.
I live in Kula and can confirm—vacation rentals problems are a real thing. Meanwhile, our teachers and nurses are commuting from the other side of the island. This isn’t just about tourists. It’s about priorities and the island being able to maintain its workforce.
I live near you…what vacation rentals problems are you personally confirming? The only problem I have personally encountered is a few other people claiming it’s a problem.
Not having housing at prices the “work force” can afford is a problem – and seems to be across many places Across the US, across Europe, in cities. Not driven by the number of tourists….
It’s always easier to blame a visible target like Airbnb than to untangle decades of bad planning and inappropriate relations with the hotel industry. But shutting down legal vacation rentals isn’t going to make Maui livable again. It’ll just shift the chaos.
We’ve owned a condo in West Maui since the ’90s and have always welcomed visitors with open arms. But now we feel like all of us are villains. If the state is really serious about overtourism, why aren’t they capping hotel development too?
Because they are just using “over tourism” to reshape the island as they want. In downtown Honolulu, there are 5 New boutique hotels – all while the city squeezes str’s.
Let’s face it: if you are dependant upon STR’s (not hotels) then you are not in the “in” crowd. As tourism declines, so will your income. Then you will sell and leave or just leave.
They want a smaller population, with much less tourism. And that is what they will get.
Airbnb fails to recognize the differences with hotel priority. The destruction of neighborhoods on windward O’ahu and South and West Maui is extensive. The Lahaina fire created even more confusion. Basic elder care etc is done. Pau already. Auwe.
Please tell us where the destruction of neighborhoods (geez, so dramatic!) has occurred in South and West Maui. Which neighborhoods? The Minatoya condos are located in the resort areas. The rest of the TVRs have been capped to a small number in each zoning. There is a process now in place to anonymously report illegal rentals.
Please let us know which “destroyed neighborhoods” you are referring to.
Can you please provide a list of the Minatoya condos that are destroying neighborhoods please?
Pacific Shores is one. It was a great community before it was over run by STR. HOA fees have tripled in the last few years. Mostly due to increase use of water, propane and trash pick up. When you pack condos units with 6-8+ people who shower multiple times a day, do laundry daily, etc you not have increase in resource use. The majority of the guests are entailed and disrespectful to the owners and residence of that complex. The pool area is over crowded, the hot tub has become the kiddie pool and parents let their kids run amuck. So yes, the have destroyed my neighborhood.
I think you are confusing visitors with local residents. All of the problems you mention pertain to humans, regardless of whether they live there 12 months, 6 months, 3 months, or 2 weeks. The longer duration residence have the added headache of not being able to get rid of them. If there is a problem of residents “destroying your condo neighborhood”, at least the shorter-term residents will be gone soon.
Your HOA fees have not tripled because of trash and water usage increases. They have tripled for All condos on Maui, short and long term, because of fire insurance, costly repairs to old infrastructure, and inflation.
Please do your research before assigning blame to innocent long and short-term residents.
It may sound simple, Stop building hotels and focus on housing. Why does the government issue permits for the building of new hotels and new resorts in residential areas?
I’m not confusing anything. Pacific Shores is a 136 unit complex. 10 years ago, there were about 30 STR units and 106 long- term residence. Now it is reversed, 106 STR and 30 long term residence. Most of the units have been by out of state investors and even out of country investors. Many of them don’t even use their units, they are purely investments. And Yes, water usage has doubled in the last tree years, due to increased use by visitors. Instead of 2-4 people per unit, STR units are 6-8 and at one time one “investors” allowed 21, because they were charging per person in addition to the nightly rate. Our complex had to set an occupancy limit because of investors like that. We have reserved parking spaces and visitors are always parked in the wrong spaces. Checking-in and out during quiet time, dragging their suitcase up/down stairs. Shouting trying to find their unit. So don’t try to tell me to do my research, because I live there and deal with it everyday.
Our complex was built as workforce housing, not as a resort, like many other complexes. Our water usage has doubled, propane usage and trash pick up usage has increased and that is due to visitors, which has significantly increased our HOA fees. A 2bdrm unit with a single resident is paying the same HOA fee as a 2bdrm STR unit that has 6 people nightly. Luckily electricity isn’t included in our fees, since visitors leave lanai doors open while AC is running full blast. If all utilities were paid by the individual owners, HOA fees would be less for most complexes.