Planning commission rejects short-term rental regulations

The Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice supports the effort to regulate short-term rentals, but opposes this measure.

Will Caron is Appleseed’s spokesperson: “This bill as currently written, based on our analysis, could potentially make things worse for residents than they already are, and that has to do with a number of loopholes in the bill. It comes down to a lack of enforcement as well as some incredibly broad definitions that could easily be taken advantage of.”

He continued, “The bill allows for unlimited B&Bs in residential-zoned areas, which is a big difference right there. Because of the vagueness of those definitions, we could end up with rentals that are not actually traditional B&Bs. If we’re going to try allow traditional B&Bs but restrict other kinds of transient vacation rentals, the definitions need to be tightened up quite a bit to achieve that goal.

“The main point of our testimony comes down to enforcement—not just with B&Bs, although the unlimited number of B&Bs is a problem. (We think that the number should be limited and take into consideration different community development plans.) But, because of the lack of enforcement broadly, there’s no incentive for people to follow the law. We have to be able to hold the hosting platforms like Airbnb accountable for advertising these illegal rentals if we want to have any hope of regulating this industry.”