As discussed previously, Bill 9, which would phase out thousands of short-term vacation rentals in Maui’s apartment-zoned areas, has cleared committee but still needs a full council vote.
The current proposal gives West Maui until the end of 2028 and the rest of the island until 2030. Hotel and resort-zoned properties are untouched for now, but expect lawsuits, amendments, and plenty more debate before anything is final.
Honolulu 90-Day STR Rule: Hurry Up and Wait
Honolulu’s much-discussed 90-day minimum rental rule, set to start next month, is still on hold. A federal court ruled in early 2024 that the city can’t enforce it until it creates a clear system for managing rentals that were legally operating before the new rule (“non-conforming uses”). That system isn’t ready yet, and as of now, I haven’t seen any timeline for when it will be. In the meantime, the city is still enforcing the old 30-day minimum rental period for most properties.
That lack of clarity and enforcement hasn’t gone unnoticed. This quote from Rob Robinson, President of Springboard Hospitality, during the HTA Oʻahu Virtual Community meeting (as reported by the Star-Advertiser), really shines a light on the issue:
[Efforts should be turned] toward vacation rental regulation and tax collection. We’ve passed a bunch of rules and we haven’t enforced them, and our governments — local and state — haven’t been able to really help in a meaningful way. We often get attacked in the hotel industry, but the reality is we were just as happy when we had 5 million visitors — the extra 5 million are not staying in our hotels; they are staying elsewhere.”
