As Oahu seems poised to crack down hard on vacation rentals, it’s time to give some equally hard thought to the ramifications.

Eliminating 7,000 short-term rental units will tend to reduce visitor arrivals to Oahu by roughly 10%. While I can picture many residents huffing, “Well good! ’Nuff already!”, I don’t see any evidence that the city is considering the very real impact on factors such as airlift, commercial real estate and tax revenue.

Let’s not be surprised a year from now when there is “suddenly” a “crisis” due to “unanticipated” economic decline. I’m all for quality over quantity when it comes to visitors. However, that requires a level of proactivity on the part of local leadership and bureaucracy that has been sadly lacking to date.

Brendon Hanna

Manoa

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