Much of the vacation rentals law enacted by the city last summer is focused on cracking down on long-proliferating illegal operations. But it also includes a provision to this fall expand the inventory of hosted bed-and-breakfast establishments.
Citing concern about COVID-19 community spread, among other reasons, City Councilman Ron Menor has introduced a sensible measure, Bill 50, which would push back the plan to issue roughly 1,700 short-term rental per-
mits for B&Bs from Oct. 1 to Jan. 31. The proposal has secured preliminary approval from the Zoning and Planning Committee; the entire City Council should back it, too.
Oahu vacation rentals are now rightly are sidelined by Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s emergency orders prohibiting them from operating as essential businesses — as the city prefers for now to gather quarantined visitors in an easier-to-manage watch at hotels.
The current inventory of about 770 permitted vacation rental units are in both hotel and residential land-use zones. In written testimony, an overwhelmingly majority of several dozen residents weighing in supported the move to delay the issuing of more B&B permits, with many expressing valid coronavirus-focused public health concerns.
Another reason supporting the delay: The city has yet to prove that its stepped-up strategy for enforcement of Ordinance 19-18 is working to effectively weed out illegal rentals. In recent years, due to demand for rentals outmatching weak regulation and enforcement, officials estimated the count of illegal units at between 8,000 and 10,000.
One study, released in January, marked a 13% drop in rental offerings listed on electronic booking platforms like AirBnB and TripAdvisor, which did not differentiate between units that are illegal or not. That suggests a promising start to the crackdown. Still, Menor pointed out that the city has had difficulty fully implementing the year-old law.
Some of Bill 50’s supporters, including state Rep. Cynthia Thielen, said that due to the pandemic’s upending of the tourism industry, the measure should be re-evaluated in 2021.
Describing her Windward district as “severely impacted by illegal transient vacation rentals,” Thielen said in testimony: “Not only are our residential neighborhoods disappearing but affordable rental housing is lacking or nonexistent. Especially during these times when our economy is on life support, our state is experiencing a housing emergency.”
Vacation rentals have long had pocketbook appeal for visitors and operators. Last summer, Hawaii had the nation’s highest average daily hotel room rate, $280. While nights at short-term rentals are often less expensive, the vacation set-up can be far more lucrative for hosts than renting to long-term tenants.
However, with the onset of COVID restrictions, visitor demand has all but evaporated. Meanwhile, clamor for more affordable long-term rentals for residents will likely get louder as the state continues to grapple with economic fallout tied to the virus.
What’s more, the pandemic is prodding fresh scrutiny regarding the wisdom of heavy economic reliance on the visitor industry, as well as the negative effects of tourism on environmental and cultural resources.
Menor was on the mark in advising “to pause or delay the issuance of registrations of new bed-and-breakfast
accommodations and take the time to assess the future course and direction of our tourism market.”
Come January, following this year’s election season, Honolulu will have a new mayor and a sizable shift in City Council makeup — due to term limits, five of the panel’s nine members cannot seek re-election. This new set of leaders should take a hard look at the vacation rentals law’s provisions with the aim of ensuring each aligns with our so-called new normal.
