Controlling illegal vacation rentals has long been a challenge for Oahu. Even during Hawaii’s lockdown, some illegal rentals continued to operate. However, with help from major online vacation rental platforms, Honolulu cracks down on illegal vacation rentals.
Honolulu Gets Some Help
The major online vacation rental platforms assisting the City & County of Honolulu include both Airbnb and Vrbo. Both have signed a memorandum of agreement to provide detailed information on listings so the city can ensure they’re legal. They also agree to make changes to listings to make sure they’re properly taxed. These changes represent a major reversal in stance for the two platforms which were previously refused to work with the city.
Why This Matters
Over the years, short-term vacation rentals have exploded in popularity. And why not? They’re often less expensive than hotels while offering greater flexibility. But, their popularity has become a problem. Namely, vacation rentals remove housing from the market that could otherwise go to residents. That, of course, helps to further drive up prices in what’s an already expensive housing market. What’s more, some renters make for very poor neighbors, which sucks for the people that call the impacted neighborhood home.
The other reason at play here is, admittedly, more of a political one – vacation rentals take business away from hotels. Hotels have long lobbied to limit the availability of vacation rentals in Hawaii to help preserve their profitability. Not cool, right? But, hotels also employ thousands of Hawaii residents.
Honolulu Cracks Down on Illegal Vacation Rentals, Final Thoughts
It’s worth noting that vacation rentals began operating again when Oahu moved to Tier 2 of its reopening strategy. What’s more, their occupancy rates are as high, if not higher than that of hotels at about 27%. That, of course, presents other problems during the age of COVID. First off, getting occupancy up in hotels is important so more people can go back to work. Second, having visitors intermixing with residents increases transmission risks. This is especially true for those that end up needing to quarantine. At least hotels can, if they choose to, control quarantining visitors somewhat.