2024-04-16 Bill 121 Mackenzie Chase

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oxpodia group- April odic 16, 2024 Commissioner Barbara DeFranco Chair of the Leeward Planning Commission Re: Bill 121 Dear Commissioner DeFranco and members of the Leeward Planning Commission: On behalf of Expedia Group, a family of brands that includes Expedia.com, Hotels.com, and short-term rental leader Vrbo, I am writing to share comments on Bill 121, item #7 on the agenda. Expedia Group welcomes balanced regulation and management of short-term rentals and has worked with municipalities around the world to craft, enact, and enforce laws to regulate vacation rentals.As the Leeward Planning Commission evaluates the proposed law, we respectfully request a few amendments. Hosting Platforms Hawai'i counties' power to regulate platforms under state and federal law is uncertain. Regardless, Expedia Group has developed a strong model that has worked well in other counties, and we can bring the tools we have developed to Hawai'i County.We entered voluntary agreements, Memorandums of Understanding(MOUS), with Kaua'i County, Maui County, and the City and County of Honolulu to support compliance with county laws and regulations, share information, and foster collaboration between Expedia Group and county governments.The best way to ensure industry uninformity is to pass a law that imports the provisions of existing county-platform MOUS. Hosting Platform Reporting The hosting platform reporting requirements in Section 25-4-17.2(a) include information that could conflict with federal laws. Requiring a report of names of the persons responsible for each listing, the length of stay for each listing, and the fee charged for each stay could run afoul of the federal Stored Communications Act and the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Requiring the physical address and tax map key(TMK) number(Section 25-4-17(a)(2)) is redundant since both allow the County to identify the location of the property. As an alternative, we would suggest amending the text to require a report of the URL and TMK number associated with listings in Hawai'i County.This would allow County officials to review information and to compare listings against the County's information for registered properties. This is the exact same information reported to other Hawai'i counties under MOUS, which has allowed other counties like Kaua'i to successfully enforce its short-term rental laws and largely eliminate illegal rentals. Hosting Platform Registration and Revocation Section 25-4-17.1(c) would allow the director to "cancel a hosting platform registration for cause, including any violation of this Code." This is overbroad and means that a hosting platform's registration 0 1 1 1 1 Expedia Group Way West I Seattle,WA, 98119 1 USA I T+1 206 481 72001 F+1 206 481 7240 expediagroup.com