HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0236.141 2024-2026June 1, 2025
Holeka Inaba, Chair
Dennis "Fresh" Onishi, Vice Chair
Hawaii County Council
25 Aupuni Street
Hilo, HI 96720
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HAWAI'I HOTEL
A L L I A N C E
Gerard C. Gibson
President
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Support and Comments on Bill 47 Draft 2
Aloha Chair Inaba, Vice Chair Onishi and Honorable Members of the Hawaii County Council,
My name is Jerry Gibson and I am the President of the Hawaii Hotel Alliance ("HHA") and have
been a hotelier in Hawai'i for more than 42 years. HHA's membership includes all of the major
hotel brands in Hawai'i, including Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Aulani, Outrigger, Springboard
Hospitality and Highgate Hotels. Our members represent more than 32,000 hotel rooms across
Hawaii, including a majority of Hawaii County's hotel rooms.
Please accept this testimony in Support of Bill 47 Draft 2, including comments.
The Hawai'i Hotel Alliance applauds the Council's efforts to provide better oversight of
Transient Vacation Rentals (TVRs) across the County of Hawaii. As written, Bill 47 Draft 2
includes a number of key provisions relating to TVR regulations that have proven effective in
helping counties across the State and Country in managing the impacts of TVRs (also referred to
as short term rentals). Specifically, Bill 47 Draft 2 ensures:
1: Hosting Platform Accountability: Holding hosting platforms that broker TVRs accountable
for the transactions taking place on their platform gives the County oversight into the
marketplace where these TVR's are being brokered. Specifically, the data collection and
reporting requirements, de -listing provisions, and fines for non-compliance found in Bill 47 give
the County's planning department both the information and authority to better regulate TVRs.
2: Mandatory Registration: By requiring all TVR's, hosted and un-hosted, to register with the
County, the result is a transparent catalogue of all TVR's operating throughout our County. This
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Holeka Inaba, Chair
Dennis "Fresh" Onishi, Vice Chair
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visibility makes it easier for planning to enforce our TVR rules, facilitates collection of TAT due
to the county, and allows us the opportunity to think through our County's capacity for TVRs in
our residential communities.
3: Fines that compel compliance: By implementing fines of up to $10,000.00 per infraction for
owners, operators, and hosting platforms that rent noncompliant units Bill 47 incentivizes
compliance with the County's TVR rules. This fine schedule comport with fines across Hawaii's
other counties, all of which include fines of up to $10,000.00 per infraction, per day.
4: Compliance with the State of Hawaii's Definition Transient Vacation Rental as a rental
period of "less than one hundred eighty consecutive days": Bill 47 Draft 2 correctly defines a
TVR in compliance with the State's definition. In 2024 the State Legislature and Governor
Green worked collaboratively to address a County's authority relating to 'short-term rentals'
referred to in Hawaii County as TVRs, through landmark legislation known as S132919-24. This
law specifically cites the State's definition of short-term rentals of one hundred eighty
consecutive days or less and expands a County's authority to regulate short-term rentals, or
TVRs, including the ability to phase them out in residential and agricultural zones. This law also
clarifies that counties have the authority to regulate the "time, place, manner and duration' of
land uses, allowing the County of Hawaii and all counties throughout our State to address
concerns we have about the impact of TVR's on our local communities.
We believe that establishing the administrative framework for regulation found in Bill 47 Draft
2 will empower the County to better manage TVRs, promotes equity in regulation and taxation
of transient accommodations offerings throughout the County, and creates a framework for
future decisions on the quantity, quality, and location of TVR's in our County. Thank you for
this opportunity to speak on behalf of HHA's membership in support of Bill 47 Draft 2. 1 speak
for our entire organization when I say that we appreciate the extraordinary efforts to deal with
the transient accommodation rental challenges that our communities across Hawaii Island are
facing, and your work on this is recognized and appreciated.
Mahalo and Aloha,
Jerry Gibson Kekoa McClellan
President Chief Advocate
Hawaii Hotel Alliance Hawai'i Hotel Alliance