While these laws HAVE NOT officially come to Hawaii, it is expected that they may given that California recently passed them and often times Hawaii can follow similar vacation rental laws as the state of California.
Short-term vacation rentals (STVRs) and hotel listings in California are now required to reveal all mandatory costs up front, according to a new state law that went into effect July 1, 2024. This means that all fees paid by a guest must be visible on the upfront price that they see. This effects both hotels and vacation rentals as both industries are known to have a laundry list of additional fees such as resort fees, administrative fees, cleaning fees, parking fees, and more. The hope is that this will give vacationers the luxury of seeing costs up front and comparing apples to apples.
Third party vacation rental marketplaces are complying with the new requirements in the way they display search results. Both Airbnb and Vrbo’s default display shows two prices: a nightly rate in bold, and “total before taxes” rate in regular font. For California listings on these marketplaces, the bolded nightly rate includes fees.
In all, it is a benefit to the consumer as prior to this law you could spend as much time trying to figure out what the true prices of properties were as you could actually looking for the perfect place to vacation to.
How Would This Benefit the State of Hawaii?
As much as you hate to say it, it all boils down to money. The hope for the states is that it will drive businesses away from the additional fees. In doing this, it is likely to increase tax revenues. Due to the tax laws varying from state to state and even the interpretation of them varying, many vacation rental homeowners submit less tax through the addition of fees, which in turn saves the renter money and costs the state of Hawaii money.
If businesses stop having the additional fees as a marketing strategy, rents will increase and guests pay the transient accommodations tax as well as sales tax on that. Many businesses just charge the sales tax on additional fees.
As mentioned, this law is not in place in the State of Hawaii yet, but be on the lookout. The State of Hawaii is sure to consider something of this nature in the near future.