There’s nothing simple about Airbnb’s proposal

Just when you start working on that “no-brainer,” folks start thinking about it.

For instance, it stands to reason that if the booming Internet alternative to hotel rooms, Airbnb, is getting more popular in Hawaii, there should be a way for Hawaii to get its cut and levy taxes on it, the same way the state taxes Hilton and Outrigger.

So the Legislature is on the verge of including Airbnb listings in the same tax pool, but Airbnb’s “sharing economy” is raising some serious legislative worries.

Airbnb, according to The Wall Street Journal, is valued at more than $15 billion and the global company estimates that it has more than 10,000 active listings in Hawaii.

The latest version of the bill taxing Airbnb, House Bill 1850, would require Airbnb to collect the “transient accommodations” taxes while making sure that Airbnb listings not be in violation of any state or county land use law.

Airbnb officials have been making a push to tell local governments that they are willing to fit in and pay taxes, but in Hawaii, it is coming down to much more than a hotel room tax.

“This bill satisfies many of my concerns,” said former Senate president, Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, who added that the whole issue of increasing tourism in local neighborhoods is troubling.

Kim noted that Airbnb is mailing glossy cards to homeowners asking to sign up with the company and lease their house or rooms to Airbnb clients.

“It is sort of luring them to rent them out, whether legal or not, and it takes the units out of regular long-term rents for our local people,” said Kim, who predicts that when tourists with rental cars are snagging coveted public parking spaces that neighbors expected to use, there is going to be trouble.

Sen. Laura Thielen said the situation is bigger than both maxing out state taxes or preventing parking beefs.

Airbnb entrepreneurs are offering to rent you a tent on a state or county beach. Yes, that is illegal, but Thielen said there is little the state can do to stop it, because when one Airbnb posting is shut down, another one goes up.

“Airbnb is opening up the door to rental of any public space for a night. This is the first step, but because of the changing Internet economy and rise of international tourism, it is a new, serious problem,” Thielen said, adding that she is seeing rentals popping up in her district after Waimanalo Beach picked up a best beach award.

Thielen pointed to a Kauai Airbnb listing for $69 a night that offers to rent a tent to campers and give them “access is to a permitted beach or mountain site that you may sign up with DLNR under the Kauai government site.”

“I believe we need to have a broader conversation on how to deal with the rise of Internet commerce while protecting public spaces and local residents’ quality of life, and protecting public spaces from being illegally commercialized,” Thielen said in an interview.

So it turns out that instead of paving over paradise to put up a parking lot, Hawaii is now looking at Airbnb just leasing out the public parks.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.