For decades, Hawaii has been the gold standard for U.S. travel, offering its visitors unique experiences and a taste of island life unlike anywhere else in the country. While hotels have traditionally been the primary beneficiaries of Hawaii’s robust tourist economy, the growth of home-sharing platforms like Airbnb, HomeAway and VRBO has allowed Hawaii’s residents and homeowners to reap more direct benefits of tourism.

Unfortunately, some in the community are doing everything they can to make it harder for home-sharing platforms to operate in Hawaii. These individuals are relying on false pretenses and misleading anecdotes to pressure Gov. David Ige into vetoing House Bill 1850, and are jeopardizing supplemental income for many of their neighbors.

Opponents of the bill deceptively claim that home-sharing platforms are promoting the misuse of public lands, based on the fact that a very small number of listings (only seven out of nearly 10,000) have featured campsites located on public beaches. Even though these listings violate Airbnb policy and have been removed by the company, opponents have attempted to paint a picture in which these kinds of violations are promoted by home-sharing platforms, and are calling on local lawmakers to force companies into policing their users.

These claims miss the mark and illustrate a basic misunderstanding of the nature of platforms like Airbnb and HomeAway. Requiring these companies to ensure the full legal compliance of all listings on the platform — as some critics have suggested the bill should do — would stifle innovation and be operationally impractical given the sheer number of jurisdictions in which they do business.

Furthermore, internet platforms are not and cannot be a replacement for law enforcement in our communities. Asking internet platforms to be the cop on the beat in the short-term rental (STR) market is akin to requiring City Mill to report anyone who buys a large order of lumber to the local building commission. We don’t require companies to police their customers because as a society, we’ve decided that law enforcement is better suited to protect public safety than private industry.

The same concept should apply to technology companies. While platforms actively take steps to remove unwelcome listings that violate their standards and expectations, requiring platforms to regulate or report on our everyday activities simply because we use their products is dangerously misguided, and could undermine the success of e-commerce in Hawaii.

Home-sharing platforms have also provided stakeholders with counsel and guidance on local regulations. Before platforms like VRBO, Airbnb and Home-Away, STR stakeholders had few resources to assist in understanding state and local STR laws. However, with quality legislation like Hawaii’s HB 1850, STR platforms will continue to help educate property owners about local land-use rules, and can voluntarily register to collect and remit taxes on behalf of their users.

In fact, as this paper has already discussed, tax revenues from Airbnb rentals for the state of Hawaii are expected to reach $15 million per year. Few other industries generate such significant returns for communi- ties. Even more of a rarity: these returns actually stay in the communities where they are earned, unlike hotels.

Gov. Ige has an opportunity to solve the problem of collecting general excise taxes and transient accommodations taxes from STRs, all while increasing the state’s funds by millions of dollars. Vetoing HB 1850 will undo much of the progress that has been made to responsibly regulate the STR industry in Hawaii and could push some STR activity back into the shadows.

We hope Hawaii continues its role as leader in the travel industry and HB 1850 is signed into law.