Kauai County, Airbnb Inc. agree to limit rentals

Kauai County has partnered with Airbnb Inc., the online travel platform, to help weed out illegal vacation rental properties on the Garden Isle.

Under an agreement, Air­bnb will provide monthly reports to the county for each vacation rental listing and designated tax map key of each property on Kauai posted on its website. Properties without a valid TMK will be removed from Airbnb’s website. Kauai allows short-term vacation rentals, but only in designated visitor areas.

Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami said, “Following months of dialogue, we are pleased that Airbnb has partnered with the county to promote only legally permitted short-term rental operators on our island, and we look forward to continued partnership.”

In a statement, Matt Middlebrook, Airbnb’s head of public policy in Hawaii, praised Kawakami for striking a balance between accommodating isle residents and the visitor industry.

“Short-term rentals are a vital source of supplemental income for local residents, and for many the only source of income. We are grateful to Mayor Kawakami and county Planning Director Ka‘aina Hull for working with us on an agreement that preserves the benefits of short-term rentals for residents and the local economy, while providing the county the tools to bring rental owners and operators into compliance with local law,” Middlebrook said.

The TMKs are used by the county to determine whether the vacation rental properties are within the designated visitor destination areas where hotels are. Kauai has roughly 3,500 to 4,000 legal vacation rentals, primarily in Princeville, Nawiliwili and Poipu.

The county passed a law in 2008 prohibiting vacation rentals to operate outside the visitor destination- zoned areas.

There are approximately 450 legal vacation rentals outside of the designated visitor destination areas. Those rentals will be allowed to continue operating legally.

The county’s agreement with Airbnb comes days after the county announced a similar agreement with global travel platform Expedia Group, which owns two other popular home-sharing platforms: VRBO and HomeAway. Hull said the partnerships with Airbnb and Expedia will help “to further ensure compliance on a global market level.”

Following a three-month shutdown as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, mayors in Kauai, Maui and Hawaii counties began allowing legal vacation rentals to reopen June 16 to guests who do not have to quarantine. The reopening coincided with Gov. David Ige’s lifting of the 14-day quarantine for interisland passengers.

The state’s mandated 14-day quarantine remains in effect for out-of-state passengers through July 31 and is likely to be extended. Violators of the quarantine face up to one year in jail and up to a $5,000 fine.

With the gradual reopening of the state economy, Ige recently announced that trans-Pacific passengers with approved negative COVID-19 tests taken within 72 hours of their trip to Hawaii may bypass the mandated 14-day quarantine starting Aug. 1.

Officials have yet to release specific details on testing protocols.