+ Who Are We?

RBOAA members are primarily individuals who may live in Hawaii or elsewhere who:

  • Love Hawaii, its people, its customs and the “aloha spirit”.
  • Own vacation property in Hawaii and rent it to visitors to help offset the cost of ownership.
  • Are in frequent contact with potential visitors to Hawaii and serve as unofficial ambassadors, continually promoting Hawaiian tourism.
  • Comply with Hawaiian tax, zoning, consumer protection and other regulations.
  • Believe that tourists deserve the right of free choice to secure accommodations from hotel operators, property managers, or directly from property owners.
  • Believe that property owners deserve the right of free choice whether to rent their accommodations directly to tourists or rent indirectly through condo/hotel operators or indirectly through property managers.

+ Mission

  • To provide accurate information about Hawaiian vacation rentals to property owners and Hawaiian legislators
  • To support the Hawaiian economy by ensuring that visitors have the same accommodation options as other major world vacation destinations
  • To provide Hawaiian vacation rental property owners with information that will help them abide by local and state Hawaiian regulations
  • To help ensure that the rights of Hawaiian vacation rental property owners are not infringed upon in order to benefit other industry players.

+ History

Hawaiian vacation rental owners have been a part of the Hawaiian tourism industry since the 1970s and have long shared common interests such as a love of Hawaii and a desire to provide its guests with a wonderful Hawaiian experience. The expansion of commerce over the internet has greatly increased the ability of many owners to manage their own properties.

Recently a few Hawaiian property managers and hotel owners began to argue that vacation property owners who rented their property directly to guests were creating unfair competition to their traditional vacation accommodation businesses. To support their case, property managers and hotel owners made unsupported allegations that owners who rented directly to guests were not paying Hawaiian taxes and that they were not treating their guests properly.

In 2012 they began to lobby legislators who introduced multiple bills intended to curtail the right and ability of property owners to rent directly to guests.

These events were the catalyst for property owners to band together to form RBOAA as an organization intended to educate the public, property owners and the legislature about “rental by owner” and protect the rights of property owners.

In 2012 and every year since then, RBOAA has fought to counter proposed legislation introduced in the Hawaiian legislature to restrict the rights of property owners. So far our efforts have been successful. In 2015 our members provided over a thousand letters in testimony for and against legislation that would affect our abilities to manage our own property.

While we have, through a lot of volunteer work, been successful at the state level so far, we do not anticipate that property managers and hotel associations will put up their hands in defeat. We expect that many of the future battles will continue to be fought at the state, county, and city level.

+ Note From The President

Thank you for visiting our site!

You may have come to us through our membership renewal effort and our online and through-the-mail new-member recruitment campaign. Perhaps you’re a legislator looking for accurate information and material to assist in policy discussions and decisions. Maybe you’re a member of the media, looking for more information about the important role private vacation rentals play in Hawaii. And you may be a member, keeping up-to-date with developments that apply to your operation and management of your Hawaii vacation rental or “transient accommodation” as they’re called in Hawaii statutes.
No matter how you got here, Welcome!
There are a great many initiatives underway at RBOAA, and we’re certainly a work in progress. And as we add volunteers, and find more ways to provide facts and support, my promise is that we’ll be an even bigger resource.
We’re also about helping our members keep their Hawaii vacation rental businesses viable, successful, and in their control. Sadly, there are still some interests in Hawaii who want to put an end to Hawaii owner-operated and managed vacation rentals. They believe they should be the ones to control owners’ Hawaii vacation-rental businesses, not the owners.
In 2012 and every year since, these interests were able to have legislation introduced that came very, very close to forcing us to turn over the control of our Hawaii vacation rental properties to others. Through efforts by owners just like you, and the creation of the Hawaii Rental By Owner Awareness Association (RBOAA), we were able to work with legislators to amend this legislation so that all of us could continue to have control of our Hawaii vacation-rental properties. In 2015, these same interests tried again, and fortunately, Hawaii’s legislators knew to access us for information and facts that gave a true picture. In providing this information to legislators and the media, we were again able to put an end to the effort to seize control of our Hawaii owner-operated, vacation-rental properties.
These same interests have not given up, and they never will.
They’ll continue to attempt to give weight to their erroneous assertions by citing parts of statutes and specific clauses, but wholly disregarding the other facets of the statute that undo their arguments. They’ll extract clauses from some acts and insert them into others to create their own ‘laws’ in order to create deficiencies where none exist, obligations where none are required, and the need for legislative or regulatory action when none is warranted. They’ll try to force poor conclusions by offering hearsay, anecdotal reports, and studies and reports that cannot be cited and verified.
Fortunately, owners across Hawaiʻi have come together as a result, and we’re making sure that the policy discussion on transient accommodations is an informed and honest one. That approach benefits Hawaii, its tourism industry, and is surely respected by all who care about property rights and the legal frameworks that uphold them.
Despite this, these same interests have signaled their intent to be active in upcoming legislative sessions to gain control over owner-operated vacation rentals. Owners of owner-operated properties who stick together and work together, are the greatest bulwark against those who would see the state take from us our control over our Hawaii rental properties.
We need you! Legislators and media representatives please peruse this site and contact us if you need more information about us or our participation to ensure this key part of the accommodation offerings to Hawaii visitors continues to meet the growing demand.
If you’re already an RBOAA member, please renew your membership on these pages. If you are not already a member, please join! And whether you’re a new member or a returning member, please consider making a special donation to fund our next by-mail initiative to attract new members from across Hawaii who, just like you, want to maintain control over their Hawaii vacation rental properties.
Please renew now, or join now to make sure we continue to have the resources to ensure that owners are able to control and operate their Hawaiʻi vacation-rental properties well into the future. Please join and help preserve our ongoing ability to operate and control our licensed and legal Hawaiʻi vacation-rental properties.
Join us in working to preserve the important role all of us are playing in providing guests with exceptional Hawaii accommodation.

Sincerely,
Alicia Humiston, President