Legislator Quick Facts

The Hawaiʻi Rental By Owner Awareness Association (RBOAA) is comprised of members who own or own and manage vacation rental property on Hawaiʻi.  Private vacation rental plays a major and welcomed role in meeting the accommodation needs and preferences of Hawaiʻi’s visitors.  Thanks to the internet, this type of accommodation option is available around the globe and is a rapidly growing segment of the tourism  accommodation offering as increasingly sophisticated travellers seek the vacation of their design and choice.

Any policy discussion — including one on improving the Hawaiʻi tourism product — is made better when its contributions are truthful and fact-based.  Hawaiʻi, and our tourism export, deserve no less from all of us.

If you’re a legislator, or department or agency staff, we hope you will draw upon the knowledge of the Hawaiʻi Rental By Owner Awareness Association whenever you are considering or are presented with perspective from others on this important component of Hawaiʻi’s exceptional accommodation offerings.  You’ll find we’re responsive, responsible, and that we’re here to help.

It’s a changing world.  The rapid growth of vacation planning sites on the internet has turned the travel industry on its head.  Hotels, private vacation property owners and vacation property management companies must all continuously adapt to survive.  Good business practices and healthy competition are important to our economy.  At RBOAA, we believe that legislating protection for one segment of an industry at the expense of another segment is not good for the economy.

Unfortunately, there are some who believe the state should protect them by transferring control over private property from the owners to them.  We have seen four typical strategies employed to accomplish this.

 

  • They cite statutes and isolate specific clauses, while wholly disregarding the other facets of the statute in order to give weight to erroneous assertions;
  • They create a rush to legislation to resolve a problem where none exists;
  • They extract clauses and words from some acts, and insert them into others, 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 bolster specious assertions and conclusions by offering hearsay, anecdotal reports, and studies and reports that cannot be cited and verified.

 

So whenever you are considering or are presented with perspective from others on vacation rentals by owners, that’s where the Hawaiʻi Rental By Owner Awareness Association is a go-to resource.  We exist to provide information and support where we can.  And our commitment is to provide factual, honest, and verifiable information that contributes to informed consideration of issues, options, and decision-making.  If we don’t have the information, we’ll say so, and work to support the research efforts by credible institutions and bodies that bring the knowledge into public domain.

The key fact is that vacation rentals by owner are now a standard part of the global tourism offering.  There is a significant monetary investment in vacation rentals by owner in Hawaiʻi, both in the tourism industry and in the buy-sell real estate market.

We hope that you will include the Hawaiʻi Rental By Owner Awareness Association in your thoughts, considerations, and interactions, and reach out to us when you have questions or need information about the role we play in the Hawaiʻi tourism industry.