Short-term rental owners in violation of registering in Hawaiʻi County could get 4-month grace period

Short-term rental owners were supposed to registers their properties by December 2025 with Hawaiʻi County under as part of new requirements for those properties outlined in an updated county ordinance that took effect last year.

Since it’s taking time for the county to develop a convenient registration platform, however, a Hawaiʻi County Council committee on Wednesday forwarded with a favorable recommendation a measure that would create a 4-month grace period and waive violation fees for short-term rental owners who have yet to register their properties.

Hawaiʻi County Council member Heather Kimball introduced Bill 175 during the council’s Policy Committee on Planning, Land Use and Economic Development meeting. The measure is aimed at incentivizing compliance by putting on hold registration violation fees from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31, giving short-term rental property owners more time to register.

“It is well-documented on tax assessments and on the county website that whenever you rent your property for less than 180 days, it is a short-term rental,” Kimball said. “However, we don’t want to be retroactive with enforcement and also want to encourage people to register with the county.”

She added that “if folks think a longer time is necessary for the registration grace period, I am certainly open to the conversation.”

Council in July 2025 passed Bill 47, Ordinance 25-50 which updated vacation rental rules, including the requirement that owners must register their properties. The ordinance also clarified definitions, added licensing for hosted stays, tightened eligibility for unhosted rentals and introduced tougher enforcement and new platform accountability for Airbnb and VRBO.

Hawaiʻi County Planning Department has since been developing a registration platform through Deckard Technologies, which is used by more than 500 jurisdictions to manage short-term and long-term rental compliance.

Planning Director Jeffrey Darrow explained the registration process during the meeting.

Applicants must meet all requirements before they can be registered, including:

• Site drawing.
• Certificate of tax clearance.
• No delinquent real property or transient accommodations tax.
• Copy of the general excise tax license.
• Copy of the transient accommodation tax certificate.
• Registration fee of $250 for hosted or $500 for unhosted transient vacation rentals.

Applicants will receive a temporary registration number from the county after their application is accepted. That also will be shared with short-term vacation rental platforms before the applications are processed.

If an application does not meet certain requirements, the registration will be revoked until the issue is addressed.

“While they have the conditionally approved registration, the Planning Department will review all the information and make sure there isn’t any missing information or permits,” Darrow said. “If everything looks good, they will be given a permanent number and won’t need to deal with Planning anymore. Deckard will also send a notice when the annual fee is due.”

Since the Planning Department has been part of this transition, Bill 175 transfers some responsibilities from the county’s finance director to the planning director, including issuing, revoking and updating transient vacation rental registrations.

“The Department of Finance is an essential part of this ordinance when it is related to the taxes from short-term rentals, and the Planning Department handles everything to do with registration and land use,” Darrow said. “We have been having weekly meetings during this process and are working together to make sure we make this process as simple as possible.”

The bill also clarifies that funds collected under Ordinance No. 25-50 are to be deposited into the short-term vacation rental enforcement fund.

Darrow said he is impressed with the Deckard platform and thinks everything will be ready to go starting Sept. 1.

Policy Committee on Planning, Land Use and Economic Development Chairperson Ashley Kierkiewicz during Wednesday’s meeting asked Darrow about the possibility of offering a webinar to walk people through the registration process on the new platform.

“I think if we can announce a date and time for a webinar by the first bill reading by the council, that would be excellent,” Kierkiewicz said. “We want to make sure everyone gets ample time to know about the webinar, so they can attend or make proper preparations.”

Darrow agreed and said it would be possible to have a webinar planned by the first reading and said his department could make sure to update the county’s transient accommodation rental website, which includes transient vacation rental legislation and videos explaining the new rules in one place.

Bill 175 — with its favorable recommendation from the committee — will next be heard in 2 weeks by Hawaiʻi County Council during its first August meeting.

You can watch Wednesday’s committee meeting online.