Hawaiian Politicians work for Hotels over Residents

Hawaiian Politicians have been working on regislations that suppress every accommodation other than Hotels for a long while. The recent Maui fires provided them a great excuse. They claimed that the housing shortage from the fires forces them to limit short term rentals (STR), which eliminates essentially every accommodation but Hotels.

 

There are quite a few newly built hotel properties across the islands of Hawaii. Most of them are funded by non-Hawaiians. (For example, do you think Hyatt and Hilton are owned by Hawaiians ?) In other words, those Hawaiian Policitians are making laws for the non-Hawaiians. The outcome of such regislations is not going to be solving the housing crisis that was never quantified or even reported but just claimed in some news articles. Therefore, the remedy or solution cannot be verified either.

 

As most of the alternative accommodation options to the travelers would be gone in Hawaii, the tourism of Hawaii will get hit seriously. This will be in two ways. 1st, the # of tourists will drop. This could be a double whammy to Hawaiian Hotels too as their # of rooms are increasing, expecting that there will be more demand as nobody can stay in the alternative accommodations any more. the 2nd impact will be reduced spending per tourist. Assuming that the economy is the same and each tourist has the same budget for each trip, since each tourist has to spend significantly more on their accommodation (that is, Hotel), they will reduce the other spending. In other words, the entire Hawaiian tourism industry (including coffee plantations, for example) will be adversely hit significantly. This is worse as the # of tourist will drop.

 

Even worse yet, due to Trump administration's high tariff policy, the entire US economy is going to be affected. This will erode consumer economy so badly that dropping any expenditure on tourism in general is a natural outcome.

 

Summary: Hawaiians, a long winter (!!) that you have never experienced is coming or already came. Elect your politicians wisely.

 

PS There could be some cheap hotel rooms momentarily when they cannot sustain with many of the rooms empty. However, that won't fulfill needs of the regular tourists who need to plan their travels and book the rooms at the "regular" rates. During the high seasons, Hawaiian hotel rooms could be filled. But that won't last the entire industry as Hawaii will be empty during the non-seasons. (don't get me wrong. Hawaii is great all the year round. the travel seasons come because of the other reasons such as school vacations)