Airbnb, Mayor Kawakami reach agreement to help Kauaʻi County enforce short-term rental laws

Agreement will facilitate enforcement, promote compliance and support the County’s visitor industry

News Release from County of Kauai June 29, 2020

Mayor Derek S. K. Kawakami and Airbnb today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to help the County of Kaua‘i enforce its short-term rental laws. Under the agreement, hosts without a valid Tax Map Key (TMK) will be removed from the Airbnb platform upon notice from the County of Kauaʻi.

Kaua‘i law allows short-term rentals in designated Visitor Destination Areas (VDAs) or areas designated for hotels. The new agreement will make it easier for the county to enforce against short-term rental operators outside these designated areas.

"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," said Mayor Kawakami.

As outlined in the MOU, hosts on Airbnb will be required to input a TMK number on listing pages in order to appear on Airbnb’s platform. Every month Airbnb will share a report with the County Department of Planning that includes the URL for each listing and the corresponding host-provided TMK number. The County will use this monthly report to verify the TMK numbers. Hosts that fail to provide a TMK or input an invalid TMK will be removed from the platform and only allowed to relist once they provide a valid number.

“Short-term rentals are a vital source of supplemental income for local residents, and for many the only source of income,” said Matt Middlebrook, Airbnb’s Head of Public Policy in Hawaii. “We are grateful to Mayor Kawakami and County Planning Director Ka‘āina 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. We hope this agreement serves as a fair, common sense model for other counties looking to promote compliance and leverage the benefits of home sharing.”

In addition, under the agreement Airbnb also commits to educate hosts about the County’s short-term rental laws to promote compliance.

Airbnb will share a link of the County’s licensing and information web page on its responsible hosting page and share information about the County’s requirements with hosts ahead of the launch of the mandatory TMK field on its listings.

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TGI June 26, 2020: Kaua‘i partners with Expedia Group to regulate TVRs 

TGI July 1, 2020: Airbnb to enforce TVR listings

CB: County officials say the agreements mark the first time that a Hawaii government has entered into a cooperative agreement with a travel platform.

PBN: Kauai reaches agreements with Expedia, Airbnb concerning vacation rentals  

SA: Kauai County, Airbnb Inc. agree to limit rentals