Joy Summers rightfully stated her concerns about housing for families in Hawaii County.
She should have also talked about the local economy and its dependence on the tourist. Outside of coffee production, there is no real other economy in the county not related to tourism. Name a business and the relation to the tourist can be found. We don’t export high tech, we are not an exporter of financial services, we don’t have a true agriculture export — we are a county totally dependent on the tourist.
In December, 487,000 visitors arrived by airline. Hotel occupancy was at 73.1 percent. The average daily rate for the hotels was $298 and the average stay was nine days. Paying for a hotel room and paying $2,700 for the average stay just doesn’t work for most working families, whether they come from the mainland or China, Japan or Australia.
The alternative is the renting out of private homes/rooms to the tourists, which provide more bedrooms per accommodation and lower room rates than the hotels. While $298 is great for some families, it just doesn’t work for many others.
The county is not experiencing the construction of hotel rooms and the lack of accommodations is driving the room rates up and runs the risk of creating hotel rooms only for the rich and the famous. Short-term rentals are necessary to fill this gap and provide much-needed accommodations for families who wish to vacation in paradise and we need to welcome these families. It is, for now, our only economy.
I don’t support the purchase of residences solely for the purpose of renting them out short term. This in and of itself creates a boon for the speculator and a disadvantage for those who live here and need a home either to rent or buy. Why not temper this speculating by limiting the short-term rentals to owner-occupied property owners only, give those property owners the ability to both live in their homes the greater part of the year, but provide some additional income that can be used, for example, for their own travel?
Why not limit short-term rentals to no more than 60 days a year or eight weeks? This would drive out the speculators, provide housing for the primary homeowner and additional income for the homeowner of limited fiscal resources.
Rod Quartararo is a resident of Kailua-Kona.