KAILUA-KONA — This year’s 55th annual Merrie Monarch Festival drew a surge of visitors to the Big Island using the home sharing website, Airbnb.
During the festival, Airbnb hosted 2,290 East Hawaii guests and 2,510 West Hawaii guests for a total of 4,800 visitors, the highest recorded Airbnb arrivals for Merrie Monarch. Last year, it hosted 4,105 guests.
“I was booked out six months in advance (of the festival),” said Shawn Pila, an Airbnb host in Hilo.
Hawaii locals from Honolulu and Kailua-Kona were among the largest groups of Airbnb guests during the festival.
Many Airbnb travelers also voyaged to the Big Island from Seattle, San Francisco, New York City, Toronto, and even Seoul.
Airbnb provides visitors with an alternative to hotels in tourist areas for what it bills as an authentic, often more affordable experience.
The typical host earnings from both sides of the island were $315 during the festival.
Ross Birch, executive director of the Island of Hawaii Visitors Bureau, said the influx of visitors for the Merrie Monarch festival is not just profitable for those lodging visitors.
All local businesses — from food vendors to businesses associated with Hawaiian culture reap economic benefits from the event, he said.
But Birch stressed the primary takeaway of the Merrie Monarch Festival is not financial, but cultural.
“The major impact is on culture and perpetuation of hula and allowing Hawaii to showcase its premier asset,” he said.
Pila, born and raised in Hilo, attended the Merrie Monarch festival for the first time last year while shooting the event for KITV/K5/HNN.
“It was kind of a wake-up call to connect with my heritage, Hawaiian heritage,” Pila said.
Pila said he enjoys hosting via Airbnb during Merrie Monarch to share Hawaiian culture with people from all over the globe.
“It is truly a privilege to share my home and the experience of the week’s festivities with guests who otherwise probably wouldn’t have a place to stay,” Pila said in a recent press release.
wow…..now if only ALL those rentals were LEGAL and registered and remitting their GET and TAT Taxes due
Right now the ratio is:
ONE out of Every FOUR Rentals is Legal and remitting the collected taxes due.
With 24,000 rentals in the State of Hawaii approximately 6,000 Rentals are LEGAL and the “other” 18,000 are ILLEGAL.
Sorry but there is ZERO evidence to support what you’re saying. This paper’s article stating that was false, comparing apples to oranges from two unrelated surveys. There are already laws on the books requiring payment of GE and TA taxes so the question is why isn’t the State doing anything about those that are unpaid? Nobody has any idea what % of listings aren’t paying taxes. Since the vast majority of listings statewide are those in resort zones, Kim and corrupt members of the County Council are rewarding them by not requiring them to prove payment of taxes in order to register them, while those outside of resort zones are only allowed if they can prove payment of taxes and pay $500 to a mystery fund that the County will not have to show what they’re even putting the money towards.
There are what I call “stables” of rentals….one number …unlimited rentals.
There are un permitted sub standard rentals….
There are simply rentals collecting money ( which includes tax by the way) that put the cash in their pockets.
Airbnb Will remit taxes but WILL NOT share owner or registration information with the state and county….
Laws for vacation rentals have been on the books for years and years and go unenforced thanks to the county and state.
I play by the rules and remit collected taxes and watch as scofflaw Users take my potential guests and do not remit their collected taxes ( collected tax money is NOT optional to put in your pocket.)
Then there is GLAMPING or even renting out a Home Depot plastic shed.
When you read the complaints about wild parties and drugs and noise and traffic….who is running these establishments?
The county is at best incompetent and at worst lazy….probably both.
This is an out of control mess and gets worse every year.
Who said Crime doesn’t pay?
The county and state are Not doing their jobs by enforcing existing laws.
The Vacation Rental venues want rooms and don’t really care who rents them, if they are legal or if they are even safe to be in.
As a result of unfair and illegal competition for guests I may not be able to continue paying my taxes like clock work.
What is the State and county left with then….
Tax Cheats and Illegal rentals.
Airbnb had an agreement with the state to collect GET and TAT a few months ago. Just before signing it, City and County of Honolulu asked the governor to NOT sign it. It was a big article in Honolulu, so you can see the information if you want validation.
Should be quite interesting next year after Kim rams through his vacation rental ban. As is there are only 1/5th the hotel rooms needed to house even the average number of visitors to the east side. Kim has always hated the poorest among us, specifically Native Hawaiians. That’s why he’s only allowing income generating vacation rentals in areas that are 65-90% white and is proposing to raise sales taxes 12% to 20% overall, which is by far the highest in the country and harms low-income people the most.