Unhosted STVRs are the problem
It was amazing to read about the number of vacation rental complaints in the Sunday newspaper by Nancy Cook-Lauer. One thing that would have been interesting; how many of those complaints are about unhosted vacation rentals. I would guess 100% since most hosted vacation rentals care about their neighbors. They probably even know their neighbors, unlike unhosted rentals where the owner lives far away and could care less about the neighborhood. They are only interested in making money.
Unhosted renters live elsewhere and have second or more houses that they own. They rent them out to make the payments. Unlike hosted renters, many who are struggling just to make payments on the home they live in. This administration hand-picked their key people for the planning department to cater to the wealthy. This is even evident where the planning department would like to develop more of Hawaii. Thankfully, our County Council tries to keep them in check.
We live in a neighborhood with an illegal, not in compliance, unhosted vacation rental where the owner lives on the mainland. In the past, we complained to the planning department about the rowdy noise day and night by the visitors and nothing was done. Today, we bypass the planning department and call the police at least once a week. Sometimes the police are unable to respond immediately, but they do respond and the visitors are then quiet. Of course, this starts all over again when they return home and a new bunch of visitors arrive.
Why do people purchase houses that they need to rent out to make the payments and let the neighbors suffer? It’s not like they need a place to live, such as the case of hosted vacation rentals. And then there are those that purchase a place in a non-resort area, such as zoned agriculture land. There was a case where someone had a place zoned for agriculture and wanted to open it up for weddings to help pay for it. Then there was a lady who lives on the mainland, who bought a house on the Big Island so she would have a place to stay when she is here. She said that she couldn’t afford it without renting it out. Why then did these people purchase property that they could not afford?
Jill Faust
Kailua-Kona
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Correction
A letter to the editor by Brian Powers published in Thursday’s edition regarding illegal campsites at Old Airport Park in Kona contained an incorrect number of campsites due to an inadvertent error. Powers counted 12 campsites, not 23. It is the policy of West Hawaii Today to correct promptly any misleading or incorrect information when it is brought to the attention of the newspaper.
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