Final month, we noticed a strong instance of the American Lodge & Lodging Affiliation’s advocacy affect and attain as we secured an essential coverage victory that ensures honest remedy for lodges in Hawaii, a significant U.S. vacationer vacation spot that’s crucial to the well being of our trade.
As our members know, AHLA is continually monitoring states throughout the nation for insurance policies that discriminate in opposition to lodges in favor of short-term rental properties. We’re not against short-term leases, and actually a lot of our members function them. However we’re against any effort that provides short-term leases particular remedy over lodges, which often comes within the type of much less regulatory oversight in areas comparable to taxes, zoning, or visitor security requirements.
AHLA’s management on this difficulty got here at a crucial time for the Aloha State.
Like many different states, Hawaii has seen the disastrous results of the explosive development of unregulated short-term leases. When residential properties are purchased for the business use of renting them out to short-term friends, it takes housing choices off the market, driving up costs and placing properties out of attain for native households. It may possibly additionally destroy neighborhoods as many short-term leases turn into social gathering homes for short-term friends, creating unsafe environments for residents who reside there year-round.
The state of affairs worsened when wildfires hit Maui final summer season. A preliminary Federal Emergency Administration Company report from February mentioned greater than 2,200 buildings have been destroyed by these fires, and damages exceeded $5 billion. That created much more housing issues for Hawaii residents.
In Could, the state took motion to make housing extra reasonably priced for residents by enacting a brand new legislation, SB 2919, which included insurance policies AHLA has championed for years. Importantly, SB 2919 gave native officers the power to manage and zone short-term leases below the identical requirements as lodges and part out short-term leases fully in the event that they select.
Gov. Josh Inexperienced careworn the dire want for this legislation in his state. An announcement issued from his workplace mentioned the brand new legislation marks a “pivotal second in tackling the short-term rental disaster in Hawaii,” and added it would “assist in opposition to the antagonistic impacts of non-resident possession of short-term leases, which impedes housing provide for residents and emphasizes the distinctive wants of every county in regulating such lodging.”
The legislation was handed because of a broad vary of help for this alteration. It was backed not solely by our trade companions on the Hawai‘i Lodge Alliance, but in addition by many neighborhood advocacy organizations and two labor unions—Unite Right here Native 5 and the Worldwide Longshore & Warehouse Union Native 142.
Our victory in Hawaii isn’t the tip of the story. AHLA continues to battle in opposition to state-level efforts to provide short-term leases unfair benefits over lodges. These efforts are leading to coverage victories throughout the nation:
- In Georgia, legislators have been contemplating a invoice that will have exempted many short-term leases from regulation. AHLA labored with the Georgia Lodge & Lodging Affiliation to defeat that proposal.
- In Kentucky, a invoice that will have denied counties the choice of prohibiting using residential properties for short-term leases was killed this 12 months. Because of AHLA employees work and the Kentucky Journey Business Affiliation, that invoice by no means received a listening to in committee.
- Related laws in Nebraska to stop regulation of short-term leases was stymied because of AHLA.
- In Tennessee, AHLA and the Tennessee Hospitality & Tourism Affiliation stopped laws that will have offered monetary incentives for the development of short-term rental properties.
- AHLA labored carefully with the Utah Tourism Business Affiliation to defeat laws that will have elevated the state transient room tax on lodges however not for short-term leases. With out the lodge trade’s advocacy, Utah’s lodges would have seen two statewide will increase to the transient room tax totaling 1.6 p.c.
Our success in Hawaii and different states exhibits the selections we’ve made over the past a number of years to spend money on state and native authorities affairs employees and strengthen our partnerships with state lodge associations are paying large dividends. Our group will proceed to make use of these sources to rack up coverage victories anyplace within the nation the place our trade and its staff are threatened.
