Mayor shutters B&Bs and short-term rentals

Properties can be used for essential workers

After requiring that bed-andbreakfast and short-term rental homes no longer allow visitors, Mayor Michael Victorino said Friday he is looking at eliminating rental cars for visitors to further deter them from arriving on Maui.

“That is my next move,” Victorino said at his daily update on COVID-19.

He said he was talking with rental car companies about implementing such a measure.

On Thursday night, Victorino announced a rule, which took effect at 11 p.m. Friday, that bed-andbreakfast homes and short-term rental homes may only operate to provide housing for essential workers.

He said the accommodations are “no longer open to visitors.”

“Any visitors that are there can finish their stay and return home, but no new reservations will be allowed, effective tonight,” Victorino said.

He said violators face a $5,000 fine.

On Thursday, three visitors arrived on Maui, he said.

“So the numbers have been very small,” he said. “But this is really to alleviate any possibility of people coming in and making a reservation behind closed doors. This way, we can really track who’s coming in and where they’re staying.”

He said officials might even go so far as to “pick them up at the airport, take them directly to their place of lodging and when they’re ready to go home, we turn around 14 days later or whatever it might be and go back.”

Jen Russo, executive director of

the Maui Vacation Rental Association, said she heard that people had called the mayor’s office complaining about a New York Post article about a couple from New York arriving on Maui to stay during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In reality, the bed-andbreakfast and short-term rental homes pretty much have zero occupancy right now,” Russo said Friday. “It’s kind of a nonissue.

“At this point, if the goal is to protect all Maui residents by limiting arriving travelers, the mayor must mean limiting all accommodations and not just a few,” she said.

Since the 14-day quarantine for arriving passengers has been in effect, most people arriving have been Maui residents and returning family members, outnumbering visitors 3 to 1, Russo said.

She said there have been a few requests from the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau to help find housing for health care workers and emergency workers. “We’re happy to assist in the efforts,” she said.

Tom Croly, who owns a bedand-breakfast in Kihei, said he was caught “completely out of the blue” when he heard about the rule Thursday night.

“I have no guests and I don’t expect any guests anytime soon,” he said Friday.

He said there were questions about how the rule would be applied. “Is there an end date?” he said. “Why only bed-andbreakfasts and short-term rentals?”

He noted that there are 11,500 condominiums and more than 3,000 timeshares.

In Maui County, there are 120 permitted bed-andbreakfasts and 237 short-term rentals.

Croly said he would be concerned about having someone as a long-term tenant not knowing when the person might leave and not being able to evict someone who said they couldn’t pay the rent.

On the website for his bedand-breakfast, Croly said he can see when someone searches for availability. “Usually, I have about 30 people a day that will go to my website and look for dates,” he said. “No one’s made a search for a month and a half.

“The public is not out there looking for accommodations. It’s not on most people’s minds.”

Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.