As owners of vacation rentals on Maui, our contribution to the tax base of the community is considerable. We love our community and want to see it prosper while remaining respectful of our beautiful Hawaiian homeland.

We have been closely watching the process that has taken place to reopen tourism, and we’re grateful that guests are finally able to stay in our properties just as they would in a hotel or resort.

We have taken extra precautions to maintain clean units with extended times between guests. In addition, platforms like VRBO and Airbnb are holding us to very high standards to ensure our properties are as safe as possible.

Unfortunately, bad actors remain a threat to businesses like ours and cause Maui County to lose out on deserved tax revenue.

A recent agreement on Kauai between the mayor and Expedia Group has shown that there’s an effective way to crack down on illegal property listings while still allowing responsible rental owners like us to continue contributing to the community.

By requiring valid tax keys to be listed on every property, the county can easily identify any illegal operations and the online platform can quickly delist them. Our hope is that Maui officials will recognize these issues and adopt a similar, balanced solution when dealing with vacation rentals.

Dr. Kimo Walz and Laurie Walz

Kihei