Full List of Hotel Zoned Condo Short-Term Vacation Rentals on Maui

Hawaii’s independent vacation rental industry has undergone drastic changes in recent years and the August 8, 2023 West Maui Wildfires have even further increased the level of scrutiny on this important local industry. Vacation Rentals properties are not without their negative impacts nor is any sort of development, however, it is my personal opinion as someone born and raised on the island of Maui that they are crucial to our over all well being. I touch on a few specifics here in a previous post: Legal Vacation Rentals Are Crucial to Maui’s Vitality as a Whole.

With this being said, Maui County as well as many other counties around the state are facing an epidemic of affordable housing. I am huge proponent of Affordable Housing and I believe that it should be the #1 objective for our State, individual Counties, and various departments to get real about and start creating the tens of thousands of homes that we need. It is paramount to note that taxes generated from legal short-term vacation rental properties in Maui County, are by far the #1 Funding Source for the Maui County Affordable Housing Fund with almost $40 million generated in the last couple of years.

The Hawaii Legislature is considering two bills related to short-term rentals: Senate Bill 2919 and House Bill 1838 would allow counties to effectively ban legal short-term property rentals. It is bills like these that have inspired the contents and positions that I assert in this post. The Honolulu Star Advertiser just recently published an article authored by Julie Meier who is the Hawaii Association of Realtors 2024 State President regarding this and the article can be found here.

In this blog post, I hope to clear up some facts, figures, and distinctions about various vacation rental asset classes and share my assertion that Hotel Zone vacation rental properties are likely the most safeguarded asset class to continue their current permitted use. Further down in this post, I cover the various hotel zoned vacation rental buildings in Maui. If you would like to receive a list of currently listed Hotel Zoned Properties for Sale in Maui, please reach out and I will make it happen.

Each of the individual counties in the State of Hawaii has their own set of rules and regulations pertaining to vacation rentals. Kauai island is probably the most straightforward and easiest to understand. Maui is probably the second most straight forward and with long established rules. Oahu has just undergone some major changes and Hawaii Island is currently in the process of doing so.

It is estimated by the County of Maui that there are currently approximately 16,000 legally operating vacation rental properties on Maui in total.

Despite wide spread mis-information, it is my opinion that there are very few vacation rental properties on Maui operating illegally. I do believe that those properties that continue to operate illegally are higher-end homes that have private client networks who chose to rent them and/or hidden property booking websites. Both AirBnB and VRBO/Expedia which are by far the largest booking sites for said properties, now require TMK numbers and GET/TAT numbers to be published on their websites as well as additional required input in the back-end of their systems to ensure that they are legal vacation rentals.

Vacation rentals are in almost all instances locally operated and is estimated that the industry on Maui alone generates roughly 18,000 jobs at an average pay of $39 per hour. This capital is generated here and spreads throughout our locally throughout many other small local businesses rather than being shipped off over sees to London, Hong Kong, New York or wherever it may be.  My team and I are currently one of these operators with roughly $100M in assets in management where we directly employ dozens of hard working Maui locals and indirectly help support many more local businesses.

I recently assisted a client of mine selling two Hotel zoned vacation rental properties at Honua Kai in Kaanapali and purchasing a Hotel Zoned Vacation rental condo Hoolei Residence #23-3 in Wailea by means of a Reverse 1031 Exchange. Our team now operates this legal vacation rental property in our portfolio and the booking site for said property can be found here- Hoolei 23-3 Vacation Rental Site.

Maui’s Different Classifications of Vacation Rentals

Legal residential home vacation rentals

It is important to distinguish that there are different classes of legal vacation rental properties in Maui County. For residential homes, either a STR or TVR license is required to operate a legal vacation rental. There are some residential lots in Maui County that are zoned Hotel which makes the processing of these permits much more expeditious and I believe that these licenses transfer upon a change in ownership ( a sale) but non-hotel zoned properties that have these licenses do not transfer upon sales. Furthermore, I have heard whispers that there may be changes to STR and TVR permits that may soon require an owner to live on the subject property and operate the business which is the current premise of our Bed and Breakfast license.  There are only a couple hundred of these homes on the entire island and they are mainly multi, multi, million dollar properties that would never be affordable regardless of their ability to short term rent. The initial requirements are quite rigorous and require applicants to make public notice within certain distance of their neighboring properties. Adjoining neighbors have the right to voice their opposition and if said opposition is too vehement, it is unlikely that said permit will be granted.

Bed and Breakfast Properties

B&B properties are legal vacation rental residential homes in which the basis of the permit is that a legal registered owner of the property is required to live on the property itself and also be the operator of record for the vacation rental property. There are caps for each geographic region that the County has allocated. On Maui island, there are currently 145 registered B&B properties and remaining capacity at roughly 246 properties spread out throughout the island. It is noteworthy, that although the requirements are not as stringent as STR properties, they are still very substantial and due require notice to adjoining properties as well. Currently, where I live in Kaanapali Coffee Farms in West Maui- there is 1 permitted short term vacation rental home in a neighborhood of 51 lots and there were 2 other owners who applied for permits but were denied due to strong opposition of neighboring properties.

One of my current exclusive listings is Kapalua Bay Villas #12G4 is a legal vacation rental property that I currently have listed and appears on the Minatoya List. This beautiful 1bd/1ba. full ocean view condo is currently listed for $1.439M and all listing details can be found here.

Apartment or Residential Zoned Condos “The Minatoya List”

There are roughly 8,000+ condo properties on Maui that are either zoned one of the apartment classifications or residential classifications that the County currently has but are legal vacation rentals codified into current Maui County code. The vast majority of these properties were originally designed as transient rental properties back in the 70s and 80s. However, there are also a number of these properties that were built as part of workforce housing projects in order to fulfil the development projects for specific hotels that were built on Maui. I don’t know which properties specifically fall into this classification and if anyone has more information on this front, I would love to see the details.

Link to the Maui County published Minatoya List here. Please don’t ask me why there are a couple Hotel Zoned properties listed here as well, I have no idea on why they appear on this list hahaha.

In the Stice Team of Hawaii Life Vacations portfolio, roughly half of our current inventory falls into this property classification whereas the other half is zoned Hotel.

Disclaimer: an actual zoning report from the County of Maui is part of the mandatory Seller’s Real Property Disclosure and this is the information that buyers should most heavily rely on. 

Another listing of mine is Honua Kai Konea #239 is Hotel Zoned vacation rental in one of West Maui’s premiere vacation rental complexes. This 2bd.2/ba has a unique and incredible floorplan with a beautiful ocean view, check out all listing details here.

Hotel Zoned Vacation Rental Properties

It is my personal opinion that hotel lobbying power has made a concerted effort over the years to consistently attack the legal vacation rental industry in the state of Hawaii and they have done it by means of direct legislative lobbying endeavors, infusing the public and local media with ridiculously inaccurate information to further their endeavors. Vacation rental properties are a direct threat to their business models and long term sustainability. In my opinion, where this becomes a benefit to Hotel Zoned Short Term Vacation rental properties is that West Maui properties like Honua Kai, Mahana, The Whaler, the Alii, Kaanapali Shores etc fall into the same zoning classifications as the Westin, the Hyatt, the Sheraton etc. and properties like Hoolei, Wailea Beach Villas, Mana Kai etc. are zoned the same as the Andaz, the Grand Wailea, the Four Seasons, etc. If the County of Maui or State of Hawaii wants to attack Hotel Zoned Vacation Rental Properties by means of invalidating their State Zoning on what basis can they do so without posing the same direct threat to the hotels? When 30% of Hawaii’s hotels are now owned by multi-billion dollar private equity funds, do you really think they would take up this battle? Private Equity Owns a Big Chunk of Hawai‘i’s Hotels. Here’s Why That Matters.

The biggest difference is that these hotel companies are very much aligned with each others in many ways and are owned in many times by the same parent corporations (see link above) and thus have massive lobbying power and overall influence. Individually owned vacation rental properties are basically a cluster f*** of tens of thousands of different owners that are really only aligned through entities like the MVRA and HIMAST which are gaining traction but need massive assistance.

Properties like Aston Kaanapali Shores or Aston Mahana s are not actually owned by the Aston Corp itself but their front desk areas may be and certainly are operated by the Aston Corp. as part of the front desk rental programs. From a lending standpoint, these properties are referred to as CondoTel properties and have more rigorous financing requirements that I touch on here in a past blog post. Purchase a Hawaii Condo-Tel Property with as Little as 20% Down Payment. Also noteworthy that in this past blog post where I discuss 3 Ways to Rent & Optimize Your Hawaii Vacation Rental Property.

I also have listed Mahana #811- a panoramic ocean view corner residence 2bd/2ba Hotel Zoned vacation rental property, all listing details can be found here. The seller of this property has very succesfully operated their vacation rental operation on their own during their ownership tenure with absolutely fantastic rental income returns. Read about how to Earn a part time job in Hawaii by Purchasing a Vacation Rental Property 

Disclaimer: an actual zoning report from the County of Maui is part of the mandatory Seller’s Real Property Disclosure and this is the information that buyers should most heavily rely on. 

West Maui Hotel Zoned Vacation Rental Properties

For all of the properties that list below, I have linked to a few of them that individually appear on our site but due to coding issues that are out of my control, not all of the buildings link properly nor do all of the active listings. For an accurate up to date list, please do reach out to me directly. 

Lahaina Town

• Lahaina Shores – this property is located in the burn zone in Lahaina and is currently inoperable.
• Aina Nalu- was located in the burn zone and itself completely burned down. 

Kaanapali

• Kaanapali Ali’i
• Whaler at Kaanapali 
• Honua Kai– all three buildings Hokulani, Konea, and Luana Garden Villas
• Mahana at Kaanapali
• Kaanapali Shores

Honokowai

There are lots of vacation rental properties here but none of them are zoned hotel. The vast majority of these condos appear on the Minatoya list.

Our team is currently representing 4 different Hotel Zoned vacation rentals at the Royal Kahana- two 2 bedroom oceanfront condos #610 and #1010 and two oceanview 1 bedroom condos #213 and #308.

Kahana

• Sands of Kahana
• Valley Isle Resort
• Royal Kahana
• Hololani
• Pohailani (only oceanfront portion)- Pohailani has split zoning between the project. The properties that are on the ocean side of the lower road are zoned Hotel whereas the ones on the mauka side of the road are not. 

Napili

There are several vacation rental complexes here but none are technically zoned Hotel. However, Alaeloa which is an incredibly stunning oceanfront gated townhome complex which is Leasehold ownership rather than fee simple is zoned TVR STRH which means Transient Vacation Rental Short Term Rental Home. Our team is representing an absolutely stunning rental residence at Alaeloa #3 pictured above.

Kapalua 

• Ritz Carlton Residences
• Montage Residences at Kapalua Bay

Central Maui (including Maalaea) Hotel Zoned Vacation Rental Properties 

There are about 10 vacation rental complexes in Maalaea but none of them are zoned Hotel.

North Shore Hotel Zoned Vacation Rental Properties 

Kuau Plaza is the only short term vacation rental condo complex on the North Shore but it is zoned apartment.

South Maui Hotel Zoned Vacation Rental Properties 

Our site is not properly set up to display each of these buildings in Kihei, so again please reach out and I will get you individual active listings for sale. 

North Kihei

• Kealia
• Sugar Beach Resort
• Nani Kai Hale
• Kihei Kai
• Maalaea Surf
• Kihei Beach Resort
• Koa Lagoon
• Menehune Shores
• Kihei Holliday

Central Kihei

• Kamaole Nalu
• Hale Pau Hana
• Royal Mauian

South Kihei

• Kihei Surfside
• Mana Kai
• Hale Hui Kai

Wailea 

• Wailea Elua (Phase 1 and 2)
• Residences at Andaz
• Hoolei
• Wailea Beach Villas
• Wailea Point is zoned hotel but due to a fairly recent change in the HOA guidelines, the montly rentals that were previously allowed are no longer permitted.

Makena

• Polo Beach Club
• Makena Surf
• Makena Beach Club- Discovery Resort

Mahalo for Your Consideration

Mahalo for taking the time to read my article here. While sharing the positive aspects about legal vacation rentals here in Maui, I realize that the system is far from perfect and constant input and improvement is imperative. I invite to share your thoughts below in a constructive and polite manner.

Work with a True Vacation Rental Specialist

• Licensed since 2006 at age 23; Third Generation Realtor
• Top Selling Broker in the Entire State of Hawaii age 40 or under.
• $70M Sold in last two years and a very consistent track record of vacation rental condo sales.
• Born and raised on Maui; Seabury Hall and Babson College educated.
• Honua Kai and Kaanapali Shores Homeowner Investor and Ka’anapali Coffee Farm property owner.
• Facts. Analysis. Performance.
• Expert negotiator and astute contractual knowledge.
• Comprehensive pricing Analysis- more valuable/insightful than an Appraisal.
• Complimentary In-house design and staging services by Laura Lancaster of WIBU Interior Designs.
• Commitment to stellar “white glove“ services.
• Driven, Knowledgeable, assertive, determined, and fun to work with.
• Solution-oriented and able to navigate very challenging issues.
• Listens well and has strong communication skills.
• Introduced and established Hawaii Life Real Estate Brokers, Hawaii’s Top Real Estate Firm to Maui in 2009.

My wife and I have owned an investment property at Honua Kai since 2014, we just purchased our second at Kaanapali Shores in 2023, I have represented countless buyers and sellers on Vacation Rental Properties in Hawaii, and we operate a top-performing vacation rental program operating within numerous resorts in Maui.

Jeremy Stice R(B) at Your Service

As the director of Hawaii Life’s West Maui Vacation Rental portfolio and one of Hawaii Life’s top-selling Brokers, my team and I are here at your service. I was born and raised here in Maui, am a third-generation Realtor, and my wife and I have called West Maui home since 2010-we enjoy sharing our passion for it with all who are interested. I make a commitment to pick up my cell phone as best as I can, return voicemails, text messages, and email in a timely fashion. I also work 7 days a week so feel free to call me anytime you need me. I am here at your service, I look forward to sharing my passion and expertise with you. Want to follow my blog via email updates? Please enter it below. This will not be used for any other reason than automatic blog updates that I post. Subscribe to the Jeremy Stice Blog Roll Here.

You might also be interested in these past articles:

• Maui Island Wide Vacations offered by The Stice Team of Hawaii Life Vacations
• The Hawaii Life Stice Team: Committed to Meeting and Exceeding your Maui Vacation Rental Needs
• New Hoolei Luxury Vacation Rental Offering in Wailea Maui
• Important Updates for Property Insurance for Vacation Rental Condos in Hawaii
• Properly Transition a Hawaii Vacation Rental Property During a Purchase Part 2
• Properly Transition a Hawaii Vacation Rental Property During a Purchase Part 1
• Maui 1031 Exchange Golf Course Living Kapalua Golf Villas to Beachfront Mahana at Kaanapali
• Maui Vacation Rentals Outpacing General Maui Market & Becoming More Valuable
• Key Amenities of a Succesful Hawaii Vacation Rental Property
• Sapphires to Diamonds – Ranking Maui’s Top Luxury Vacation Rental Properties 
• New Hawaii Vacation Rental Loan Program with 20% Down Payment
• 3 Ways to rent and optimize your Hawaii Vacation Rental Property
• How to properly prepare for owning a Hawaii Vacation Rental Property 
• 5 Ways to Protect your Hawaii Vacation Rental Investment Property
• Invest in a Hawaii Vacation Rental Property with as Little as 20% Down 
• Maui County Publishes Maui County Short-Term Vacation Rental List
• Purchasing a Maui Vacation Rental? 3 Reasons to Call Us First!
• Maui Realtor Interviewing for Your Services Today 
• Earn a Part Job in Hawaii by Purchasing a Vacation Rental Property
• Toolkit For Purchasing a Hawaii Vacation Rental Property
• How Technology Facilitates Maui Property Sales via the Internet
• Invest in Maui Property via an Internet Purchase with Jeremy Stice & Hawaii Life