Registration, Zoning, or Tax? Sorting Out the Big Island Short-Term Rental Rules

If you own a home on the Big Island and rent it short-term, you have probably been half following the news without the details. I was too. So I called the two offices that actually handle this, the County Real Property Tax Office and the Planning Department, and here is the plain-language version.

Registration (Ordinance 25-50)

Registration is mandatory for hosted and unhosted rentals under 180 days. The start date moved from December 2025 to July 1, 2026, and then to September 1, 2026. Fees are $250 for hosted and $500 for unhosted. As of now, the county’s registration portal is not open yet, so there is nothing to register online just yet. The County Planning Department’s short-term rental page has the current details.

The 30 to 180 Day Change (Bill 147)

This one is a zoning question (whether a short-term rental is even allowed where your property sits). The definition today is still under 30 days. The change to under 180 days lives in Bill 147, which is still a proposal. It received a unanimous favorable recommendation from the Windward Planning Commission on July 2, and returns to the Leeward Planning Commission on July 16. From there it still needs further committee review and at least two council hearings, so it is not law yet.

What Counts as Short-Term

For registration, short-term means anything under 180 days, and this is the part that catches many owners by surprise. If you have been renting for two months, or five, and assumed that counted as long-term and kept you out of all this, it does not. Once registration opens, it will be mandatory for you too. (There are property tax implications as well, but that is a separate conversation, and a good one to have with a tax professional.)

Worth Watching

Two bills are set to come before Council committee on July 22. Bill 173 would create a new Bed and Breakfast homeowner tax class that keeps the 3 percent cap for homeowners who also run a B&B, along with a property tax amnesty period to get into the correct tax class without back taxes or penalties. Bill 175 would create a four-month grace period, making the registration window September 1 to December 31, 2026. These are still proposals, not law.

None of this is tax or legal advice, and I am not a CPA. I would watch how it develops, confirm your parcel with the County Real Property Tax Office, and talk it through with a tax professional.

This is still moving (the July 22 bills, and Bill 147 working through the commissions), so I will keep you posted as it develops.

Read the fuller story, and why I ended up calling those two offices myself.