I do not work for a real estate broker who owns a vacation rental company. I handle one property as per the law. The owner lives on the mainland. I make about $400/mo on average.
Beware of slight Sarcasm ahead:
Oh yah, more
guburment is always good.
How will enforcement of this bill be financed? How does it benefit the small entrepreneur? Does it create an unfair advantage for the large rental agencies, and hotels? Do the larger rental agencies respond to situations travelers encounter like small entrepreneurs do? What if you do not meet the requirements of the rental agencies. (My mom's house in Cali would not because she did not have a BBQ. To have a BBQ per their specs would have also necessitated about $2000 of changes to Mom's deck to have a Home Depot $100 BBQ.)
Are we throwing out the baby with the bathwater?
My hubby probably would be happy to have John Dirgo's company take over the VR and I can be unemployed and collect welfare and do nothing at all from dinner time up till 11 PM when the vacation renters usually call because:
they are lost being tourists somewhere and cant find their way back to the rental. I give them directions and stay on phone with them as they find their markers.
or they lost their passport and cant find it (cleaning lady found it and we sent it counter to counter to them in Honolulu).
or their child had an ear infection all day so at 10 PM they thought they should take him to ER and where is it. Gave them directions to Hilo Hosp.
or they are on their way back from a day trip to Kona and at 9:30 PM want to know where to go eat dinner. (That was easy - I told them I think only Ken's is open. Not pleased with that. Why arent there good resturants open at 9:30 PM?? Gee, because its HILO... [
] )
or they lost their ID at HNL, got on plane but cant rent car now, can you pick me up in an hr at 8:30 PM? Just so happened my hanai son was still in town and picked them up, stopped at grocery store with them, and we got them settled in at 10:30 PM.
or they returned at 11 Pm and decided to watch TV and for some reason can not figure out the very simple TV remote.
or on and on.
I do not mind as if they are happy, I am happy, and they return year after year.
End Sarcasm.
During the tsunami threat, we actually gave the person a free night for their next stay because it felt like the right thing to do. Not required by our rental agreement or the SOH. (BTW, they have already used their free night on their return visit.) A hotel on the West side wouldnt even comp us anything for a room next to the elevator that was really noisy when we stayed last year.
The property I manage is as it appears on the VRBO pics, owner pays all her TAT taxes as I get a copy. We keep it in good condition, and handyman lives across the st if anything goes wrong.
Of the VRBO's down here, I do not think there is one that falls into the misrepresentation category. We live in a fishbowl here. You can go to Trip Advisor and see all the postings about accommodations.
Maybe this bill should have a cap of some sort - kind of like what already exists - 1 property without a real estate license - although David DeWeese said he thought the bill was going to have the 1 VR - 1 off island owner.
This thread did lead me to call David DeWeese from Aloha Coast and ask about what is takes to become a real estate agent property manager and maybe working for someone. He was very informative! (as always!)
So maybe it's time to diversify. Food for thought.