Maui County, HI Short-Term Rentals: Permit Requirements (2026)

Permit framework (Maui County Code, Title 19): Maui County does not allow short-term rental use of a dwelling for fewer than 180 consecutive days unless the property has one of the following authorizations. (1) Short-Term Rental Home (STRH) permit under MCC Chapter 19.65 (Ordinance 5300, effective November 26, 2021, amended Chapters 19.64 and 19.65). Eligibility published by the Maui Planning Department: the applicant must be the owner of the home and must have owned the home for at least five years before applying; the home must be in a permitted zoning district and meet the development standards in MCC 19.65.030; STRH permits are personal to the owner and are non-transferable, so they do not run with the land on sale. Operating standards: a designated manager must be available by telephone at all times and able to be onsite within one hour; all required parking must be provided onsite (no street parking); and the STRH permit number must appear in all advertisements and listings, including online platforms. STRH applications are filed online through MAPPS (the Maui Automated Planning and Permitting System) under the CP-STRH workflow, with a fully processed Land Use Designation Form attached. (2) Bed and Breakfast Home (BBH) permit under MCC Chapter 19.64, which (unlike STRH) requires that the owner live on the property and host guests in the same dwelling. (3) Conditional Permit, processed by the Planning Commission, often required for properties on agriculturally zoned land or where the surrounding neighborhood already contains multiple short-term rental homes. (4) Hotel/resort or H-zoned property, which is allowed by underlying zoning. (5) Grandfathered transient vacation rental on the Minatoya List - apartment-zoned (A-1 or A-2) condominium projects whose buildings received a building permit, SMA use permit, or planned development approval before April 20, 1989, were treated as legal nonconforming TVR uses under a 1989-era Deputy Corporation Counsel opinion authored by Richard Minatoya, codified by Ordinance 1797 and clarified by Ordinance 4167 (2014). Community Plan Region caps: STRH permits are limited per Community Plan Region under MCC 19.65.030.R; the published numbers include 30 permits in the Hana Community Plan Region and 100 permits in the Kihei-Makena Community Plan Region (with no more than 5 of those Kihei-Makena permits in the Maui Meadows subdivision). The Council is required to review the regional restrictions when approved STRH permits exceed 90% of the cap. Many regions are at or near cap, so new STRH permits are effectively unavailable in those regions; in addition, the County's Ordinance 5316 declared a Moratorium on New Transient Accommodations on Maui that limits new short-term-accommodation entitlements outside the existing permit categories. Bill 9 (2025) - Minatoya List phaseout: On December 15, 2025, Mayor Richard Bissen signed Bill 9 (2025) into law after the Maui County Council approved second and final reading by a 5-3 vote (in favor: Johnson, Paltin, Sinenci, Rawlins-Fernandez, U'u-Hodgins; opposed: Sugimura, Lee, Cook). Bill 9 amends MCC Title 19 to eliminate transient vacation rental use in the apartment districts (A-1 Apartment District and A-2 Apartment District). According to Department of Finance and Council briefings, approximately 6,200 actively operating Minatoya-listed units (with overall counts cited up to about 7,000 total Minatoya units) are affected: roughly 60% in South Maui, 36% in West Maui, and 4% in Hana, Pa'ia, and Moloka'i. As enacted, the phaseout dates are January 1, 2029 for properties in West Maui and January 1, 2031 for the remainder of Maui County; after those dates, the affected units must cease transient vacation rental use and may be used only as long-term residential housing or under another lawful use. Owners may seek rezoning into proposed new H-3/H-4 hotel designations, but approval is discretionary and not guaranteed. The bill does not directly affect STRH permits, BBH permits, timeshares, or licensed hotel/resort properties. Mayor Bissen has stated that Bill 9 is the most immediate way to bring thousands of housing units back online for residents. Litigation challenging Bill 9 on Fifth Amendment takings and other constitutional grounds is anticipated. Post-Lahaina context: After the August 8, 2023 Lahaina wildfires, the State of Hawaii (under SB 2919 / Act 17 (2024)) granted counties expanded authority to phase out, regulate, or ban short-term rentals in residential and agricultural zones, which is the state-law foundation for Bill 9. Maui County also adopted emergency measures encouraging owners of vacation rentals to convert units to long-term housing for fire-displaced residents. Tax obligations on short-term rentals (less than 180 consecutive days): operators must register with the Hawaii Department of Taxation and obtain a Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT) certificate and a General Excise Tax (GET) license; State TAT is 10.25% (scheduled to rise to 11% effective January 1, 2026 under Hawaii Act 96 (2025)); Maui County imposes an additional 3% Maui County Transient Accommodations Tax (MCTAT) under Ordinance 5273 / Bill 101 (2021), effective November 1, 2021, paid directly to the County (effective December 1, 2025, payments are processed through the County's new portal at mauicounty.gov/tat/payment); GET is 4.0% (effective rate of 4.166% when grossed up) with no Maui County GET surcharge currently imposed at the county level on TAT receipts. The TAT registration ID and GET license number must appear in advertisements as required by State law.