Honolulu County, HI Short-Term Rentals: Taxes & Fees (2026)

1 sets the Land Use Ordinance fee schedule administered by the Department of Planning and Permitting, and item (29) is the line item specific to bed and breakfast homes and transient vacation units: a $1,000 initial registration fee, a $500 renewal registration fee, and a $50 advertisement registration fee, the last of which applies when an owner lists or advertises the unit. Subsection (b) makes every fee under this schedule non-refundable, even after the fact, with one narrow exception: the director of planning and permitting can waive the refund bar only if the director determines the underlying LUO application or variance was never actually required for the project to proceed.

Subsection (d) sharply raises the stakes for owners who get caught operating first: when an STR application is filed after the applicant has already been cited for taking action without the necessary approvals, the entire application fee set out in subsection (a), including the $1,000 initial registration charge, is doubled. Subsection (e) makes clear that paying the fee never substitutes for compliance with Chapter 21 or excuses any penalty already imposed. On top of the base fee, subsection (f) layers a nonrefundable application review fee to screen submissions for completeness: $400 for applications with a minimum fee of $1,200 or more, $200 for applications between $600 and $1,200, and half the application fee for anything under $600, a bracket that reaches the $1,000 STR initial registration charge.