STAND. COM. REP. NO. 128

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 973

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Tourism, to which was referred H.B. No. 973 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRANSIENT ACCOMMODATIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require transient accommodations brokers and any other persons or entities to:

(1) Offer, list, advertise, or display a transient accommodations rental rate that includes all resort fees required for the furnishing of transient accommodations; and

(2) Include all applicable taxes and fees imposed by a government on the stay in the total price to be paid before a consumer reserves the furnishing of transient accommodations.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaiʻi Hotel Alliance and American Hotel & Lodging Association. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

Your Committee finds that the establishment of a single standard for a mandatory display of fees across the tourism ecosystem's entirety--from hotels, motels, and short-term rental accommodations to online travel agencies, metasearch sites, and short-term rental platforms--would prevent consumers from being misled and ensure a level playing field across the tourism industry.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Removing the requirement that only if transient accommodations brokers and all other persons or entities knew or should have known that they offered, listed, advertised, or displayed a transient accommodations rental rate in violation of this measure would they be subject to civil penalties;

(2) Changing its effective date to January 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Tourism that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 973, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 973, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Tourism,

____________________________

ADRIAN K. TAM, Chair