Lahaina Short-Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Lahaina and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the honest answer depends entirely on what kind of unit you own and how fast you move, because Maui County passed the biggest change to this market in decades. Short-term rentals aren't banned outright here, at least not yet, but the county has now set a hard expiration date on most of them.

That expiration date comes from Bill 9, signed into law as Ordinance No. 5909 on December 15, 2025, after two years of Maui County trying to claw back housing stock lost in the August 2023 Lahaina wildfire. It phases out short-term rental use in every apartment-zoned building on the island, which is where most of Lahaina's actual Airbnb and Vrbo inventory sits, and West Maui, the district that includes Lahaina, has to fully comply by January 1, 2029. Two separate lawsuits are already trying to stop it, so treat 2029 as the current legal deadline rather than a settled one.

So this guide walks through what's still legal here in 2026: which zoning gets you a permit, what a Short-Term Rental Home or Bed and Breakfast license costs and requires, every tax layer that stacks on top, and how hard Maui County enforces all of it. Every figure below comes from Maui County's or the State of Hawaii's own pages, checked in July 2026, and I've flagged the handful of things I couldn't pin to an official source. If you're weighing a Lahaina property against a market that isn't mid-phase-out, run the property through BNBCalc first.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations in Lahaina, Hawaii?

Running the numbers only matters once you know whether a given property can legally host paying guests at all, and in Lahaina that comes down to zoning rather than one clean yes-or-no law. Two layers stack on top of each other here, and separating them explains most of the confusion.

The bottom layer is state law. Hawaii doesn't preempt counties on short-term rentals, and since Act 17 of 2024 amended HRS §46-4, counties can regulate "the time, place, manner, and duration" of transient accommodations, including phasing a use out entirely. Act 17 was the legislature's direct response to a federal court partially blocking Honolulu's 2022 short-term rental ordinance, so it exists specifically to give Maui County the legal footing Bill 9 now relies on.

The top layer is Maui County's own zoning, under Title 19 of the county code, and it sorts every Lahaina property into one of three buckets:

• Apartment-zoned (A-1/A-2) condos. This is most of Lahaina's actual Airbnb inventory: buildings like Puamana, Lahaina Roads, and Paki Maui that have operated as transient vacation rentals (TVRs) for decades under what locals call the "Minatoya List," named for the 1989 county legal opinion that let condos built before April 20, 1989 keep renting short-term despite the apartment zoning. Bill 9 ends that grandfathered use on a fixed clock, which the next section covers in detail.
• Hotel- and Resort-zoned properties. Fully legal, and Bill 9 doesn't touch them at all. Most of these sit in Kāʻanapali and Kapalua rather than Lahaina town itself, so don't assume a "West Maui" listing you're eyeing is one of these.
• Residential and agricultural-zoned single-family homes. These can't host short-term guests by right, but an owner can apply for a Short-Term Rental Home (STRH) permit or a Bed and Breakfast (B&B) permit under Chapters 19.65 and 19.64 of the county code. Both permit types are explicitly untouched by Bill 9.

Whichever bucket a property falls into, the state's own tax registrations still apply on top, since Hawaii ties General Excise Tax and Transient Accommodations Tax registration to the rental activity itself rather than to zoning. Keep that distinction in mind: a legal zoning status doesn't excuse you from the tax side, and the reverse is also true.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Lahaina

Since zoning decides the bucket you're in, it also decides whether "starting a business" here means buying inventory or managing what already exists. Unfortunately for most people reading this looking to buy into Lahaina's classic Airbnb scene, that scene is the one getting phased out.

If your plan was to buy one of the apartment-zoned condos that already runs as a TVR, you can still do that today, and it will still cash flow as a nightly rental right up until the West Maui deadline. Don't buy it planning to run it as a short-term rental past January 1, 2029, though, because Bill 9 gives no renewal, no extension, and no grandfather clause past that date for units in apartment zoning. A group of Kāʻanapali Royal owners and a class of roughly 7,000 Minatoya List owners have both sued the county over exactly this, arguing it's an unconstitutional taking, and neither case had been decided as of my last check in July 2026. Bet on the lawsuits succeeding and you're speculating on litigation, not on Maui real estate.

A separate bill, sometimes called Bill 88, would let some of these units reclassify into two new hotel-zoned districts and keep operating past 2029. Watch this one rather than count on it. All three island planning commissions recommended denying the framework in early 2026, yet the full Council advanced it anyway through the spring and summer. By late July 2026 it still hadn't become law, and even if it passes as written, it would cover only about 2,056 of the roughly 7,000 affected units.

The two paths that don't expire are a hotel-zoned resort purchase, which behaves like buying into any hotel market and carries a very different price point, or a single-family home you can run under an STRH or B&B permit instead. That second path is real but narrow, since Maui caps how many of those permits exist per region. The next section covers exactly what that permit takes to get and keep. And if South Maui's Kīhei market looks more open right now than West Maui's, it's worth checking our Kīhei guide, since it runs on the same Bill 9 but with an extra two years on the clock.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Lahaina

That extra runway in Kīhei doesn't exist for Lahaina's single-family stock, so the STRH permit is worth understanding properly if that's your path. It's issued by Maui County's Current Planning Division under Chapter 19.65 of the county code, and it's the closest thing Lahaina has to an ordinary Airbnb license for a house rather than a condo.

The permit holder has to be a natural person (or a small family trust/LLC structure) holding at least 50% of the legal title, and generally gets only one STRH permit at a time, with narrow exceptions for units assessed above $3.2 million. A manager, who can be the owner, an immediate family member, or a licensed Hawaii real estate agent, has to be reachable at all times and able to reach the property within an hour and 30 driving miles. The home itself has to be at least five years old and owned by the applicant for at least five years, capped at six bedrooms of STRH use on Maui, with total guests capped at twice the bedroom count. Do check the county's community-plan caps before you get too far into planning, because Maui doesn't issue these permits without limit. The West Maui region, which covers Lahaina, is capped at 88 STRH permits total, and the Council has to review that cap once approvals pass 90% of it.

The permit comes with ongoing conditions too, beyond the paperwork:

• A two-square-foot sign at the road listing your permit number and a 24-hour contact number.
• Posted house rules including quiet hours from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m., no amplified sound audible off the property, and onsite parking only.
• A working transient accommodations tax and GET license at all times.
• Smoke detectors in every guest bedroom.

An initial STRH permit runs up to three years, and renewals, filed 90 days before expiry, can run up to five more. The director can decline to renew, or revoke a live permit outright, over false statements on the application, unpaid state or county taxes, or three or more substantiated neighbor complaints from two or more nearby lots within twelve months. Lose it that way and you're locked out of a new application for two years. Operate without any permit at all and that lockout stretches to five years, on top of whatever civil fine the county assesses, which is worth taking seriously since Maui isn't shy about enforcing it, as the next few sections show. A Bed and Breakfast permit under Chapter 19.64 runs on a similar community-plan cap and owner-occupancy requirement, and it's the other legal option Bill 9 leaves alone, though it requires the owner or lessee to live in the home rather than manage it remotely.

Required Documents for Lahaina Short-Term Rentals

Since a revoked or denied application costs you real time on a capped waitlist, it's worth getting the paperwork right before you submit anything through Maui's Automated Planning and Permitting System, known locally as MAPPS. An STRH or B&B application generally needs:

• Proof of at least 50% ownership of the legal title, or trust and LLC documentation where one of those structures applies.
• Copies of any homeowner association bylaws, condominium rules, or private covenants that could affect the neighborhood-character review.
• A completed manager designation, including the manager's address and phone number, if it isn't the owner.
• Current State of Hawaii General Excise Tax and Transient Accommodations Tax license numbers, since the permit can't be renewed without proof of active state and county tax filings.
• Proof the dwelling and your ownership of it each go back at least five years, for STRH specifically.

Don't skip the tax registration piece because it feels separate from the zoning application. It isn't. Both permit types make current GET and TAT registration a condition of approval and renewal, which means the paperwork chase in this section and the tax chase in the next one are the same errand.

Lahaina Short-Term Rental Taxes

That overlap between the paperwork and the tax side means it's worth walking through what gets collected once a Lahaina rental is up and running. Assuming your zoning and permit situation checks out and you're able to start hosting, there's still a fairly heavy tax stack sitting on top of every booking.

Three separate percentage taxes apply to a Lahaina short-term stay, and all three are calculated on the same gross rental proceeds:

Tax	Rate	Collected by
General Excise Tax (GET)	4.5% (4% state + 0.5% Maui County surcharge)	Hawaii Department of Taxation
Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT)	11%	Hawaii Department of Taxation
Maui County TAT (MCTAT)	3%	Maui County Department of Finance

That's an 18.5% combined rate on gross rental income before you even get to federal or state income tax. The state TAT rate moved recently, too: it rose from 10.25% to 11% on January 1, 2026 under Act 96, and it's set to hold at 11% through the end of 2030. GET has its own quirk worth knowing. Hosts who itemize it as a separate line item on the guest's bill, rather than baking it into the nightly rate, typically list it at 4.712% rather than 4.5%, since Hawaii lets the pass-on figure account for the tax being charged on itself.

Registration for the state layer runs through Hawaii Tax Online: a one-time $20 GET license via Form BB-1, and a Transient Accommodations Tax certificate of registration for $5 if you're renting one to five units, or $15 for six or more, filed under HRS §237D-4. Neither ever needs renewing; both only need to stay "active" so your STRH or B&B permit doesn't lapse. The county layer works differently and trips people up: there's no separate MCTAT return to file, since a state TA-1 or TA-2 filed with the Department of Taxation counts as filed with the county too, but the 3% payment itself has to be remitted separately to the Maui County Director of Finance. Miss that separate remittance and you'll owe a 5% per month late-filing penalty, capped at 25%, plus interest.

Whether Airbnb or Vrbo collect and remit any of these three taxes automatically on your behalf isn't something I could confirm from an official Hawaii or Maui County source. DOTAX's own guidance puts the registration and filing obligation on the property owner regardless of who handles the money, so don't assume a platform's tax-collection toggle covers your county obligation because it covers the state one. Remember, too, that Maui runs a separate real-property tax classification just for short-term rentals. It carries a materially higher rate than an owner-occupied home. Several Maui brokerages cite it near $11.85 per $1,000 of assessed value for the current fiscal year, though I couldn't verify that figure against the county's own rate table. Confirm it directly with the Real Property Assessment Division before you budget around it.

Hawaii Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

All of that tax stacking happens because Hawaii deliberately keeps taxation at the state level while handing zoning to the counties, and that split is worth understanding on its own. There's no statewide short-term rental license or permit; the GET and TAT registrations covered above function as the closest thing to one, and every county still runs its own separate zoning and permitting rules on top.

Honolulu is the clearest example of how differently a neighboring county can land on this. It tried to restrict short-term rentals across residential zones in 2022, only to have a federal court permanently enjoin part of that ordinance in Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance v. City and County of Honolulu. That's exactly the gap Act 17 closed in 2024, and it's why Maui's Bill 9 was drafted with amortization periods and grandfathered-use language rather than a straight ban. If you're comparing markets, our Hawaii statewide guide covers the state framework in full, and the Honolulu County guide and Honolulu city guide show what a stricter, already-litigated version of this looks like on Oʻahu.

One more state-level thread is worth tracking rather than relying on. HB 1590, introduced in the 2026 legislative session, would let counties use lien foreclosure and time-stamped screenshots as enforcement tools against illegal rentals and would require booking platforms to report data to DOTAX. Press coverage describes a further draft requiring platforms to register as state tax-collection agents starting in 2027, but I couldn't confirm that detail against the bill's actual text, and its final 2026 status wasn't confirmed as of my research. Treat it as a bill in motion, not a rule to plan around yet.

Does Lahaina Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Given a bill like that is even being considered, it's fair to ask how seriously Maui County already enforces what's on the books today, and the record says quite seriously. The county's Zoning Administration and Enforcement Division handles illegal short-term rental complaints, and its own rule amendments on civil fines for Title 19 violations, which took effect December 22, 2019, followed a 2018 voter-approved charter amendment specifically meant to put teeth behind unpermitted TVR operation. Multiple Maui real estate professionals who track these cases describe the resulting schedule as $20,000 for an initial violation and $10,000 for every day the illegal rental keeps operating after that, which is enough to make a single bad Airbnb weekend catastrophically expensive if you get caught.

Advertising alone can trigger enforcement here, too. Under Chapter 19.65, listing a property as a short-term rental without a valid permit number is itself a violation, with a seven-day window to take the ad down once warned before fines start. Operate without a permit at all and you're barred from applying for one for five years, which is a long time to sit out a market you already own property in.

Bill 9 adds a structural enforcement mechanism that's arguably more effective than any fine: once the amortization period ends, the entire apartment-zoned use becomes unlawful outright, on top of whatever penalty attaches to a single violation. That's a fundamentally different problem for owners than a complaint-driven fine, since there's no "getting caught" to avoid. The use stops being legal, full stop, and the county doesn't need a neighbor complaint to know it. Watch for how aggressively that gets litigated once 2029 arrives, because the two pending lawsuits are the mechanism most likely to change this picture before then.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Lahaina

Given how much of that enforcement risk sits on the zoning question, working through these steps in order will save you both time and money.

1. Confirm the zoning bucket first. Check whether the property is apartment-zoned (and if so, on the Minatoya List and subject to the 2029 deadline), hotel/resort-zoned (unaffected by Bill 9), or residential/ag-zoned (STRH or B&B path only). Maui's Current Planning Division can confirm this before you buy anything.
2. Check the STRH or B&B cap for West Maui, since Maui only issues a limited number of these permits per community plan region and doesn't guarantee one's available because you own qualifying property.
3. Register for state tax first. Get your GET license (Form BB-1, $20) and TAT certificate of registration ($5 to $15) through Hawaii Tax Online before you submit a zoning application, since both permit types require active tax registration.
4. Assemble ownership and manager documentation, including proof of title percentage, any HOA or condo bylaws, and your designated manager's contact details.
5. Apply through MAPPS for the STRH or B&B permit, and budget real time for the process, since these applications go through neighborhood-character review, not a rubber stamp.
6. Set up the required signage and house rules the day you're approved: the roadside sign, posted quiet hours, and onsite-only parking.
7. Register separately for MCTAT remittance with the Maui County Department of Finance, since the 3% county tax doesn't get filed automatically because you filed your state TA-1.
8. Diarize your renewal and deadline dates. An STRH permit needs renewal within a five-year cycle, and if you're in an apartment-zoned unit instead, January 1, 2029 is the date that matters.

Who to Contact in Lahaina about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Whichever step trips you up, a handful of offices handle nearly everything between them, and knowing which one owns your question saves a lot of time on hold.

Zoning, permits, and STRH/B&B applications run through the Maui County Current Planning Division: 2200 Main Street, One Main Plaza Building, Suite 619, Wailuku, HI 96793. Phone (808) 270-8205, with a general Planning Administration line at (808) 270-7735.

Complaints and enforcement go to the Zoning Administration and Enforcement Division (ZAED), at the same building, Suite 335. Phone (808) 270-7253, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

County Transient Accommodations Tax (MCTAT) is handled by the Maui County Department of Finance, TAT Office: 110 Ala'ihi Street, Suite 107, Kahului, HI 96732. Phone (808) 270-7637, fax (808) 270-6230.

State GET and TAT registration runs through the Hawaii Department of Taxation via Hawaii Tax Online, which handles both licenses statewide regardless of which island the property sits on.

Be aware that none of these offices can tell you whether your specific building appears on the Minatoya List or how close West Maui's STRH cap is to full. Bring your parcel number and ask directly, since that's building-specific information the county has to look up rather than something posted in general FAQs.

What Airbnb Hosts in Lahaina on Reddit and Bigger Pockets Think about Local Regulations?

Calling those offices at all assumes you're still deciding whether to get in, and the investor conversation around Maui reflects exactly that hesitation right now. On BiggerPockets, general Maui short-term rental threads describe solid cash flow when occupancy holds, one host modeling 75-80% occupancy on a Kīhei two-bedroom at roughly $208 a night, but the same threads flag Hawaii's stacked tax burden as the thing newcomers underestimate, and more than one poster suggests rolling GET and TAT into the nightly rate rather than surprising guests with it at checkout. None of that discussion, from what I've read, engages with Bill 9 directly, since most of it predates the 2023 wildfire and the phase-out fight that followed.

The sharpest local voice on this isn't an investor forum at all. Lahaina Strong, the housing advocacy group that formed in the wildfire's aftermath, has been explicit in public comment and reported by local press that it wants Bill 9 passed "clean," without carve-outs, amendments, or delay, framing offshore-owned vacation rentals as the reason local families can't find housing in their own town. That tension, investors reading Bill 9 as an existential risk to a legal asset class and residents reading it as overdue housing relief, is the actual conversation happening around Lahaina property right now, more than any specific regulatory nuance. Given the wildfire recovery is still underway here, that framing isn't going away soon, and it's worth factoring into how you think about holding period, beyond permit compliance alone. If the numbers on a Maui property still make sense to you after all of that, the Maui market breaks down occupancy and rate data at the island level so you can see where Lahaina sits against Kīhei, Wailea, and the rest of the island.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Lahaina in 2026?

Yes, if the property is already an apartment-zoned condo operating as a transient vacation rental, a hotel- or resort-zoned unit, or a single-family home with an active Short-Term Rental Home or Bed and Breakfast permit. Apartment-zoned condos, which make up most of Lahaina's existing Airbnb inventory, have to stop by January 1, 2029 under Maui County's Bill 9, though two lawsuits are challenging that deadline. Hotel-zoned properties and permitted single-family homes aren't affected by that deadline at all.

What is the Minatoya List, and does it matter for buying in Lahaina?

The Minatoya List refers to apartment-zoned condo buildings that received a building permit, SMA permit, or planned-development approval before April 20, 1989, which let them keep operating as short-term rentals despite a 1989 county zoning change that otherwise banned the use. Most of Lahaina's classic Airbnb-style condos fall into this category. It matters because these are exactly the units Bill 9 phases out by January 1, 2029, so buying one today means buying a legal but time-limited business.

How much does a Maui Short-Term Rental Home permit cost and how long does it last?

Maui County sets the exact fee in its annual budget ordinance rather than publishing one fixed number, so confirm the current amount directly with the Current Planning Division before applying. What's fixed in the code is the term: an initial permit runs up to three years, and renewals, filed 90 days before expiry, can run up to five more. West Maui, which includes Lahaina, is capped at 88 total STRH permits across the whole region.

What taxes do you pay on a Lahaina short-term rental?

Three layers apply to gross rental proceeds. A 4.5% General Excise Tax (4% state plus a 0.5% Maui County surcharge), an 11% state Transient Accommodations Tax as of January 2026, and a 3% Maui County TAT combine for an 18.5% total rate. State registration runs through Hawaii Tax Online with a one-time $20 GET license and a $5 to $15 TAT certificate, while the county's 3% has to be remitted separately to Maui County's Department of Finance even though it's reported alongside your state filing.

What happens to Lahaina short-term rentals after the 2029 deadline?

Apartment-zoned condos currently operating as transient vacation rentals have to stop entirely once West Maui's amortization period ends on January 1, 2029, unless a pending lawsuit blocks enforcement or a separate hotel-zoning bill lets a subset of units reclassify first. Hotel- and resort-zoned properties, along with permitted Short-Term Rental Homes and Bed and Breakfasts, aren't affected by that date and can keep operating under their existing rules.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.