Honolulu County

Operating rules

Primary residence

No

Min stay (nights)

30

Max nights / year

—

Max occupancy

Two adults per allowable sleeping room; total adult overnight transient occupants may not exceed two times the number of rooms provided for sleeping accommodations. Except for studio units, sleeping accommodations must be in bedrooms or rooms suitable for sleeping (e.g., a living room with a sofabed). NUC-operated B&B homes in residential zoning districts are further capped at a maximum of two rooms and four adult transient occupants at any one time.

Zoning-restricted

Yes

Cap on licenses

No

Grandfathering: yes

Zoning: New STRs are permitted only in the Resort zoning district and the Waikiki Special District resort mixed use precinct (Master Use Table 21-3 and Table 21-9.6(A) list transient vacation units as P/c in Resort and, per Ord. 22-7, in the Waikiki apartment precinct), plus four narrowly mapped apartment-zoned areas set out in ROH 2021 § 21-5.70-3(a)(1) as amended by Ordinance 25-52: (A) A-1 low-density and A-2 medium-density apartment districts within 3,500 feet of a resort zoning district of greater than 50 contiguous acres where the resort and apartment districts were rezoned under the same zone change application as part of a master-planned resort community; (B) the apartment precinct of the Waikiki special district on the zoning lots identified as TMKs 2-6-025:005 and 2-6-028:011; and (C) certain A-2 zoning lots contiguous to the Hoakalei Resort and Lagoon. These are depicted in Figures 21-5.1 (Waikiki Special District mauka of Kuhio Avenue), 21-5.2 (Ko Olina Resort), 21-5.3 (Turtle Bay Resort), and 21-5.4 (Hoakalei Resort and Lagoon); where the text and figures conflict, the figures prevail. STRs are prohibited in all residential (R-3.5/R-5/R-7.5/R-10/R-20), country, and agricultural districts except for grandfathered NUC holders. Separately, B&B homes and TVUs without a NUC or registration certificate are not permitted in areas where the applicable development plan or sustainable communities plan prohibits establishment of new B&Bs or TVUs.

• MINIMUM STAY — TWO COMPETING NUMBERS. Ordinance 22-7 § 12 amended ROH § 21-10.1 to define a transient vacation unit as a unit offered "for compensation to transient occupants for less than [30] 90 consecutive days" and a B&B home as accommodations "for periods of less than [30] 90 consecutive days". The 90-day figure remains in the recodified LUO. However, the December 21, 2023 permanent injunction bars enforcement of the 30–89 day prohibition against rentals lawfully in existence on October 23, 2022, and DPP's public position is that it enforces the 30-day line island-wide: "The Department of Planning and Permitting will continue to enforce STRs as less than 30 consecutive days across the board." min_stay_nights is therefore recorded as 30 to reflect the operative enforcement threshold; the 90-day statutory text is preserved here for completeness.
• PRIMARY RESIDENCE — SPLIT BY USE TYPE. TVUs (whole-unit rentals) carry no primary-residence requirement. B&B homes do, functionally: registration requires "For a bed and breakfast home, evidence of a real property tax home exemption for the subject property, and evidence that the applicant has a minimum 50 percent ownership interest in the subject property" (Ord. 22-7 § 10, ROH § 21-5.730(b)(1)(C)), and the B&B definition requires accommodations "in the same dwelling unit occupied by an owner, lessee, operator, or proprietor of the dwelling unit." primary_residence_required is set false because it does not apply to the TVU track.
• NO NUMERIC CAP. Ordinance 22-7 § 10 STRUCK the prior Development Plan Area Density Limit (0.5% of dwelling units per development plan area, allocated by lottery) and the Multifamily Dwelling Density Limit (50% of units in a multifamily dwelling), along with the 1,000-foot spacing rule between B&Bs/TVUs. There is therefore no numeric license cap; the constraint is purely geographic. Effective supply is nonetheless capped in practice because new NUCs are not being issued and the eligible zones are small.
• GRANDFATHERING — TWO DISTINCT MECHANISMS. (1) NUCs: TVUs operating since before October 22, 1986 and B&B homes operating since before December 28, 1989 may continue as nonconforming uses with an annually renewed NUC; a NUC may transfer to a new owner/operator if renewed before expiration. (2) The HILSTRA permanent injunction independently protects 30–89 day rentals "lawfully in existence" as of October 23, 2022 anywhere on O'ahu — a broader class than NUC holders, and one that does NOT extend to rentals established after that date.
• PHASE-OUT PERIOD (historical). Ordinance 22-7 § 14 gave a 180-day grace period from the effective date: owners renting for 30–89 consecutive days before October 23, 2022 could continue without registering until roughly April 21, 2023, after which they had to register as a B&B/TVU or rent only for 90+ consecutive days. This provision is the specific subject of the court's HRS § 46-4(a) preemption holding — the court found a six-month phase-out inadequate to preserve vested lawful uses.
• MONTH-TO-MONTH HOLDOVERS EXCLUDED. Both the B&B and TVU definitions provide: "Month-to-month holdover tenancies resulting from the expiration of long-term leases of 90 consecutive days or more are excluded."
• PARKING. Transient occupants of NUC-operated B&Bs and TVUs located within country, residential, or apartment zoning districts "are prohibited from parking their vehicles on the public streets in the vicinity" of the unit. NUC B&Bs must provide one off-street parking space per room used for transient occupant sleeping accommodations, in addition to the spaces required for the dwelling unit.
• GATHERINGS. "The property on which a bed and breakfast home or transient vacation unit is located may not be used for gatherings of ten or more individuals who are not registered as overnight transient occupants" (Ord. 22-7 § 10, ROH § 21-5.730(b)(3)(E)).
• QUIET HOURS. House rules must impose quiet hours between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. (Ordinance 22-7 changed the prior 10:00 p.m.–8:00 a.m. window and removed the requirement that a B&B owner remain on premises during quiet hours.)
• RENEWAL MAY BE DENIED for cause: "The director may deny renewal of a registration if: (i) the owner or operator receives one or more notices of order for violation of this subsection within a one year period; (ii) the owner or operator demonstrates an inability to operate a bed and breakfast home or transient vacation unit without causing significant negative impacts to the surrounding community, including but not limited to instances where complaints from the public indicate that noise or other nuisances created by guests disturbs residents of the neighborhood...; or (iii) where other good cause exists for denial of the renewal application."
• LUO RENUMBERING. Ordinance 25-2 (Bill 64 (2023), CD2, FD2, "Relating to Use Regulations"), approved January 3, 2025 and effective 270 days after approval (~September 30, 2025), recodified the Land Use Ordinance; former ROH § 21-5.730 is now ROH 2021 § 21-5.70-3 ("Lodging"). Ordinance 25-52 confirms this: its stated purpose is to make amendments "to § 21-5.70-3, Revised Ordinances of Honolulu 2021, as enacted by Ordinance 25-2 ... initially made under Ordinance 24-14, but inadvertently omitted under Ordinance 25-2." Note that several widely-circulated secondary sources misidentify Ordinance 25-2 as "Bill 62 (2023)"; the primary document shows Bill 64 (2023). Bill 62 (2025) is a different measure that became Ordinance 25-52.