Waikiki

Operating rules

Primary residence

conditional

Min stay (nights)

—

Max nights / year

—

Max occupancy

No more than two adults may sleep in each allowable room provided for sleeping accommodations (studio units excepted from the room-allocation rule), and the total number of adult overnight transient occupants may not exceed two times the number of rooms provided to transient occupants for sleeping accommodations. All overnight transient occupants must be registered with the owner/operator. For a Bed and Breakfast Home, DPP states a maximum of two rooms may be rented with a maximum of two adult transient occupants per room; for NUC B&Bs in residential zoning districts, ROH Sec. 21-4.110-2(f)(1) caps it at two rooms and four adult transient occupants at any one time.

Zoning-restricted

Yes

Cap on licenses

No

Grandfathering: Two grandfathering tracks. (1) Nonconforming Use Certificates: TVUs in continuous operation since before October 22, 1986 (ROH Sec. 21-4.110-1) and B&B homes in continuous operation since before December 28, 1989 holding a valid NUC as of August 1, 2019 (ROH Sec. 21-4.110-2) may continue as nonconforming uses. NUCs must be renewed annually between September 1 and October 15; DPP states 'New NUCs are not being issued.' A NUC may be renewed by a new owner/operator provided renewal occurs before expiration (so NUCs effectively transfer on sale, unlike registrations). Renewal requires proof of GET+TAT licenses plus minimum transient occupancy (35 days/year for TVUs, 28 days/year for B&Bs). (2) Judicial grandfathering of the 30-day minimum: the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii (HILSTRA v. City & County of Honolulu) enjoined the City from enforcing Ordinance 22-7's 90-day minimum against residential rentals that were lawfully operating on a 30-day minimum, on the ground that HRS Sec. 46-4(a) bars counties from zoning away prior lawful residential uses. This injunction matters mainly outside Waikiki; it does not constrain Waikiki's resort-zoned STRs, which may rent nightly with a registration or NUC.

Zoning: Waikiki is governed by the Waikiki Special District (ROH Sec. 21-9.80 et seq.), NOT by the Master Use Table (Table 21-3 states: 'The following table is not intended to cover the Waikiki Special District; please refer to Table 21-9.6(A).'). Under Table 21-9.6(A): Resort Mixed Use precinct — Transient vacation units 'P/c', Bed and breakfast homes 'P/c', Hotels 'P', Time sharing 'P'. Apartment precinct — Bed and breakfast homes 'P/c'; the Transient vacation units cell for the Apartment precinct is empty in Table 21-9.6(A) (meaning not permitted), but ROH Sec. 21-5.70-3(a)(1)(B) and (D)(i), as amended by Ordinance 25-52, permits both B&Bs and TVUs in the Apartment precinct of the Waikiki Special District mauka of Kuhio Avenue as designated in Figure 21-5.1 (described in the text as TMK 2-6-025:005 and 2-6-028:011). Sec. 21-5.70-3(a)(1)(D) provides that where the descriptions and the figures conflict, the figures prevail. 'P/c' = permitted use subject to standards in Article 5 (i.e., the Sec. 21-5.70-3 registration and operating standards). Waikiki's Resort Mixed Use precinct is the single largest legal STR zone on Oahu, which is why Waikiki condo-hotels dominate Oahu's legal short-term rental supply.

• Waikiki is NOT a separate legal jurisdiction. It has no city council, no municipal code, and no independent taxing power. Every requirement here is imposed by the City and County of Honolulu (parent_id us-hi-honolulu) or the State of Hawaii. Waikiki is treated as a distinct record only because the Waikiki Special District (ROH Sec. 21-9.80) applies a use table (Table 21-9.6(A)) that materially differs from the rest of Oahu and makes Waikiki the primary legal STR market on the island.
• MATERIAL CONFLICT between the codified text and the enforcing agency's public guidance on the minimum-stay threshold. The LUO definition now reads: 'Transient vacation unit means a dwelling unit or lodging unit that is advertised, solicited, offered, or provided ... for compensation to transient occupants for less than 90 consecutive days, other than a bed and breakfast home, timeshare unit, or hotel unit.' ROH Sec. 21-5.70-3(a)(3)(B)(ii) as amended by Ord. 25-52 makes it unlawful to advertise an unregistered dwelling 'for a term of less than 90 consecutive days' and prescribes the notice 'This property may not be rented for less than 90 consecutive days.' But DPP's current public FAQ prescribes the 30-day version of the same notice and describes the registration trigger as renting 'for less than 30-days.' The 30-day figure reflects the federal injunction in HILSTRA v. City & County of Honolulu. Treat 30 days as the practically enforced threshold and 90 days as the text-on-the-books threshold.
• primary_residence_required is 'conditional': FALSE for Transient Vacation Units (whole-home/unhosted rentals — the dominant Waikiki form). TRUE for Bed and Breakfast Homes, where DPP requires the homeowner or permanent resident to be present during the transient stay, and ROH Sec. 21-5.70-3(a)(2)(A)(i)(cc) requires '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.'
• min_stay_nights is null because a REGISTERED Waikiki STR or NUC unit in the Resort Mixed Use precinct may lawfully rent for any duration, including nightly — that is the entire point of the resort zoning. The 30-day (per DPP) / 90-day (per ordinance text) figures are the thresholds that trigger the registration requirement and that constrain UNREGISTERED units, not a floor on registered operation.
• cap_on_licenses is false based on absence: no numeric cap, quota, density cap, or separation/buffer requirement appears anywhere in ROH Sec. 21-5.70-3 as amended by Ordinance 25-52, nor in Sec. 21-4.110-1/-2. The real constraint is geographic (eligible zoning) plus AOAO consent, not a license count. Earlier drafts of Bill 41 (2021) contemplated density caps that were not enacted.
• Registration is personal and non-transferable: 'Registration as a bed and breakfast home or transient vacation unit is not transferable, and does not run with the land' and 'Any change in ownership of the subject property or any change in the operator of the bed and breakfast home or transient vacation unit will require a new registration.' Buyers of a registered Waikiki STR must re-register and pay the $1,000 initial fee again — a registration does NOT convey with the sale. NUCs behave differently and may be renewed by a new owner if renewed before expiration.
• Exterior signage indicating that a dwelling unit is used as a B&B or TVU is prohibited.
• The property may not be used for gatherings of 10 or more individuals who are not registered overnight transient occupants.
• House rules must impose quiet hours between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.
• Private restrictive covenants control independently: 'This subsection does not terminate or supersede private restrictive covenants or other restrictions that prohibit the use of real property as a bed and breakfast home or transient vacation unit.' Many Waikiki AOAOs prohibit STRs even in the Resort Mixed Use precinct; the HOA/AOAO letter requirement makes this a hard gate at registration.
• Development-plan override: B&Bs and TVUs without a valid NUC or registration certificate are not permitted where the applicable development plan or sustainable communities plan prohibits new B&Bs/TVUs; existing registrations initially issued before such a plan amendment may still renew.
• Ordinance 25-2 (Bill 64 (2025)) recodified LUO Chapter 21 and renumbered the STR standards section from Sec. 21-5.730 to Sec. 21-5.70-3, but 'inadvertently omitted' the Ordinance 24-14 amendments; Ordinance 25-52 (Bill 62 (2025), CD1) restored them. Cite Sec. 21-5.70-3 for current text; Sec. 21-5.730 is the superseded numbering still present in the DPP-hosted consolidated LUO PDF.
• Legally established hotels and legally established time share units are exempt from the STR advertising/registration subdivision. Waikiki's condo-hotel stock frequently straddles this line — whether a unit is a 'hotel unit' or a 'transient vacation unit' determines whether registration is required.

Enforcement

Active enforcement

yes

Fines

Honolulu imposes among the harshest STR penalties in the United States. Under ROH Sec. 21-2.150-2(e)(3), for violations of any provision relating to the requirements for transient vacation units or bed and breakfast homes, a notice of order may require a civil fine not to exceed $10,000, plus a civil fine not to exceed $10,000 PER DAY for each day the violation persists (versus the $5,000 / $5,000-per-day ceiling for ordinary zoning violations). On top of daily fines, ROH Sec. 21-2.150-2(h) authorizes full disgorgement: 'the director may impose a fine in an amount equal to the total sum received by the owner, operator, or proprietor of a bed and breakfast home or transient vacation unit from any impermissible rental activity during the period in which the owner, operator, or proprietor was subject to daily fines.' Separately, advertising violations under ROH Sec. 21-5.70-3(a)(3)(B)(iii) carry an initial fine not to exceed $5,000 plus a fine not to exceed $10,000 for each day thereafter that the advertisement remains on public display, if not removed within seven days of a notice of violation. Administratively, the director may deny renewal on one or more notices of order within a one-year period, and may revoke a registration outright on more than two notices of order within a one-year period, or for 'good cause.'

Notes

DPP operates a dedicated STR Enforcement Branch (808-768-7887, STR@honolulu.gov) with inspectors available during City business hours, 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and an online complaint/tipster intake. Enforcement is complaint-driven but structurally aggressive: (1) any person may submit a written complaint and the director must respond in writing within 30 days; (2) the existence of a non-compliant advertisement is prima facie evidence that an STR is being operated at the listed address, and the burden of proof shifts to the property owner to show otherwise — this advertising-as-evidence mechanism is the backbone of Oahu enforcement and is why platform listings are scraped; (3) units must be made available for DPP inspection upon reasonable notice; (4) annual renewal is itself an audit gate requiring State GET/TAT and City OTAT payment records plus proof that real property tax was assessed at the correct STR-class rate under Sec. 8-7.1. Practical note for Waikiki specifically: because Waikiki is legitimately STR-eligible, enforcement pressure here centers on unregistered units, AOAO-prohibited units, and correct real-property-tax classification rather than on the outright illegality that characterizes enforcement elsewhere on Oahu. Litigation history: the City's attempt to raise the residential minimum from 30 to 90 days under Ordinance 22-7 was preliminarily enjoined by U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in October 2022 and made permanent by a December 2023 order in HILSTRA v. City & County of Honolulu, on the ground that HRS Sec. 46-4(a) bars counties from zoning away prior lawful residential uses — which is why DPP's public guidance still states 30 days while the ordinance text says 90.