Hawaii vacation rental performance from the state’s monthly report

August 2026 by island

Hawaii’s vacation rentals ran at 46.8% unit occupancy in August 2026, against 46.9% in August 2025, according to the monthly Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT)¹. Supply was 899,500 available unit nights, down 5.8% from a year earlier, and demand was 421,000 unit nights sold, down 5.9%¹.

The statewide average daily rate (ADR) for vacation rental units was $528, up 17.4%¹. The same report puts Hawaii’s hotels at 72.7% occupancy and a $372 ADR for the month¹.

For each island, DBEDT reported these August 2026 figures, with changes against August 2025¹:

• Maui County had the largest supply, 317,600 available unit nights (+3.4%), with 139,600 sold (+3.4%), 44.0% occupancy (0.0 points) and a $649 ADR (+24.1%). Maui County hotels ran at 62.4% with a $526 ADR¹.
• Oʻahu had 214,400 available unit nights (-13.8%) and 125,400 sold (-6.6%), for 58.5% occupancy (+4.5 points) and a $417 ADR (+6.1%). Oʻahu hotels ran at 79.2% with a $295 ADR¹.
• The Island of Hawaiʻi had 220,600 available unit nights (-7.2%) and 81,000 sold (-16.4%), for 36.7% occupancy (-4.0 points) and a $416 ADR (+15.0%). Its hotels ran at 63.2% with a $471 ADR¹.
• Kauaʻi had the fewest available unit nights, 146,800 (-9.2%), with 74,900 sold (-7.9%), 51.0% occupancy (+0.7 points) and a $608 ADR (+15.6%). Kauaʻi hotels ran at 72.6% with a $431 ADR¹.

From January to August 2026, statewide occupancy was 53.0%, against 51.9% in the same months of 2025, and the ADR was $521.96, up 6.8% from $488.66¹. Available unit nights rose 2.1% to 7,036,957 and unit nights sold rose 4.2% to 3,730,438¹.

In July 2026, the month before, DBEDT reported statewide occupancy of 54.9%, up 4.9 percentage points, an ADR of $543, up 14.5%, and occupancy of 66.1% for Oʻahu’s vacation rentals⁴.

DBEDT’s hotel report for August 2026 says Hurricane Lala passed south of the islands from August 14 to 16, bringing widespread flooding, power outages and flight disruptions that contributed to lower hotel occupancy⁸. The vacation rental report for the month does not mention the storm¹.

Full year 2025

In 2025, Hawaii’s vacation rental supply was 10.1 million unit nights, up 4.1% from 2024, and demand was 5.0 million unit nights, down 0.1%, according to DBEDT’s December 2025 report². The average daily rate for the year was $528, up 6.7%, and statewide occupancy was 50.0%; the report’s year-to-date table gives 52.1% for 2024². Hawaii’s hotels averaged a $367 ADR and 73.9% occupancy in 2025⁹.

By island, the year-to-date table for December 2025 shows²:

• Oʻahu: 54.7% occupancy, against 57.2% in 2024, and a $439.30 ADR, up 8.2%².
• Maui County: 3,144,904 available unit nights (+6.9%), 1,546,669 sold (-0.9%), 49.2% occupancy against 53.0%, and a $634.84 ADR, up 6.5%².
• Island of Hawaiʻi: 45.5% occupancy against 46.6%, and a $430.39 ADR, up 7.5%².
• Kauaʻi: 50.5% occupancy against 50.4%, and a $613.72 ADR, up 2.1%².

Hotels in 2025 ran at 78.6% occupancy with a $284.12 ADR on Oʻahu, 64.4% and $536.80 in Maui County, 69.5% and $443.56 on the Island of Hawaiʻi, and 75.4% and $416.69 on Kauaʻi, according to DBEDT’s December 2025 hotel report⁹.

Statewide figures by month

Tables 3 and 4 give statewide supply, demand, occupancy and ADR for each month from January 2025 to August 2026, using the latest figure DBEDT has printed for each month³. For January to August 2025 that is the 2025 comparison column of the matching 2026 report; for September to December 2025 it is that month’s own report; for 2026 it is each month’s report³.

The rule keeps every rate on Lighthouse’s Total Rate basis, which first appears in the August 2025 report⁶⁷. A second break remains. The June, July and August 2026 reports were produced after Lighthouse changed its cross-listing method in July 2026 and say historical data were restated; the other rows come from reports produced before that change⁵⁴¹. The later reports show restated figures for January to May 2026 only in charts and year-to-date totals¹.

On these figures, statewide occupancy was 63.3% in February 2025, 42.6% in September 2025 and 61.2% in February 2026, and the statewide ADR was $575.27 in February 2025 and $405.92 in September 2025¹⁶²⁰.

Maui County, the 2023 wildfires and Bill 9

DBEDT’s monthly vacation rental reports from July 2025 to August 2026 do not mention the wildfires of August 8, 2023³. Its hotel reports do. The August 2026 hotel report says Maui County hotels “continued to be impacted by the August 8, 2023, wildfires” but still led the counties in revenue per available room because of higher rates; the December 2025 hotel report used the same words⁸⁹.

The vacation rental report breaks out the Lahaina/Kāʻanapali/Nāpili/Kapalua area of West Maui. In August 2026 it had 152,715 available unit nights (+13.3%) and 70,911 sold (+12.7%), with 46.4% occupancy and a $858.33 ADR (+29.9%)¹. For 2025 the area recorded 50.1% occupancy, against 52.0% in 2024, and an ADR of $802.45, up 6.8%². Wailea/Kīhei, the report’s other Maui area, had 42.8% occupancy and a $438.48 ADR in August 2026¹.

Mayor Richard Bissen signed Bill 9 into law on December 15, 2025, after the Maui County Council approved it on second and final reading¹³. The mayor introduced the bill in May 2024, after the wildfires¹³. The council vote was 5-3, and the council says vacation rentals in the A-1 and A-2 apartment districts will be prohibited starting in 2029 in West Maui and 2031 elsewhere in the county¹⁴.

The mayor’s office says 6,208 units on the so-called Minatoya list were operating as short-term rentals as of May 29, 2024, according to the county Department of Finance, and that about 6,500 vacation rental parcels, thousands of hotel units and more than 2,400 timeshares and bed-and-breakfast operations will keep operating¹³. In its December 2025 release the council said a separate proposal for new H-3 and H-4 hotel districts would let 4,500 units now in apartment zones continue as vacation rentals after the phase-out¹⁴. The monthly report groups units by area, not by zoning district, so it does not show the apartment-district units on their own¹.

How DBEDT measures vacation rental performance

DBEDT produces the report with data compiled by Lighthouse Intelligence, Ltd., formerly Transparent Intelligence, Inc., which the department selected as its provider¹. The data cover properties listed on Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and TripAdvisor and exclude units that appear in DBEDT’s hotel performance report and its timeshare survey¹.

The report defines a vacation rental as a rental house, a condominium unit, or a private or shared room in a private home. It does not separate permitted from unpermitted units, legality is set county by county, and DBEDT states that it “does not support illegal vacation rentals”¹.

Supply is the number of unit nights available in the month and demand the number of unit nights sold; the report derives unit occupancy from the two¹. Lighthouse adds reservation data from vacation rental software providers, online travel agencies and local property managers to its occupancy and price calculations. In the August 2026 report those reservation data covered about 37.3% of the estimated unique vacation rental properties in the state, and 31.5% in Maui County, 43.4% in Honolulu County, 39.0% in Hawaiʻi County and 35.6% in Kauaʻi County¹. The December 2025 report put statewide coverage at about 32.1%².

Prices use Lighthouse’s Total Rate, a single price that includes additional fees and costs such as cleaning or service fees, and DBEDT says all data back to January 1, 2019 were reprocessed on that basis¹. The pricing note first appears in the August 2025 report; the July 2025 report does not carry it⁶⁷.

In July 2026 Lighthouse introduced what DBEDT calls an AI-powered method for matching the same property across platforms, and historical data were restated. DBEDT says “any shifts in supply figures reflect greater precision in the data, not changes in the market itself”¹. The number of units in the data moves from month to month: 38,857 units with 66,396 bedrooms in June 2026, 35,243 with 60,443 in July and 36,079 with 62,270 in August⁵⁴¹.

How vacation rental occupancy differs from hotel occupancy

The hotel figures come from a different survey. DBEDT’s hotel report uses data compiled by STR, Inc.; for August 2026 it covered 163 properties with 47,067 rooms, or 82.6% of lodging properties with 20 rooms or more⁸. The survey generally excludes properties with fewer than 20 units, including single-family vacation rentals and individually rented vacation condominiums, and the data are weighted by location and class of property⁸.

The vacation rental report counts units, and a unit can be a whole house; the hotel report counts rooms. DBEDT notes that vacation rental units are not necessarily available every day or all year and often hold more guests than a hotel room¹. Vacation rental supply is measured in available unit nights, and vacation rental rates include cleaning and service fees under the Total Rate method¹.

The areas differ as well. The hotel report’s Maui regions are Wailea, where hotels ran at 73.6% occupancy in August 2026, and Lahaina/Kāʻanapali/Kapalua, at 60.8%; the vacation rental report uses Wailea/Kīhei and Lahaina/Kāʻanapali/Nāpili/Kapalua⁸¹.

How many vacation rental units Hawaii has

DBEDT publishes more than one count, and they measure different things. Its 2025 Visitor Plant Inventory, a survey of visitor accommodations existing on May 1, 2025, counted 18,211 vacation rental units, 21.4% of the state’s 85,227 visitor units and 3.9% more than in 2024¹⁰. By island it counted 7,297 on Maui, 4,722 on Oʻahu, 3,340 on Hawaiʻi Island, 2,603 on Kauaʻi, 241 on Molokaʻi and 8 on Lānaʻi¹⁰.

The inventory also prints Lighthouse’s platform-based estimate: an average supply of 32,229 vacation rental units from January to October 2025, against 32,231 in the same months of 2024¹⁰. DBEDT says extracting data from booking platforms “is believed to provide a better estimate of the supply of vacation rentals” than its traditional survey, and that the inventory’s vacation rental count should not be equated with county definitions of transient vacation rentals¹⁰. The monthly performance report, a third measure, included 36,079 units in August 2026¹.

Transient accommodations tax

The state transient accommodations tax (TAT) rate rose from 10.25% to 11% for the period from January 1, 2026 to December 31, 2030, under Act 96 of the 2025 session laws, according to the Hawaiʻi Department of Taxation¹¹. A federal appeals court order of December 31, 2025 blocked the parts of Act 96 that apply to cruise ships; the department says all other provisions, including the rate increase, took effect on January 1, 2026¹¹.

The department describes the TAT as a tax on short-term rentals of less than 180 consecutive days¹². The rules for a particular rental can differ, so check with the Department of Taxation or a tax professional for your own case.

Common questions

Sources

1. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), August 2026 Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
2. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), December 2025 Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
3. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), Vacation rental performance reports, monthly PDF reports and Excel data, January 2025 to August 2026. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
4. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), July 2026 Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
5. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), June 2026 Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
6. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), August 2025 Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
7. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), July 2025 Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
8. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), August 2026 Hawaiʻi Hotel Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
9. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), December 2025 Hawaiʻi Hotel Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
10. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), 2025 Visitor Plant Inventory. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
11. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Taxation, Department of Taxation Announcement No. 2026-01: Enjoinment of Act 96, Session Laws of Hawaii 2025, as Applied to Cruise Ships (2026-01-02). Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
12. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Taxation, Renting Residential Real Property. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
13. County of Maui, Mayor Richard Bissen signs historic Bill 9 into law after Maui County Council vote today (2025-12-15). Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
14. Maui County Council, Final reading brings approval to Bill 9 (2025-12-15). Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
15. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), January 2026 Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
16. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), February 2026 Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
17. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), March 2026 Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
18. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), April 2026 Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
19. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), May 2026 Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
20. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), September 2025 Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
21. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), October 2025 Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
22. State of Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), November 2025 Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report. Primary source, read 2026-10-08.