STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2-24

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2024

RE: H.B. No. 2606

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Tourism, to which was referred H.B. No. 2606 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 accommodation 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 furnishing 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 one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and Hawai‘i Tourism Authority.

Your Committee finds that in an effort to increase transparency in prices for booking accommodations, many hotels throughout the State voluntarily include resort fees and other mandatory fees into their final price while other hotels only display the final price right before a booking's finalization. Your Committee believes that complete pricing transparency is important to ensure consumers are fully, timely, and consistently informed of the price before booking any type of transient accommodation in the State. This measure will further increase transparency in prices of transient accommodations by requiring the price of a transient accommodation to include resort fees and all applicable governmental taxes and fees in the total price before a consumer reserves a transient accommodation.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that any applicable county attorney or corporation counsel rather than the prosecuting attorney of any county has enforcement powers;

(2) Changing the 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. 2606, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2606, 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,

____________________________

SEAN QUINLAN, Chair