Aloha Owners –
As of yesterday, our Mayor, with approval from the Governor, made some changes to the travel restrictions for Kauai. Here is a recap of the new rules, and also a list of recently enacted or changed rules that might not have been conveyed to you in our last message:
New as of yesterday:
- The 14 day visitor quarantine was extended to the end of June. This is only for Kauai at this point, and the Governor did sign off on it.
- Beaches will be opened on May 15th, limited to groups of 10 or less. All members of the group should be part of the same household. Each group must maintain social distancing from other groups. Beaches will be open a half hour before sunrise to a half hour after sunset, except to fishermen. If people don't comply the opening could be rolled back.
Things that are new within the past week or so:
- Rental car companies are prohibited from renting to individuals under the 14-day quarantine. Both the rental company and the driver will be cited if caught violating this rule.
- Retail stores were allowed to open Thursday May 7, so long as social distancing is practiced.
- TVR's / other rental units are not considered essential, and must remain closed until June 30th under the extended quarantine. They are also prohibited from advertising during this period.
- Restaurants remain closed except for take-out or delivery. We are hearing that Memorial Day weekend is a potential date to open dining rooms at between 25% to 50% capacity.
- State parks, with the exception of Polihale and Wailua River State Park, reopened last week for exercise purposes. Lookouts in Waimea Canyon and Kokee State park remain closed, but hiking trails are open.
- The 9pm to 5am curfew was eliminated on 5/4.
- A one-time use hotel key is not part of an emergency order, but was recommended by HTA. About 70% of hotels are issuing one time use keys. (Translated, that means if someone comes here that is subject to quarantine, their key will only open the door once for them upon arrival, then cease to operate)
For those of you operating a listing on VRBO, Flipkey, Airbnb, or individual websites, you MUST remove availability on your unit through June 30th (or longer if extended). So if someone does a search of AirBnB or VRBO for Kiahuna for June dates (or May), your unit will not show up in the results. Failure to do so risks a fine and/or prosecution from the county, and they are actively searching listings. Castle will not accept any of your bookings for this period.
On a more positive note, housekeeping has completed most of the free deep cleans, and our maintenance team continues to perform light tasks in your units, again at no charge, to improve upon our product.
Some of you will see some cash flow as publicized earlier due to National Guard usage, who have now extended until the end of May. I would assume (and hope) that due to this extension their services will be needed in June as well, but there is no guarantee at this time.
I have no crystal ball on when we will open up for “normal” travel. I guess our hopes and prayers for June did not work, so let us refocus them on July. We are all in this together, and at some point something has to give, as none of us can continue on like this forever.
Please be safe, and feel free to contact your team here on site if we can be of service to you.
Aloha
Roy and the Staff
______________________________
Roy Thompson
General Manager
Castle Resorts & Hotels
ph: (808)742.4604 web: www.kiahunaplantation.com
fax: (808)742.1047 email: rthompson@castleresorts.com
2253-B Poipu Road • Koloa, HI 96756
