WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) — The Maui County mayor has announced he will allow the $822.6 million budget for the upcoming year to go into effect without his signature.

HONOLULU (AP) — Transient vacation rental units are proving difficult for Hawaii officials to regulate during the coronavirus pandemic as they serve as shelter for many of the state's...

MADRID (AP) — Tourist hotel in Spain's Canary Islands quarantined after Italian doctor tests positive for COVID-19 virus.

NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Prosecutors say the former superintendent in North Providence has pleaded no contest to embezzlement for misusing a school-issued credit card.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The rate at which Minnesota students receive accommodations for conditions like ADHD, anxiety, depression and others has increased by about ten-fold in two decades, according to...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Documents show that Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler's office billed city taxpayers $1,123 a night for an aide's hotel accommodations while at a conference in Texas, in likely...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Airbnb has settled a lawsuit brought by several Oregon women who said the site allowed vacation rental owners to discriminate against customers based on race.

KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (AP) — Vacation rental registrations have been coming in to Hawaii County faster than workers can process them as the county implements a new law.

FRISCO, Colo. (AP) — The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that online travel companies do not have to pay accommodation and sales taxes in the ski resort town of Breckenridge.

HONOLULU (AP) — The Latest on vacation rental tax bills before the Hawaii Legislature (all times local):

11:30 a.m.

Hawaii lawmakers have passed legislation that would require websites...

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — A zoo in Mississippi now provides equipment such as fidget tools and noise-canceling headphones to visitors with sensory needs.

LOGAN, Ohio (AP) — State officials say a state park dining lodge in southeastern Ohio that was destroyed by fire in 2016 will be replaced with an updated facility.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources says the new facility replacing the former day lodge and dining hall at Hocking Hills State Park will include overnight lodging, a conference center and dining and day-use accommodations.

The department said in a release that the new facility will be built where the former day lodge once stood.

HILO, Hawaii (AP) — A restaurant operating at a hotel in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has resumed kitchen service after shutting down when the park closed in May.

Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports Volcano House Hotel relaunched its dinner service at The Rim restaurant Thursday after months of closure due to the Kilauea volcano eruption and resulting seismic activity at the Big Island park.

If you're thinking of listing your home as a vacation rental, have a listen to what travelers say makes a space inviting and welcoming, and what's a turnoff.

For starters, amenities and cleanliness matter.

"I would have loved better sheets and towels as well as decent soap and amenities," says Carol VanderKloot of New York, who was underwhelmed by a recent Michigan rental.

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii is seeking to find vacation rental owners who aren't paying taxes by getting Airbnb to turn over rental records.

Hawaii News Now reports the state Department of Taxation filed a court petition last week to serve an administrative subpoena on Airbnb for rental documents dating back to 2008.

WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) — Maui officials have begun implementing a 10-year tourism strategic plan that includes efforts to discourage visitors from staying in illegal vacation rentals.

The Maui News reports the county's Office of Economic Development and the Maui Visitors Bureau are developing a messaging plan geared for visitors to dissuade booking illegal vacation rentals.

QUEBEC CITY (AP) — It's what's inside the historic wall of Quebec City that makes people want to visit. It's what's outside that makes people want to stay.

Business travelers are increasingly booking stays through Airbnb and other home-sharing sites.

Airbnb said Monday that nearly 700,000 companies have signed up and booked rooms through its business travel portal, almost triple the number since last year.

Airbnb says 15 percent of its travel nights booked are for business travelers. That compares with 20 percent for Booking.com, which includes homes and hotels on its site.

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii Gov. David Ige plans to veto legislation that would expand the state's hotel tax.

Ige said Tuesday he would reject the bill, which would have applied the Transient Accommodations Tax on resort fees charged by hotels. The tax currently covers lodging at hotels and other short-term stays.

Ige says vague language in the bill could lead to the tax being applied to restaurants, spas and other businesses inside hotels. The governor last month announced he may veto the legislation.

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii visitors already pay the highest rate in the nation for a hotel room, according to a recent report.

That rate could soon increase after state lawmakers passed a bill that could apply transient accommodations tax to virtually any lodging business transaction, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported .

HONOLULU (AP) — The Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii, or VASH, a nonprofit agency that responds to Hawaii visitors in distress, is in need of more resources to meet growing demands.

WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) — A Maui committee has approved a charter amendment that would increase the penalty for illegal vacation rentals to $20,000.

The Maui County Council committee voted Tuesday in favor of the measure that increases the fine for illegal transient accommodations and tacks on $10,000 for each day the unlawful operation continues, The Maui News reported .

KENAI, Alaska (AP) — The Kenai Peninsula Borough is considering asking voters to approve a 12 percent sales tax on temporary lodging after officials have voted down variations of bed taxes twice in the past year.

HYANNIS, Mass. (AP) — The number of homeless people on Cape Cod and the Islands has jumped in the past year.

HONOLULU (AP) — The House Finance Committee wants to give more hotel tax revenue to neighbor island counties.

The committee on Thursday voted unanimously to boost the Big Island's share of transient accommodations tax revenue to $31 million from $19 million. Maui County's share would go up to $38 million from $23 million.

Kauai County's share would rise to $24 million from $15 million.

HILO, Hawaii (AP) — A bill that would regulate vacation rentals on the Big Island has drawn interest from part-time residents who rent out their homes and condos to help pay the bills.

Supporters say regulation is needed to keep residential neighborhoods from being overrun with vacationers, West Hawaii Today reported .

OAKLAND, Ore. (AP) — The city of Oakland, Oregon, has given preliminary approval to a tax on motels.

But the bed tax won't generate any money. The small town in southwestern Oregon has no motels or accommodations — except for a one-room, online vacation rental.

Mayor Bette Keehley says the city is not going to levy the tax against that rental unit until the state firms up regulations for Airbnb-type establishments.

ISLAMORADA, Fla. (AP) — A resort and a major attraction are reopening about three months after Hurricane Irma slammed into the Florida Keys.

Tourists can return to Islamorada's Amara Cay Resort and Marathon's Florida Keys Aquarium Encounters on Friday.

The Keys reopened to visitors Oct. 1, and most tourism facilities in less-affected Key Largo and Key West quickly recovered. But many properties elsewhere in the Keys were significantly impacted.

CABLE, Wis. (AP) — A Florida hospitality company has signed an agreement to resurrect a landmark lodge in northern Wisconsin that has fallen on hard times.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A University of Louisville graduate student has been named a George J. Mitchell scholar.

The school says in a statement that music student James May is one of 12 students across the nation — and the first at UofL — to be selected for the Ireland postgraduate study that includes tuition, accommodations, travel expenses and a stipend.

May plans to student new music production and performance while studying in Ireland.