Members of the non-profit Honolulu Big Brothers Big Sisters were busy setting up camp at Waimanalo Bay Friday.

Click here to watch Catherine Cruzs report.

Its an annual event with a lot of hands tackling a lot of work, but a new company is advertising to do the work for you.

Makai Camping Company was born when a couple couldn’t find anywhere to rent camping gear.

There wasn’t anything out there and so we decided to start Makai Camping Company. What we do is we go help set up and take down coolers, all of your bedding needs, anything else that you want, said Alexis Hujar who founded the company with her husband.

The website lists prices from $99 dollars for standard service and about $200 for extra comfort. It offers luxury tents and glamping bedding and flower lei.

But campers who questioned about whether it was legal for a for-profit company to operate at Waimanalo Beach Park, called the neighborhood board.

Hey, people came in set up the chairs and set up the coolers and that wasn’t the people that was camping they left, said board member Andy Jamila.

Jamila said while he understands it’s another way to experience the island, he worries about tourists competing for the few public camping permits that are available.

It’s a touchy subject because a lot of us dont want commercial ventures here, said Jamila.

Avid camping families also worry that the rampant commercialism that caused problems in Kailua will spill over into Waimanalo.

It’s going to take away all the permits from the local people and it’s going to be commercialized and we cant go camping anymore, said Brianne Villarosa.

The company advertisers camping at Waimanalo, Belllows and Kualoa and said it has just started offering the service on the North Shore.

Right now, the city doesnt not offer commercial camping permits, so Makai Camping may have found a loophole, since the city only checks to see that camp users have permits.

The Waimanalo community has been working on a master plan for the park which includes expanded campgrounds.

All of this area is going to be improved. There is going to be a baseball field senior citizen center, so this is all part of it, said Board Chair Wilson Ho.

But Ho says the campgrounds arent being planned for commercial use.

The pop-up business now testing new ground, is just beginning to feel the growing pains.

We just want to help people that want to go camping, who have a love of it and who can’t bring the equipment from the neighbor island or the mainland or don’t have the money to buy the equipment, said Hujar.   

Because this is a fairly new venture, KITV also checked with the state parks division.

It said theres a similar commercial venture that it is operating on the neighbor islands that it is looking into.

The company just began operating this summer and said it just registered to do business in the state this week.

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