As far as Hawai’i law is concerned….if you have a massage studio or other location where clients come to you on a regular basis you are required to work under a Massage Establishment License (MAE) and need to have that license along with your massage therapist license displayed in your treatment room. It blows me away how many massage therapists don’t know this. You should have learned it in massage school, and it may have even been on your test!
Until 2013, massage establishments were supervised by the department of health. They had a set of requirements mostly geared towards sanitary practices, and they could inspect you at any time to make sure you were meeting these sanitary requirements. In 2013 this responsiblity shifted to the DCCA and while the health department requirements were still law, it was a self certification process that was not verfied. In 2018 the health department laws were repealed and therre were no legal sanitation requirements for MAEs . In my opinion the massage establishment license became ineffective at protecting the consumer at this point. This is the reason the BIMN does not ask whether or not you have a MAE as to be a member. You are required to because it is a legal requirement…but we’re not verifying them for our therapists.
As of 7/2025 the DCCA says they are in the “final stages” of approving new set of sanitation rules. Here is an unofficial draft that should be similar to what gets approved. Key items of note from this proposed draft: toilet must be within 200’. A handwash basin must be “conveniently located” (for new construction, it must be in the treatment room.) Hot water is no longer required as it was in the old health department rules. If its a room in your house, that room must only be used for massage and have a solid door without a lock.
Once the new sanitation laws are approved we will be verifying you are working at location with a valid MAE license before you continue to treat BIMN clients.
The massage establiishment license costs about the same as your massage license. Its renewed every 2 years like your massage license with the same expiration date. If you apply after June in odd number years, its reduced to $107 until it renews. If its just a change of address then its only $25.
The address of your MAE must match your practice location listed on the BIMN website.
You can work under someone elses MAE but the principle massage therapist must register you under that MAE.
If you would like to apply, the latest version of the application can be found on this page. Don’t be intimidated, its not actually a hard application even though it looks complicated at first glance.
Its easiest to apply for a MAE using your name as the MAE name. If you want to use another name (called a “trade name”), you have to register it with the DCCA and include that registration with your application. If you want to use the name of a LLC, then you need to send them a certificate of good standing.
If you would like to see examples of the documents required along with your application, here are some examples from 2 successful MAE applications
Morning Star Massage (My personal MAE)
Example Letter from Principal Massage Therapist
Trade Name Registration Form with Stamp (I’m waitintg to hear back from massage board if they will just accept the Printout from the DCCA site)
Moonbow Massage Institute (Amy Doff’s MAE)
Example Letter from Principal Massage Therapist
Make sure to print and display both your massage therapist and massage establishment license in your treatment room and send me a copy of your establishment license. Here are instructions on how to print them.