Hawaii hotels top nation in room rate By Allison Schaefers

Performance results during the first six months of the year might have pained some Hawaii hoteliers, but other markets across the nation only wished they had it so good.

Through June, Hawaii hotels earned the nation’s highest revenue per available room (RevPAR), which at $226 came in higher than San Francisco/San Mateo’s $208 and New York’s $197, according to a hotel report released by the Hawaii Tourism Authority using data from STR.

Hawaii also realized the nation’s highest average daily room rate of $280, followed by San Francisco/San Mateo at $256 and New York at $237. And, the Hawaiian Islands ranked third in the nation for occupancy, which at 80.7% was just below San Francisco/San Mateo’s 81.1% and New York’s 83.4%.

It was a strong nationwide showing for Hawaii, but it didn’t offer much cause to celebrate for the state’s hotel owners and operators. Hotels across the islands, save for Kauai, mostly rebounded in June; however, the gains weren’t high enough to bolster statewide hotel performance during the first half of the year.

Overall, statewide performance was down for the first six months of the year. While ADR rose nearly 1% through June, occupancy declined nearly 2 percentage points and RevPAR fell more than 1%.

“June was just an improvement over last year’s crappy second half when we had severe weather events, heightened eruptions at Kilauea Volcano, flooding on Kauai and a hotel labor strike that impacted Oahu and Maui,” said Keith Vieira, principal of KV & Associates Hospitality Consulting LLC. “While I think we’ll see more improvement in the second half, we have a ways to go. My hope is that we’ll be back on track by first quarter of 2020.”

JUNE 2019 / JUNE 2018

STATE

Occupancy 84.1% 82.5%

ADR $280 $274

RevPAR $235 $226

Oahu

Occupancy 87.9% 87.9 %

ADR $242 $241

RevPAR $213 $211

Maui

Occupancy

80.9% 77.3%

ADR $394 $381

RevPAR $318 $294

Big Island

Occupancy 78.7% 71%

ADR $250 $236

RevPAR $196 $168

Kauai

Occupancy 75.7% 78.6%

ADR $279 $291

RevPAR $211 $229

Source: HTA, STR