Cancellations outpace bookings for Maui hotels
The volume of wildfire-related hotel cancellations on Maui is outpacing bookings, a troubling sign for the island’s economy.
“On a normal day most hotels pick up 200 to 300 future bookings, but I’ve talked to different hotel owners from Wailea to Kaanapali to Kapalua and every owner has said they are in the negative,” said Keith Vieira, principal of KV &Associates, a hospitality consulting company. “Any new days for the future are outnumbered by those canceling.”
Jerry Gibson, president of the Hawaii Hotel Alliance, said until hoteliers start seeing positive booking days, it is difficult to know how long the economic decline from Maui’s wildfires will continue.
But Maui hotels, especially in Wailea, are “really troubled as far as the numbers. We really need to find a way to turn that around, otherwise we are going to have a huge economic challenge.”
