Interestingly most hotel markets statewide saw all of these gains except for Oahu and Kauai which went down slightly in every category of performance. But those statistics can be misleading. Even though Oahu’s occupancy was flat, at 84.2% it was the state’s highest occupancy rate. At the same time, Oahu realized 2% growth in average daily hotel rate and a nearly 3% rise in revenue per room. In other words, Oahu’s hotels are doing well even though perhaps they could do somewhat better.
Maui County continued to have the state’s highest hotel rate at $399 and also the highest numbers for revenue per available room. The “Big Island” seems to have had a year of recovery after volcanic eruptions in 2018. But the “Big Island’s” hotels posted the best growth metric in the state of Hawaii for revenue per available room.
How does revenue per available room performance of Hawaii’s hotels rank compared to other international “sun and sea” destinations? Hawaii’s hotels ranked behind French Polynesia and the Maldives, but the good news is that Maui County ranked third, Kauai 5th, the “Big Island” 6th, and Oahu ranked seventh. In addition Oahu led in occupancy percentage for “sun and sea” destinations, followed by Maui County, the island of Hawaii and then Kauai.