LIHUE — Hotels in the Hawaiian Islands averaged a record $212 in revenue per available room (RevPAR) for 2017, an increase of 5.4 percent compared to 2016, according to the Hawaii Hotel Performance Report released today by the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
HTA’s Tourism Research Division issued the report’s findings utilizing data compiled by STR, Inc., which conducts the largest and most comprehensive survey of hotel properties in the Hawaiian Islands.
The average daily rate of $264 in 2017 for hotels statewide also set a new annual record for Hawaii, an increase of 4.1 percent, or $10, compared to 2016.
Hotel occupancy statewide averaged 80 percent in 2017, an increase of 1 percentage points over 2016. The highest average of annual statewide occupancy was in 2005 at 81.1 percent.
On a statewide basis, all classes of hotel properties in Hawaii performed better in 2017 compared to 2016.
Midscale and Economy Class hotels reported the highest growth in RevPAR for the year to $119 (plus 6.6 percent), supported by increases in average daily rate to $153 (plus 3.4 percent) and occupancy of 77.9 percent (plus 2.4 percentage points).
“Coming into 2017 the outlook was soft for the hotel industry, particularly in the third quarter, but the rates that hotels commanded, and the revenues generated, turned out to be far greater than anyone anticipated on a statewide level,” said Jennifer Chun, HTA director of tourism research.
“However, this growth was not distributed equally among the Hawaiian Islands. While neighbor island hotels performed well in 2017, Waikiki hotels, with the state’s largest concentration of rooms, did not enjoy the same level of success. RevPAR was flat and occupancy, even though it was the highest in the state, was still down slightly compared to 2016.”
The average growth in annual RevPAR was strongest on the neighbor islands in 2017. Maui County at $272 ( plus 8.9 percent), Kauai at $200 (plus 8.6 percent), and the island of Hawaii at $185 (plus 11.7 percent) all reported strong increases in RevPAR supported by growth in both ADR and occupancy.
Oahu, by comparison, averaged modest growth in RevPAR to $194 (plus 1.7 percent).
Chun noted, “The island of Hawaii really stands out for the way it is bouncing back with healthy increases in RevPAR and occupancy. The increased air seat capacity introduced in 2017 translated into success for the hotel properties.”
For December, Kauai hotel properties earned the largest gain in RevPAR to $231 (pus 8.4 percent) in December, boosted by increases in ADR to $314 (plus 5.9 percent) and occupancy of 73.7 percent (plus 1.7 percentage points).
