HONOLULU — Padraig and Edel Byrne of Ireland are staying in Ko Olina but celebrated their wedding anniversary Tuesday afternoon on Waikiki Beach, where they spent their honeymoon 30 years ago.
Chanting from a nearby UNITE HERE Local 5 hotel workers strike was loud but did not drown out the waves or mar the couple’s enjoyment of their 15-night return trip, which included their daughters and their boyfriends.
“Waikiki is a famous beach. Everyone wants to be here,” Padraig Byrne said. “But we didn’t think it would be this busy.”
While the family noticed the strikers, Edel Byrne said it didn’t negatively affect their day.
“I can understand. When you are working, it’s always the same, isn’t it?” she said.
Overall, most visitors seemed tolerant of the strike, which was slated to end at 12:01 a.m. this morning. However, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser observed a man yelling, “Get back to work!” as he passed a picket line in front of the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort & Spa, where workers were chanting, “What do we want? Contract!” and dancing to K-pop songs.
Local 5 workers also went on strike at the Sheraton Kauai Resort and six other Waikiki hotels: the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort; Moana Surfrider — a Westin Resort Spa; The Royal Hawaiian, a Luxury Collection Resort; Sheraton Princess Kaiulani; Sheraton Waikiki; and Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa.
It’s hard to tell the impact on Hawaii tourism from the limited three-day strike, which began at 4 a.m. Sunday and also spread to 25 hotels across Baltimore; Boston; Greenwich, Conn.; San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose, Calif.; and Seattle. However, Hawaii had more exposure as Local 5 workers in Honolulu and Kauai made up about half of the national action.
Cade Watanabe, Local 5 financial secretary-treasurer, said the action was Local 5’s largest strike in 30 years and involved all of the state’s major hotel brands.
“It sent a huge, important message: We are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve our goals,” Watanabe said.
But he added, “We want to give every opportunity to our employers to step up and address the issues that concern us, like wages to help us not just get by, but to get ahead. (We also want to) address some of the workload and staffing issues that have a direct correlation to service.”
Watanabe said new bargaining dates have not been confirmed, but the parties continue to talk about scheduling.
Keith Vieira, principal of KV & Associates, Hospitality Consulting, said, “From my understanding, Hawaii hotels did not see mass cancellations, although there were some short-term ones.”
Pleasant Holidays President and CEO Jack Richards said Hawaii hotels did a “great job communicating with the guests, so for that reason I think the complaints will be minimal.”
Watanabe said that during the strike American Airlines flight attendants were working to relocate to nonstriking hotels.
“We know that other groups have called the hotels and said, ‘Why weren’t we informed?’” he said. “What’s been really refreshing and overwhelming has been the response. Tourists have come up to me and said, ‘Keep it up.’ Elected leaders and other labor leaders have joined us.”
To be sure, it’s easier to track complaints and cancellations than to figure out whether the short-lived strike, or fear of another strike, has affected bookings. In 2023, UNITE HERE members won record contracts after rolling strikes at Los Angeles hotels and a 47-day strike at Detroit casinos.
Doug Gibson, a visitor from San Diego, told Local 5 Senior Vice President Eric Gill on Tuesday that he will not book hotels where workers are striking.
“I don’t stay in these places,” Gibson said.
Any drop in booking could dampen Hawaii tourism, which even before the strike was struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic plunge and the devastating Aug. 8, 2023, Maui wildfires. The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism reported that July arrivals to the Hawaiian Islands dropped 1% year over year to 925,935. And, even though July was a better month than most, statewide visitor arrivals in July were still only 93% of the pre-pandemic July 2019 level.
Oahu had a July boost from hosting the biennial Rim of the Pacific — the world’s largest naval training exercise — but Maui in July experienced a more than 20% drop in visitor arrivals and a nearly 18% decrease in spending.
Hawaii hotels statewide reported slightly higher occupancy in July but lower average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR) when compared with July 2023, according to DBEDT’s Hawai‘i Hotel Performance Report, which was compiled from STR data.
RevPAR, which is considered a strong performance indicator because it measures the revenue generated by each available room at a hotel, decreased 4.1% year over year to $301. ADR fell 5.5% to $385, while occupancy rose 1.2 percentage points to 78.4%.
Richards said Maui bookings are such a big part of Pleasant’s Hawaii business that statewide bookings in 2024 are down by double digits. He said 2025 bookings have improved by 12 percentage points but are about 27% below bookings this year.
He said Europe, Asia, Oceania, Central America, the Caribbean and French Polynesia are showing strong gains, while Mexico is flat and getting better.
Richards said an upcoming marketing saturation plan in Southern California this month will help, but probably not enough to turn 2024 or 2025 bookings positive.
“Our customers just don’t want to come in to an area that has been devastated. They just wouldn’t feel right about vacationing in an area that was decimated by fire,” he said. “Customers also say they miss Old Town Lahaina — it’s gone.”
While airfares are down, Richards said cost is another factor.
“Average daily room rates are still high, and we’ve seen fairly significant increases to resort fees and parking over the last year,” he said.
Vieira said hotels have made significant investment in hotel properties and in union workers, who have lifetime pensions and free medical for themselves and their families.
But Local 5 insists that hotels have maintained COVID-19-era staffing cuts, causing some workers to lose income and others to face higher workloads, while grappling with rising customer complaints.
Local 5 member Erica Lui, who has been a Hyatt server for two years, said workload and staffing are issues for union workers across Hawaii hotels.
“People say in the past that there were more workers and there was better service, and now, unfortunately, due to the cuts the service is suffering,” Lui said. “We are not just fighting for a better future for ourselves and our families. We are also here to fight for a better future for each other.”
