Hawaii hotel occupancy nearly reached 2019 levels last month
Hotels in Hawaii were only slightly less occupied in March 2020 than in March 2019, despite the pandemic.
Hawaii hotels had an occupancy rate that was almost equal to pre-pandemic rates last month.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority released its monthly Hawaii Hotel Performance Report on Thursday. It includes data compiled from analytics company STR. Hotels in the state were 76.5% occupied. The report stated that the occupancy rate for March was only 2.3 percentage points below what it had been last year, when hotels were at 78.8%.
Comparing this to March last year, when hotels occupied 74.8%, there is a 1.7-point increase.
The report also noted that other key metrics had seen significant increases in comparison to 2019. The average daily rate (ADR) increased by 36%, to $387. Revenue per available room (RevPAR), grew 32%, to $296.
The total revenue from rooms in March reached $509.1 millions, an increase of 35% over the $376 million recorded in March 2019. Demand was mostly flat, with 1.3 million rooms nights. Supply increased 2.7%.
HTA reported that the report for March 'included 46,640 properties, or 84 per cent of all lodging properties in Hawaii with 20 or more rooms. This includes full service, limited-service, and condominium hotels.
Oahu had the highest occupancy rate (79%) among the islands. This occupancy rate is similar to that of March 2019 and reverts the trend from recent months, when Oahu had lagged behind the neighbor islands in terms of occupancy. Hawaii Island and Kauai were close behind, with occupancy rates of 77% and 76% respectively. Maui County, on the other hand, was far behind with an occupancy rate 70.5%.
Maui had the biggest decline in occupancy, with a drop of 8 percentage points. Kauai was the only county that reported an occupancy rate greater than March 2019 by 3.6 percentage points.
Maui County had the highest ADR and RevPAR figures of $646 and $455 respectively.
Hawaii Island saw the biggest growth in both ADR and RevPAR categories with 57% and 50% respectively.
Oahu's growth was more modest than the neighbor islands, and its figures were lower. Oahu's ADR in March was $273, an increase of 19% over March 2019. Its RevPAR was $216, which is also up 18%.
The occupancy rates of the different property classes were all lower. Luxury class, the highest-end property category in the report, had the lowest occupancy at 60%. This was 15 percentage points below the March 2019 rate. The occupancy rates for all other classes of properties ranged from 77 to 80%. The only class to show an increase was the upscale, which is the mid-level of property.
ADR and RevPAR also increased across all property classes.
Hotel occupancy in March was 75% year-to-date, down 5 percentage points from the same period last year, when 80.5% of hotels were occupied. ADR increased by 33%, to $388. RevPAR grew 24% to $292.