Hawaii’s visitor accommodations hit record high

Visitor accommodation units in Hawaii hit their highest total ever last year as the state likely ended up with a sixth straight record year of arrivals and spending.

The number of accommodation units — more than half of which were hotels — rose 1.6 percent to 80,336 from 79,092 in 2016, according to the 2017 Visitor Plant Inventory census released Wednesday by the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

The data does not include Airbnb and other similar accommodations.

“In recent years, technology has greatly impacted Hawaii’s visitor accommodations supply by facilitating the rental of individual properties, which has led to unprecedented growth in the number of vacation rental units statewide. The proliferation of independently managed vacation rental units includes many that are unlicensed, unidentified and not accounted for in HTA’s Visitor Plant Inventory,” the agency said in a news release.

“If all vacation rentals could be accurately identified and counted, the overall total of Hawaii’s visitor accommodation units would be greater in the 2017 Visitor Plant Inventory report,” said Jennifer Chun, HTA director of tourism research. “Until all vacation rentals are being accounted for in the report, the tourism industry will never fully know the impact this segment of accommodations is having on the quality of Hawaii’s brand as a travel destination.”

The annual survey of existing and planned visitor accommodation units statewide showed growth in three of the five categories reported.

Hotel rooms increased 1.2 percent year over year to 44,431, time-share units rose 3.2 percent to 11,062 and vacation rental units gained 3.9 percent to 12,659.

Condo hotel units declined 0.4 percent to 10,875 and the category of apartments, bed-and-breakfasts, hostels and other miscellaneous accommodations fell 3.5 percent to 1,309.

Hotel rooms made up 55.3 percent of Hawaii’s visitor accommodations last year, followed by vacation rentals (15.8 percent), time-share units (13.8 percent) and condo hotels (13.5 percent), with the balance (1.6 percent) from a combination of other providers, such as apartments, bed-and-breakfasts and hostels.

Nearly half of Hawaii’s visitor accommodation units are on Oahu (47.9 percent), with the majority in Waikiki. Maui has the second-highest percentage of units (26.5 percent), followed by Hawaii island (14 percent) and Kauai (11 percent). Molokai and Lanai combined for the fewest units at 0.6 percent.

“The report shows that Hawaii has an effective mix of accommodation offerings that is meeting the lodging interests of travelers coming from around the world,” Chun said. “From the properties that we can survey and assess, overall growth in 2017 was modest highlighted by increases in the supply of hotel rooms and time-share units.”