Hawaii’s hotel occupancy at 51% in April

Hotels in Hawaii were only about half full in April even with the spring break rush, but performance is expected to heat up this summer as many U.S. travelers take leisure trips.

Occupancy at Hawaii hotels rose to 50.8% in April, up from about 43% in March, 31% in February and 23% in January, according to data from Nashville, Tenn.-based STR. It was Hawaii’s highest statewide occupancy in the past 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The statewide average daily room rate more than doubled to over $300, with revenue per available room rising to $152.52, a more than 1,280% increase from April 2020, the worst month for Hawaii hotel performance during the pandemic.

Hawaii’s April results were an improvement over the first quarter when Hawaii’s occupancy was just 32.4%, which, according to a CBRE Hawaii Hotel report released Thursday, was more than 19 percentage points below the national average.

Keith Vieira, principal of KV &Associates, Hospitality Consulting, said, “It trailed down at the end of April, and from what we can tell, people were still confused on the different rules on every island. It definitely hurt the booking pace, but we are bouncing back in late May as we head into June. Summer is getting better.”

According to the CBRE report, “There is evidence of pent-up demand manifesting, with some hoteliers reporting anecdotally that their booking pace for the second half of 2021 is exceeding levels compared to 2019.”

The latest Hawaii hotel figures come as destinations across the U.S. hope to tap into pent-up demand from U.S. travelers.

TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein tweeted that TSA screened 1.7 million people at airport checkpoints Monday, the highest checkpoint volume for a Monday since the start of the pandemic. Traveler throughput was more than 1.4 million people on Tuesday and again on Wednesday.

The seven-day average of visitors screened by Safe Travels Hawaii through Wednesday was more than 23,600.

Mufi Hannemann, president and CEO of the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association, said the local tourism industry is starting to rebound.

“We believe that this trend will continue through the summer as more people are vaccinated and public health mandates continue to be loosened,” Hannemann said. “Early projections for the summer are positive with the neighbor islands showing better occupancy numbers at least 70% plus while Oahu is lagging behind slightly with an estimated 60-65% occupancy since international travel won’t be back for the summer season.”

Recent polling shows a coming surge in domestic leisure travel demand, which along with greater vaccine distribution has prompted a shift in U.S. travel industry outlook and messaging.

The Let’s Go There Coalition, made up of 75 travel companies and organizations, some with Hawaii connections, changed its travel messaging earlier this week to “Ready? So are we.”

U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow, who is part of the coalition, said U.S. leisure travel is at an inflection point.

The Harris Poll showed that more than three-quarters of Americans, or 77%, plan to take a trip this summer, Dow said. The poll also indicated that more than half of the Americans who have summer travel either planned or booked will be traveling for the first time since the start of the pandemic, he said.

“We’ve got a long way to go, but we are very enthusiastic about what’s going on with domestic travel and the summer travel season coming up,” Dow said. “The health situation had dramatically improved since even three or four months ago. Americans are really ready to travel.”

Julius Robinson, chief sales and marketing officer, U.S. and Canada, for Marriott International and co- chairman of the Let’s Go There Coalition, said Marriott is supporting the industrywide effort, which comes as Americans begin to enjoy summer travel again and think about their vacation plans for 2022 and beyond.

“Our leisure business is up 30% to 40% over what we saw in 2019,” Robinson said. “As business travel and group travel has been down somewhat, it’s being replaced by an aggressive leisure community. We anticipate those numbers to continue throughout the rest of the summer and into the early fall.”