November hotel occupancy in Hawaii stays below 60%

Occupancy at Hawaii hotels in November was still significantly below the 2019 pre-pandemic level.

In July, statewide occupancy reached 82.4%, which was close to peak 2019 levels. However, the figure fell to 73.5% in August as the delta variant became a concern, and stayed below 60% for the next three months.

Tennessee-based STR reported Tuesday that statewide November occupancy hit 59.7%. The results were 19.4 percentage points below November 2019, when occupancy was 79.1%.

Hotels across the state last month managed to hold onto strong gains in average daily room rates, which rose to $333, a 27.5% increase over November 2019. However, lackluster occupancy caused revenue per available room, or RevPAR, to fall to $199, a 3.8% drop from November 2019.

RevPAR is considered by many in the hotel industry as the key performance measure, as it is the rate that a room rents for regardless of occupancy status.

November was the first full month Hawaii welcomed leisure travel since Gov. David Ige’s Aug. 23 request that travelers refrain from making nonessential trips to Hawaii through the end of October.

Results were mixed across the islands.

Maui’s occupancy fell to 65.4%, a decline of 9.8 percentage points from November 2019. However, ADR rose 47.4% from the same month in 2019 to $531. RevPAR increased to $347, a 28.3% gain.

Kauai’s occupancy in November was 71.6%, 3.3 percentage points below the occupancy it achieved in November 2019. ADR rose 32.6% from November 2019 to $329. RevPAR reached $235, a gain of 26.9%.

Occupancy on Hawaii island reached 70.3%, just 5.4 percentage points below the November 2019 occupancy. Hawaii island’s ADR in November increased to $354, up 45% from November 2019. RevPAR increased to $249, a gain of 34.6%.

However, Oahu hotels, which are more dependent on international travelers than the neighbor islands, tracked behind November 2019 in all hotel performance categories. Oahu occupancy fell to 53.4%, a decline of 28.6 percentage points. ADR dropped to $225, a 1.4% drop from November 2019, and RevPAR fell to $120, down 35.7%.

In July, Oahu hotels held the top occupancy of the nationwide destinations on STR’s Top 25 hotel list. However, in November, Oahu’s occupancy placed it seventh from the bottom.

Holiday traffic isn’t likely to dramatically affect the year-end results for Hawaii hoteliers. Through the first 11 months, statewide occupancy averaged 56.2%, a drop of 24.7 percentage points from the same period in 2019. ADR through November increased to $318, a gain of 15.2% from the same period in 2019.

However, the occupancy decline pulled down RevPAR for the first 11 months to $179, a decrease of 22.8%.

Even before the omicron variant emerged, most Americans were opting to stay home this holiday season, according to a national survey commissioned by the American Hotel & Lodging Association and conducted by Morning Consult. A key finding in the survey was that just 1 in 3 Americans planned to travel for Christmas, and of those folks, most planned to stay with family and friends.

Only 23% of those planning to travel for Christmas indicated they would be staying in a hotel.

“While vaccines have helped travelers feel more comfortable, rising gas prices and continued concerns about the pandemic are making many Americans hesitant to travel during the holidays,” said AHLA President and CEO Chip Rogers in a statement.

“Despite a slight expected uptick in holiday travel this year, hotels will continue to face economic fallout from the pandemic, underscoring the need for targeted federal relief, such as the Save Hotel Jobs Act, to support the industry and its workforce until travel fully returns.”

AHLA and hoteliers in Hawaii and across the nation are pushing for Congress to pass the Save Hotel Jobs Act, which would provide critical pandemic support to hotels and hotel workers.