Room Rates Rise, More Rooms Empty

Big Island hotels led the state in the rise of average daily room rates in Hawaii, according to research reported in Pacific Business News.

Focusing only on last week’s rates (Dec. 1-7) compared to rates during the same week a year ago, Hospitality Advisors LLC and Smith Travel Research said the average daily room rate on the Big Island jumped 16.8% to $191.97, while hotel room occupancy on the Big Island fell 2.7 percentage points to 53.4%.

Meanwhile, statewide, the average daily room rate jumped 10.5% to $203.30, while occupancy fell 3.1 percentage points to 70.9%.

Only the island of Kauai had an increase in hotel occupancy among the four major islands. Kauai also had the smallest increase in average daily room rate, PBN reported.