Hawaii Hotel Room Revenue 12.8% Better Than The Same Period Last Year

Hotels see increase in room rates Article From: The Maui Weekly The Maui News – Maui’s hotels were two-thirds full in September, not unusual for one of the dullest months of  the year in the visitor industry, but hotel operators were able to boost their rack rates by more than $15 a night. That contributed to a sizable increase in the amount of money coming in. So far this year, and despite some  slackness in arrival numbers, Hawai’i's lodging business is doing better than last year, and much better than it  was in 2009. The Hawai’i Hotel Flash Report released by Hospitality Advisors last week said that through nine months of 2011,  island hotels have reaped room revenue of $2.14 billion. That is 12.8 percent better than in 2010 and 20.9  percent better than in 2009. But it was not equal to the $2.41 achieved in the first three quarters of 2006. For the year-to-date, Maui had the highest average daily rate ($246.52), up 9.3 percent. Occupancy rates are  up about the same amount in each county so far this year, a somewhat surprising result considering the turmoil  caused by Japan’s earthquake in March and the continuing uncertainty in general economic terms. Each county is up around 3 percentage points in occupancy. Maui is up to 71.2 percent from 68.8 percent last  year.