The accounting and management consulting firm PKF-Hawaii reported yesterday that occupancy of hotels and resort condominiums statewide averaged 84.32 percent in February, down more than four percentage points from the statewide average of 88.35 percent in February 1996.
Tourist accommodations were able to compensate for the empty rooms to some extent by charging higher room rates. The statewide average daily rate last month, $142.20, was an increase of 6.3 percent over the February 1996 average rate of $133.78.
Despite the slip in occupancy from last year, February was a busy month for the industry, said Ernie Watari, PKF-Hawaii chairman and chief executive.
The firm pointed out that February 1996 had been an exceptionally strong month for the hotel industry. February and August are annual peak months for tourist accommodations.
The off-beach properties in Waikiki without restaurants, which as usual showed some of the lowest room rates in the state, had the highest occupancy. Those properties, many of which are condominiums, were 91.47 percent full last month. Even so, that was a dip from 93.88 percent in February 1996.
Those value-oriented properties had an average room rate last month of $97.33, 7.4 percent higher than the $90.66 rate in the year-earlier month, the PKF-Hawaii report shows.
The Big Island managed a slight increase in occupancy, to 80.53 percent last month compared with 79.51 percent in the previous February, and Big Island room rates averaged $146.47, up 15.8 percent from 126.53.
Maui occupancy was 82.29 percent last month, down from 87.33 percent, but Maui room rates were up 5.4 percent at an average of $173.07, from $164.20 a year earlier.
Kauai occupancy slipped to 67.47 percent, from 76.45 percent a year earlier, with a small increase in the average room rate to $151.43, from $145.88. Molokai increased its occupancy to an average of 58.02 percent from 54.01 percent, and managed a small room-rate increase to a $78.33 average, from $77.24.
PKF-Hawaii surveys 130 properties with a total of 38,829 rooms, or 55 percent of the available rooms in the state.