Hotel occupancy
up for second month

Room rates remain lower statewide

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Star-Bulletin staff

Hawaii hotel occupancy edged up again last month, the second month in a row of a year-over-year growth in the number of rooms filled, but room rates remained slightly lower than last year's.

The survey firm that calculated the figures, PKF-Hawaii LLP, said that the tourism industry should prepare for poorer performance through the rest of this year, because of uncertainty caused by the stock market slide and the wave of corporate scandals.

Statewide occupancy of hotels and vacation condominiums in June was 75.1 percent, up from 74.2 percent in June 2001. That shows a substantial recovery from the travel plunge that followed the Sept. 11 terrorist hijacking crashes. In October, the first full month following the terrorist attacks, occupancy dropped 18 percentage points from the previous year.

The statewide average room rate last month was $144.87, down 0.5 percent from $149.55 in June 2001.

Oahu showed the highest occupancy for an individual island at 77.1 percent, up nearly 2 percentage points from 75.4 percent in June 2001. Like most other areas, however, Oahu showed a lower room rate, $101.08 on average last month, down 3.8 percent from $105.11 in the previous June.

Big Island average occupancy also increased, to 69.1 percent from 68.3 percent, but the island's average room rate dropped 2.4 percent to $173.02 a night, from $177.23.

Maui had 76.4 percent occupancy, up from a year-earlier 78.8 percent, and although it had the highest islandwide average room rate of any island, $202.71 last month, that was a decrease of 0.9 percent from $204.62 in June 2001.

Kauai's June occupancy of 74.6 percent was up from a year-earlier 67.8 percent but the island's average room rate of $146.91 was down 4.5 percent from the June 2001 average of $153.85. Molokai had an average occupancy last month of 41.1 percent, up from the year-earlier level of 38.2 percent, and its room rates climbed to an average of $91.45, up 3.8 percent from a year-earlier $88.10.

Lanai figures are not available; there is one hotel on the island and its owner, Castle & Cooke Inc., keeps its figures private.