Isle hotels filling
up for Y2K

Many are requiring full
payment months
in advance

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

The arrival of the Year 2000 will present a welcome problem to Hawaii's tourist industry: the possibility of too many people wanting to be in the islands at the same time.

Many hotels are already fully booked for the New Year's holidays and inbound airline bookings are also strong.

Hotels are taking what they call extraordinary measures, such as requiring full payment months in advance and not selling a room to anyone wanting to stay less than five or seven days. That is to avoid overbooking, hotel operators say.

"We don't want to have people sleeping on the beach," said Loren Shim, director of sales administration at Aston Hotels & Resorts.

While destinations in the Pacific and elsewhere are pushing themselves as the first place to see the new century come in, Hawaii has its own attraction as the last place in the United States to see the 1900s out, visitor industry executives say.

Some people may be booking in more than one place just to be sure they can get a room and the advance-payment rule is one way of preventing that.

At Aston, reservations are basically closed for the period from after Christmas through New Year's, Shim said.

"It's a very special event," he said. Aston will now examine all the bookings and soon will check with tour operators and travel wholesalers who have booked blocks of rooms to make sure just what is being used and what isn't, Shim said.

"We may even have to close them down at some point," perhaps taking back unsold rooms, he said.

Aston still has some rooms available, but only at premium rates and is still holding room blocks for key wholesale accounts. Basically the only way to get a room now is to book it through one of the agents or tour operators using those blocks, Shim said.

Bryan Klum, marketing director at Outrigger Hotels & Resorts, said bookings are coming in far earlier than usual for the year-end period.

"We're anticipating being sold out during that period," he said. "Being sold out during that period isn't unusual, but it isn't usual this far in advance.

"There is still space available but it's going fairly quickly and we're advising travel agents that if they have clients who want to come they should be quick."

Like many other hotel operators, Outrigger is requiring a minimum stay, ranging from five to seven days depending on the property. Guests must pay in full by June 30 and if they cancel after July 1, the hotel will keep the payment for a five-night stay.

"Obviously those are extraordinary terms," Klum said. Usually the hotels require only a one-night deposit and rooms can be canceled up to three days before check-in time.

"We've been actively booking this period since November," Klum said.

Hawaii's hotel industry has been suffering from 21 straight months of declining occupancy, according to the accounting and consulting firm PKF-Hawaii.

"This millennium period is going to be a bit of a godsend for us. It's a level of demand we haven't seen for a while. It's nice to have some good news," he said. Klum also noted that the holiday period comes not long after 30,000 people are expected to pack Waikiki for the American Dentists Association convention in October.

Murray Towill, president of the Hawaii Hotel Association, said no surveys have been done but from what he has heard, all hotels will be pretty much filled up and the minimum-stay and advance payment rules are widespread.

"It's one of the last places that New Year's is celebrated," he said. While the press of business does present some problems, "it's nice to have this problem for a change," Towill said.

Bernie Caalim, a spokeswoman for Hilton Hotels in Hawaii, said however that her company has not yet had to take any extreme measures. "We do anticipate a sellout, but we are currently not sold out," she said.

Caalim said Hilton is working closely with its U.S. and international wholesalers to make sure things go as smoothly as possible.

Paul J. Casey, president and chief executive officer of Hawaiian Airlines Inc., said the airline has posted its West Coast-Hawaii seat inventory for the year-end period and the seats were quickly grabbed. "All went within 24 hours," Casey said.

However, Hawaiian has seats blocked out for its usual wholesalers and people will be able to get here, but they had better act quickly, he said yesterday.

Casey quipped that he is staying home over the holidays, not just because Hawaii is the best place to be but because he couldn't get a seat if he did want to go somewhere else.

Norm Reeder, United Airlines managing director-Hawaii, said United's bookings are "very, very strong" for the holidays.

United and other airlines have instituted some extraordinary cancellation policies for the period, Reeder said. For example, there will be no refunds if bookings are canceled.

"One thing Paul (Casey) and I have in common. I'm not leaving these islands," Reeder said.