Isle hotels help
boost ResortQuest
net income 266%

Improved occupancy at Aston
properties are cited for the gain

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Helped by a substantial increase in operating profit from its Hawaii operations, ResortQuest International Inc. had a 266 percent increase in third-quarter net income.

The company today reported a net profit of $5.66 million, or 31 cents a share, for the three months through Sept. 30, up from $1.55 million, or 9 cents a share, a year earlier. Third-quarter revenues of $42.1 million were up 139.2 percent this year from $17.6 million last year.

"Hawaii enjoyed a very successful quarter, led by Aston Hotels & Resorts, our largest company, which reported a 59.5 percent increase in operating income to $2.2 million," said David Levine, president and chief operating officer. "Occupancy in Hawaii continued to rebound, up 6.3 percentage points."

Levine said the trend continued in October.

Memphis, Tenn.-based ResortQuest said its Hawaii operations had lodging revenues of $35.5 million in the latest quarter, down 1 percent from $35.9 million in the 1998 quarter. (As a management company, ResortQuest gets a share of that revenue ranging up to more than 40 percent, depending on the ownership and management of each property.)

The Hawaii properties had a three-months occupancy average of 77.5 percent, up from 71.2 percent in the 1998 quarter, and average revenue per available Hawaii unit was $79.61 in the latest quarter, up 4.7 percent from $76.07 a year earlier.

ResortQuest was formed in May 1998 with the acquisition of 29-property Aston, one other Hawaii operation -- Maui Condominium & Home Realty -- and 11 vacation management companies across the mainland.

The company subsequently acquired an additional 18 businesses and now controls more than 17,000 vacation rental units in 39 resort destinations in North America.