PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY BRYANT FUKUTOMI / BFUKUTOMI@STARBULLETIN.COM
PHOTO BY DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COMHotels hope strong holiday
bookings will bear fruit
Hawaii hotels see encouraging signs this Christmas holiday season, with full rooms, vacations lasting a little longer than last year and room revenue heading upward, though there's still room for improvement.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., which manages 14 properties in the state, said its Waikiki and neighbor island hotels are sold out for the eight days between Dec. 27 and Jan. 3.
"I'm not sure I believe it," said Keith Vieira, senior vice president and director of operations for Starwood in Hawaii. He noted that many of those rooms are technically being held, such as for wholesale blocks, and are still available to the public.
With travel demand recovering this year, Starwood does not expect to hand out free hotel room upgrades, like it did last year. That helps build revenue per available room, a key financial measure for the hotels. Still, Starwood, operator of Hawaii's Westin and Sheraton chains, is currently not requiring minimum stays in Waikiki, like it is on the neighbor islands.
DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Tourists stroll the beach in front of the Moana Hotel. The property's management company, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., says its Waikiki hotels are sold out for the eight days between Dec. 27 and Jan. 3.
"You can get reservations now, although there's very little discounting," said Stan Brown, Pacific Islands vice president for Marriott International Inc. "We expect to be full and we expect to be full with very few discounts."
Hawaii hotel room revenue has gone up 5.2 percent this year through August from the same period last year, according to consulting firm Hospitality Advisors LLC. The strongest gains are seen on Maui and Kauai, where average room revenue is up by more than 7 percent, while revenue gains on Waikiki and the Big Island are more sluggish.
Waikiki and the Big Island rely more on Japanese visitors than Maui and Kauai, and the state expects Japanese arrivals to fall about 11 percent this year from last year. Japanese travelers, who make up less than 19 percent of Hawaii's visitor arrivals, are slowly returning after the war with Iraq and the outbreak of SARS this year. "I wouldn't call it a massive rebound," said Vieira.
The airlines appear to remain bearish about the short-term outlook for Japanese arrivals to Hawaii. Total air seats scheduled for the week ending Jan. 3 between Hawaii and Japan are down 23.7 percent from last year, according to a Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau estimate based on flight schedule data. The airlines have said they will bring back flights when demand justifies it.
Japan Airlines has yet to have a full recovery in demand on its overseas routes, and forecasts a net loss of $391 million in the year through March 31, 2004, according to Bloomberg News.
On the bright side for Hawaii tourism businesses, the yen has gained about 10.9 percent against the U.S. dollar since the end of July, giving Japanese tourists more purchasing power when they come here. The dollar fell below 110 yen this week for the first time in almost three years.
Meanwhile, Hawaii's air seats from the mainland United States will be up 8.1 percent during this year's holiday season from last year, and up more than 20 percent from the December 2001 season. The islands had record visitor arrivals from the mainland in July and August.
Pleasant Holidays, a major West Coast tour packager, said it's possible the company's Hawaii holiday sales this year will surpass 2000. That year set a record overall, with 6.95 million visitors flocking to the islands.
"Maui is virtually sold out already and every day more air and room nights are being gobbled up for the other islands," said Ken Phillips, vice president of corporate communications and promotions for Westlake Village, Calif.-based Pleasant Holidays. "It's still a little early to forecast the end result, since we expect a rash of last-minute -- three to four weeks out -- bookings."
"We seem to be slightly better this year in terms of the booking pace for the holidays," said Keoni Wagner, spokesman for Hawaiian Airlines.
Hoteliers say they are optimistic about 2004.
At Waikiki's high-end Halekulani hotel, where visitors typically book their next Christmas holiday at the end of each trip, the 456 rooms are sold out from Dec. 25 to Jan. 3. Business is doing well compared with 2000, with higher occupancy than in the past and full occupancy in the last few months, according to Peter E. Shaindlin, the new chief operating officer for Halekulani Corp.
Marriott expects solid results in the entire month of December for its two Waikiki properties, the 1,310-room Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort and the 783-room Renaissance Ilikai Waikiki, because of group business and the Honolulu Marathon, Brown said. At the same time, the company's neighbor island properties are seeing a seasonably soft market in early December.
"Holidays look real strong," said Starwood's Vieira.
