Predictably, hotel occupancy rates in January were far below those from last year.
According to data released Monday by the Hawaii Tourism Authority, statewide occupancy rates dropped by 60 percentage points last month — in January 2020, 83% of rooms were filled, while last month only 23% were.
The decline — a continuing result of the COVID-19 pandemic — led to a nearly 80% decrease in hotel revenue across the state, as revenues barely reached $90 million last month, compared to the $441 million generated in January 2020.
The average daily rates charged by hotels also decreased by about 20% statewide, with only two outliers — luxury hotels in Maui County and hotels in Wailea, Maui, posted increases in their daily rates by 12% and 17%, respectively.
The state’s hotel industry had been making incremental improvements over the last quarter of 2020, but those also appear to have stalled.
While occupancy rates in January were about on par with those in December, nearly every other metric — demand, revenue, daily rates — were slightly lower in January than in the previous month, despite those metrics increasing slightly month to month since some travel resumed in October.