Hicran
September 11, 2009

It has been a terrible summer for hotels in Hawaii.

Isle hotels in July posted a sixth straight month of record low occupancy, dropping 3.8 percentage points from the same time a year ago to 70.3 percent, according to Honolulu-based Hospitality Advisors LLC.

Joseph Toy, president and CEO of the hotel consulting firm, said this is the worst summer for hotels he’s seen since tracking began in 1987, despite good deals intended to draw visitors.

July’s rate was 18.6 percentage points below the peak July occupancy of 88.9 percent in 2005, according to Hospitality Advisors. July’s peak-season occupancy rate was lower than the rate in the offseason months during the industry boom years of 2005 and 2006.

“The only encouraging news is that the pace of occupancy declines seems to be slowing, but only at the cost of substantial price discounting in the market,” Toy said.

Luxury hotels did fare better than expected, likely because people who normally wouldn’t have been able to afford such accommodations took advantage of the lower prices, he said.

“Hopefully the preliminary signs of the recession finally reaching some bottom will help the first quarter of 2010, but unfortunately we continue to believe that it won’t be until summer 2010 at the earliest before we see a stronger foundation for a more sustained recovery,” Toy said.

Oahu had the high occupancy rate at 78.1 percent, dropping 3.7 percent from a year earlier. Kauai’s occupancy rate plummeted 8.7 percentage points to 66 percent.