According to a recent report by Hospitality Advisors LLC and Smith Travel Research, Hawaii hotels pulled in record earnings with $262 million in room revenue in the month of May. Average daily room rates for the state were $204.41 with a $148.71 revenue per available room, or RevPAR.
What does this mean to you as a potential Maui real estate owner? If you choose to buy a second Maui home or a condo with the intent to use it as a vacation rental, you can earn some extra income, and pay off the mortgage on your investment with those earnings. Our sister company, vacation-maui.com, specializes in vacation rental management, should you find yourself ready to make that choice. The way the market is trending, your outlook for such an arrangement is sunny.
The report indicated an average daily room rate increase of 9.5 percent for May, compared to May of last year, and the RevPAR went up 7.9 percent. Now here is what makes Maui special. Despite a 3.7 percent increase in arrivals, Hawaii hotel occupancy dropped by 1.1 percent thanks to a length of stay that dropped by 2.3 percent. Maui occupancy bucked the trend with a 2.3 percent increase in occupancy thanks to a 6 percent increase in visitor arrivals.
Maui’s performance is interesting because the average hotel room rate is the highest among the islands. Our tourism officials focus on fewer visitors with higher spending rather than low spending with an emphasis on high numbers of visitors. It makes Maui a more financially exclusive destination, keeps the crowds low, and maintains a higher quality vacation experience in general. It costs visitors more to stay on Maui, but it’s worth it.
On that note, it’s worth noting that the average daily room rate at Maui hotels increased by 3.3 percent to $241.46 and RevPAR increased by 7 percent to $160.33. In fact, during the month of May, Maui was the only island to see increases in all these categories: Arrivals, occupancy, average daily room rates, and RevPAR.
As always, we encourage our readers to take long-term trends into account when making real estate decision within a market as small as Maui’s. Percentages tend to swing a lot when you have a small number of properties to account for. If you need any assistance with your Maui real estate search and purchase, you’ll find our contact information at the bottom of the page. We look forward to assisting you! Mahalo!
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