Hawaii hotels outperformed vacation rentals in December 2019

In December 2019, the total monthly supply of Hawaii statewide vacation rentals was 856,800 unit nights and monthly demand was 645,600 unit nights, resulting in an average monthly unit occupancy of 75.3 percent.

In comparison, Hawaii’s hotels were 80.2 percent occupied in December 2019. It is important to note that unlike hotels, condominium hotels, and timeshare resorts, vacation rental units are not necessarily available year-round or each day of the month. The unit average daily rate (ADR) for vacation rental units statewide in December was $234, lower than the ADR for hotels ($352).

Hawaii Tourism Authority’s Tourism Research Division issued the report’s findings utilizing data compiled by Transparent Intelligence, Inc. The data in this report specifically excludes units reported in HTA’s Hawaii Hotel Performance Report and Hawaii Timeshare Quarterly Survey Report. In this report, a vacation rental is defined as the use of a rental house, private room in private home, or shared room/space in private home. This report also does not determine or differentiate between units that are permitted or unpermitted. The “legality” of any given vacation rental unit is determined on a county basis.

Island Highlights

In December, Maui County had the largest vacation rental supply of all four counties at 293,000 unit nights, which is an increase of 27.6 percent compared to a year ago. Unit demand was 231,400 unit nights, resulting in 79.0 percent occupancy (+1.8 percentage points) with an ADR of $278 (+15.1%). Maui County hotels were 76.8 percent occupied with an ADR of $540.

On Oahu, the vacation rental supply in December was 237,300 unit nights. This is a decrease of 9.1 percent from a year ago. Unit demand on Oahu was 179,700 unit nights (-6.3%), resulting in a 75.7 percent occupancy (+2.3 percentage points) and an ADR of $191 (+26.3%). Oahu hotels were 82.8 percent occupied with an ADR of $286.

There were 204,400 available unit nights (+10.6%) on the island of Hawaii. Unit demand was 146,800 unit nights (+18.1%), resulting in 71.8 percent occupancy (+4.6 percentage points) with an ADR of $181 (+14.9%). Hawaii Island hotels were 79.5 percent occupied with an ADR of $330.

Kauai had the fewest number of available unit nights at 122,000 (+28.6%). Unit demand was 87,600 unit nights (+17.4%), resulting in 71.8 percent occupancy (-6.9 percentage points) with an ADR of $294 (+18.3%). Kauai hotels were 72.5 percent occupied with an ADR of $338.