Hotel occupancy leads U.S

Hawaii hotels, the fullest in the nation during the first quarter, saw room revenues climb 8 percent from year-before levels to more than $832 million.
"Despite the heavy rain and tragic floods that hit Kauai and the state overall, Hawaii nonetheless continued to be a strong destination," Hospitality Advisors LLC President Joe Toy said.
Hospitality Advisors surveyed 143 properties representing more than 47,000 rooms, roughly four-fifths of all lodging properties with 20 rooms or more in the state. It released its findings Monday:
ADR -- average daily rates -- rose more than 12 percent.
Revpar -- revenue per available room -- rose by about the same percentage to more than $154 per day.
"Not only did Hawaii lead the nation in hotel occupancy, but it also was second only to New York City in achieving the highest ADR and revpar," Toy said.
This happened despite visitor arrivals down 0.5 percent from the same quarter last year.
The state's four operating counties generally showed little change in occupancy levels. The biggest change was on Kauai, where occupancy fell about 4 percent but room rates rose more than 4 percent.
Parsing hotel demand by market tier, Hospitality Advisors found that luxury hotels captured most of the increase in room demand while other tiers eased slightly.
Hospitality Advisors also issued specific figures for March that showed slipping demand, including a 7.8 point decline in occupancy on Kauai, which it attributed to rain fallout. But it also should be noted that the Easter travel weekend moved from March to April this year.