April 17, 2013--It was a February to love for Hawaii hoteliers, who saw their properties break several records.

How high can the industry go seemed to be the theme of the latest hotel flash report by Hospitality Advisors LLC and Smith Travel Research.

February's revenue per available room, considered to be the best measure of hotel operations, rose 16.4 percent to an all-time high of $199.70 per night.

Hotels also set February records for total room revenue and average daily rates.

The average daily rate rose 13.1 percent to $233.30, which was just shy of the all-time peak of $236.06 achieved in December.

Hawaii hotels collected $318 million in room revenue, a record for February and only slightly below the all-time high of $328 million set in January.

Occupancy statewide rose 2.4 percentage points to 85.6 percent.

"We're off to a very good start. 2013 overall is looking to be a banner year for us," said Sheraton Waikiki Hotel Manager Matt Grauso. "We're looking to exceed our forecast across all metrics, and we are showing year-over-year growth in all metrics."

Other Oahu hoteliers are equally bullish. A 2.1 percentage point occupancy gain on Oahu in February filled 89.8 percent of rooms. Oahu also set February records for the average daily rate, which rose 20.7 percent to $209.18, and revenue per available room, which grew 23.5 percent to $187.84.

"The growth in visitor arrivals was driven by the U.S. West (up 7.7 percent), U.S. East (up 3.7 percent), Japan (up 3.5 percent), and China, whose visitor count nearly tripled from the same period last year to 14,188 visitors," Joseph Toy, president of Hospitality Advisors, said in his report.

Arrival gains from Japan and the domestic West Coast bolstered performance at the Sheraton Waikiki, Grauso said.

Oahu's strong performance year to date has helped hoteliers bring rates closer to where they would have been if they had kept up with the consumer price index through the downturn, said Barry Wallace, executive vice president of hospitality services for Outrigger Enterprises Groups, which has properties throughout the state.

"We're at about break-even on Oahu," Wallace said.

While the neighbor islands still lag Oahu, overflow traffic is starting to bolster their occupancies and create some opportunities to increase rates, he said.

"Maui's occupancy is down a point or two, but the numbers are up nicely on Kauai and the Big Island," Wallace said.

Kauai set a record in February for revenue per available room.

"Kauai had its strongest month since the global recession hit in March 2008," Toy said.

Even hotel performance on long-struggling Hawaii island showed progress. Occupancy improved by 6.4 percentage points to 78 percent while the average daily rate rose 9.7 percent to $222.05 and revenue per available room grew 19.5 percent to $175.54.

"There's no doubt that February was one of our stronger months," Wallace said.

Grauso expects the industry will continue to see improvements.

"We have lots of success in our future," he said. "In the summer months I expect that we'll see new occupancy and rate peaks."

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