Blog: www.kgmb9.com/howard

Hotel Occupancy Report:

A week ago I told you it's a good time to ask a hotel for its kama'aina specials. This morning I'm telling you again.

Hospitality Advisors says overall occupancy statewide averages out to 73% with flat rates, but the story is, as usual, quite different depending on the island. Kauai is holding onto 75% occupancy, down from last year but still good. Oahu is doing even better with occupancy of 83%. But Maui is at just 63% occupancy, down 22 percentage points from this time last year, and the Big Island is down 30 full points to less than 56%. Rates are up four or five percent, about the same as inflation, except on the Big Island where rates average 10% LESS than a year ago at this time. In fact, the average Big Island room rates is actually lower than the average rate in Waikiki. So this is a very, very good time to visit the Big Island, especially if you're open-minded about which resort and pick the one that most seems to want your business.

STATE 73%-12% Rates up 1%.
Kauai 75%-12% $228+4%.
OAHU 83%-2% $191+5%.
Maui 63%-22% $308+4%.
BIsle 55.5%-30% $189-10%

Crisis at a Glance:

It's time for another tectonic edition of, Crisis at a Glance! In which we hurl economic news in your general direction. One of the points we've stressed is that Wall Street is all about expectations, and bad news is good news when investors expected worse. This morning's example of that is soaring stock prices for Citigroup, which posted a quarterly loss of 2.5 billion dollars. Its bad debt, bad investment writedowns over the past four quarters top 56 billion dollars! And the stock rose! Because investors expected worse. In other news, Qantas, the airline that needs to buy a vowel, is cutting 4% of its work force, which is actually a smaller cut than we're seeing at most major U-S carriers. And listen up, kids, because here comes business news affecting children -- the world's largest toymaker, Mattel, has posted a quarterly profit of less than 12 million, down 48% from the same time last year. One big reason: Barbie sales are down 21%. And so ends a dolled-up edition of, Crisis at a Glance!

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