The Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) has issued the 2018 Visitor Plant Inventory Report, which shows total visitor accommodation units throughout the Hawaiian Islands have increased slightly to 80,751 units (+0.1%) compared to 2017 (Figure 1).
Most of Hawaii’s visitor accommodation units in 2018 were comprised of hotel rooms (54.3%), followed by vacation rentals (16.2%), timeshare units (14.8%) and condo hotel units (13.1%), with the balance (1.6%) being a combination of other accommodation types, including apartments, bed and breakfasts, and hostels (Figure 2).
Nearly half of Hawaii’s visitor accommodation units are located on Oahu (48.4%), with the majority in Waikiki. Maui has the second-highest percentage of units (26.5%), followed by the island of Hawaii (13.4%) and Kauai (11.2%). Molokai and Lanai combined for the fewest units (0.6%).
Included as an appendix to the 2018 Visitor Plant Inventory Report is a supplemental study, titled “Individually Advertised Units in Hawaii,” which analyzes data from AirBnB, HomeAway, TripAdvisor and VRBO.
This HTA supplemental study – which has been done annually since 2014 – utilizes point-in-time data extractions of popular vacation rental booking websites. Technology advances have enabled greater accuracy and elimination of duplicates in the 2018 supplemental study. Individually Advertised Unit counts in previous Visitor Plant Inventory reports have been overstated due to difficulties in eliminating duplicate listings both within and across booking websites.
Island maps show the location and extent of Individually Advertised Units by zip code, particularly the density of units in resort areas (Figures 3-6). Many Individually Advertised Units have operated for decades and are accounted for in the Visitor Plant Inventory report.
HTA’s 2018 Visitor Plant Inventory Report for Hawaii was produced by Kloninger & Sims Consulting LLC. Data was gathered by surveying properties in HTA’s Visitor Plant Inventory database and identified using a variety of sources. The report is posted on HTA’s website at https://www.
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