Maui County Vacation Rental Unit Demand for October Down 50% from October 2019

Unit demand for Maui County vacation rentals during October 2021 was down nearly 50% from the same month in 2019, before the pandemic struck, according to the latest Hawai’i Vacation Rental Performance Report by the Hawai’i Tourism Authority.

Maui County had the largest vacation rental supply of all four counties with 205,900 available unit nights for October despite having 36% fewer unit nights than in 2019. Unit demand was 129,200 unit nights, resulting in 62.8 occupancy, which was 16.3 percentage points less than in 2019.

The average daily rate (ADR) for the vacation rental units was $273, a 21.6% increase from two years ago. In comparison, Maui County hotels reported ADR at $480 and occupancy of 60.3 percent.

Hawaiʻi vacation rentals statewide reported ADR was higher in October 2021 than 2019, but vacation rental supply, demand and occupancy were down.

In October 2021, the total monthly supply of statewide vacation rentals was 587,700 unit nights (-38.1% vs. 2019) and monthly demand was 345,700 unit nights (-49.9% vs. 2019). That resulted in an average monthly unit occupancy of 58.8 percent (-13.8 percentage points vs. 2019) for October. Occupancy for Hawaiʻi’s hotels was 54.9% in October.

The ADR for vacation rental units statewide in October was $243 (+26.9% vs. 2019). By comparison the ADR for hotels was $308 in October 2021. It is important to note that unlike hotels, units in vacation rentals are not necessarily available year-round or each day of the month and often accommodate a larger number of guests than traditional hotel rooms.

In October, legal short-term rentals were allowed to operate in Maui County and on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi Island and Kauaʻi as long as they were not being used as a quarantine location.

Tables of vacation rental performance statistics, including data presented in the report are available for viewing online at: https://www.hawaiitourismauthority.org/research/infrastructure-research/

The data in HTA’s Hawaiʻi Vacation Rental Performance Report specifically excludes units reported in its Hawaiʻi Hotel Performance Report and its Hawaiʻi Timeshare Quarterly Survey Report. A vacation rental is defined as the use of a rental house, condominium unit, private room in private home, or shared room/space in private home. This report 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. 

For October 2021, the report included data for 25,865 units, representing 44,157 bedrooms in the Hawaiian Islands.

Starting from May 2021, Transparent began enriching their occupancy and price calculations with a direct feed of reservations self reported from several local property managers, with the goal of refining the accuracy of these metrics as well as improving the market coverage. Currently, approximately 4% of the reservations analyzed are from direct reporting. This percentage will increase as more and more property managers are joining the data co-op. Important to note, supply is not affected by this change as supply is based on active inventory. For the avoidance of doubt, Transparent defines active inventory properties as those that have a searchable listing profile on at least one of the online travel agencies websites (Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking or Tripadvisor).