Hotel bookings unabated

By Dan Nakaso and Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writers

Hawai'i hotels have had some cancellations as America draws closer to a war with Iraq, but they haven't yet seen any clear indications that occupancy will drop seriously.

The Hyatt Regency Waikiki Resort & Spa had a few cancellations last week, which caused initial alarm among hotel executives. Then bookings returned to normal this week, said general manager Frank Lavey.

Lavey said that if war breaks out, "without question, we're going to see a dip in the occupancy for the first couple of weeks.

"But I tend to be more of an optimist. We're not planning on displacing any of our services, or laying off any of our people."

At Outrigger Hotels and Resorts, "We're watching the dials real, real closely," said Barry Wallace, senior vice president of operations. "We're very pleased thus far with the booking pace. Our phones are still ringing and people are still booking. Thus far we haven't seen any significant uptick in cancellations."

The Kahala Mandarin Oriental does not expect to lay off any employees and is looking ahead to increased business from the upcoming spring break, said spokeswoman Vivienne Gan.

"We're doing quite well for the month of March," she said. "There have been no changes in terms of hours or cutting people back."

But hotel and restaurant union leaders are prepared to see immediate, large-scale layoffs. And they say they will demand that companies rehire workers much faster than the employers did after the layoffs stemming from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"Clearly, the hotels have learned their lessons from 9/11," said Jason Ward, a spokesman for the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union, Local 5. "Rather than waiting two weeks before cutting workers like they did, they're going to try to do this right away."

Union officials also will try to get extensions on health benefits for laid-off workers and will lobby legislators to extend state unemployment benefits, as they did after Sept. 11.

Hawai'i's airline industry also saw major layoffs after Sept. 11 and Hawaiian Airlines has warned that it may cut back flights if there is a war. Aloha Airlines said it has not yet cut flights, work hours or jobs.

United Airlines, which makes up about 20 percent of the market in Hawai'i and employs about 1,500 in the state, has asked in bankruptcy court that its labor contracts be nullified to allow pay cuts and other changes unless new agreements can be worked out by the first week of May.

Continental Airlines is cutting some flights to London, Paris and Tokyo, but its managing director in Hawai'i, Ron Wright, said there are no plans to cut flights to Hawai'i.

"Our Continental bookings to Hawai'i from all of the domestic markets are up over last year," Wright said. "It's a relatively inexpensive place to travel. If you kind of add it all up, it's a good place to come to."

Joe Davis, general manager of the Hawai'i Convention Center, said there have been no major cancellations. Several important groups are scheduled to hold events, including the American Academy of Neurology — which is expected to bring as many as 8,000 people to town for a convention next week — and the American Association of Orthodontists, which may bring as many as 18,000 in May.

"Nobody has said they're going to pull the plug on us," Davis said. "If they're Mainland-based, they're actually going away from the conflict. This is a pretty nice retreat for a lot of the groups."

The convention center includes clauses in its contracts that allow groups to cancel events if war breaks out.