Despite small increases in visitor arrivals and visitor days, Hawai'i's statewide hotel occupancy dipped by 2.7 percentage points to 81.2 percent for the month of August.

The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism earlier reported a 3.5 percent increase in visitor arrivals and a 2.9 percent gain in visitor days for the month. The hotel survey, released yesterday, is compiled by Smith Travel Research in conjunction with Hospitality Advisors.

However, the number of hotel room nights sold still fell short of last August by 3.8 percent. But there was some good news for hotel officials in the prices they can charge for rooms.

Statewide average daily room rates continued to grow, increasing by 5.7 percent to $213.60 and setting another record high for the month.

Driven by higher room rates, statewide revenue per available room also reached an all-time high of $173.45 for a 2.2 percent gain over last year.

LUXURY REIGNS

The best economic news came statewide for luxury hotels, which outperformed all classes of properties, showing an average occupancy of 84.0 percent and achieving an average room rate of $325.74.

Statewide midprice hotels reported a slight — 1.3 percentage point — occupancy decline to 78.7 percent, while average daily rate grew by 9.1 percent to $134.43.

And occupancy statewide for lower priced — economy and budget — properties fell by 7.2 percentage points and 11.6 percentage points to 78.0 percent and 78.6 percent, respectively.

By island: