Just listed. Excellent quiet North Kihei location. Large ocean view ohana eligible home. By far the lowest priced home in Kihei per sq. ft. at time of listing. Good home to fix up and build some sweet equity.
Mahalo,
The Smith Team
Ken, Gregory P. and Jeremy Smith (R)S
Coldwell Banker Island Properties
Shops at Wailea
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Please check out a interesting article from yesterdays Maui News.
Mahalo,
The Smith Team
Ken, Greg, and Jeremy R(S)
WAILEA – Showing little concern about lower room occupancy rates, Hawaii hoteliers raised their rack rates to a record $210 in July.
In Wailea, rates rose three times as fast. The South Maui golf and beach resort complex is on the verge of becoming the first destination resort in the islands to average $500 a night.
Mark Simon, director of marketing at the Four Seasons Wailea, says a loyal clientele of repeat visitors helps explain the extra-strong performance.
Rates were raised 4.6 percent statewide. Maui, which had the highest prices to begin with, raised its rates even more – by 7 percent to $294 a night.
“Over the years, Wailea has built up a loyal following. The Four Seasons, the Grand Wailea and the Kea Lani are very focused on quality,” he said.
It helps that owners have reinvested to keep the hotels – which are approaching 20 years old – sharp, he said.
Wendy Harvey, director of public relations at the Fairmont Kea Lani Resort, said Wailea is “idyllic, very desirable.”
Over the past three years, the Fairmont Kea Lani has often been in the 90-percent occupancy range. Its average prices already are more than $500, although Harvey points out that is not quite an apples-to-apples comparison with other resorts, since the Fairmont is all suites or villas.
The rack rate this year for a “moderate” suite has been $475, with the next larger suites priced at $575.
Wailea, far and away the most expensive resort in the islands, lifted its rates by nearly $60 a night to an average of $489.
No destination resort in Hawaii has ever averaged $500 a night, though individual resort hotels such as the Fairmont have done so.
The statistics are collected by Smith Travel Research for Hospitality Advisors. Its president, Joseph Toy, said: “While down from 2006, Hawaii nonetheless enjoyed a strong 81 percent occupancy, which actually was stronger than expected based on the booking pace a couple of months ago.
“With booking windows so short due to the economic downturn, we will likely continue to see increasing late bookings for travel to Hawaii that has characterized prior soft periods.”
Soft is a relative term. Some general managers consider a hotel is “full” when the occupancy rate is consistently at 80 percent. Being more full than that begins to create operational problems after a time.
Maui’s occupancy rate has not been over 80 percent every month this year, but it has been close. It was 81.8 percent in July, down from 85.1 percent the year before.
Wailea prices may have discouraged a few, as occupancy there fell from 82.1 percent to 75.7 percent.
The Renaissance Wailea Beach Resort, one of the two original Wailea resorts, closed this week for rebuilding, taking 345 rooms off the slate. It will reopen as a 193-room Baccarat “superpremium” resort, but not until 2010.
In West Maui, operators were much more restrained in their price increases: a mere $7 to an average $272. Occupancy there stayed higher, falling only slightly from 88.7 percent to 87.3 percent.
The rest of Maui – made up mostly of Kihei – was in between. Prices were pushed up by $32 (11 percent) to $321. Occupancy declined from 81 percent to 76.2 percent.
Hospitality Advisors reported that occupancy rates declined somewhat faster than prices rose. Room usage was down 5.7 percentage points to 81 percent.
Occupancy took the biggest hit on Oahu, where it dropped 10 points to 81.5 percent. However, July 2006 had been at an extraordinary 91.4 percent, a figure seldom seen since the hectic days of the late 1980s.
Honolulu operators barely raised rates, just $5 a night to $171.
As a result, they took a big hit in overall income. RevPAR (revenue per available room) tumbled $12 to $140.
Maui’s RevPAR, on the other hand, rose $6 to $241.
Kauai bucked all trends by raising rates (by $10 to $216) while also boosting occupancy from 80.6 percent to 86.2 percent. That pumped up RevPAR by $20 a night to $186.
Hawaii County continued to trail the rest. Occupancy fell 1.8 percentage points to 75.4 percent. Room rates rose $7 to $203 and RevPAR was up $2 to $153.
The Kohala Coast has started falling behind. When Smith Travel began breaking out of the top level of resorts, Kohala was second to Wailea, though about $100 a night behind.
In July, it was $200 behind Wailea and, at $298, well behind “other Maui’s” $320.
Although Kohala’s average room rate was more than $25 higher than West Maui’s, West Maui enjoyed higher RevPAR, $237 vs. $225.
West Maui, however, is in transition, with two resort hotels at Kapalua closed. The Kapalua Bay Hotel is being replaced while the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua is undergoing a $95 million renovation that will cut out about 80 rooms.
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We are going to condense several days in to this BLOG. After leaving Tracy’s Arm we travelled south stopping in Ketchikan for several hours. There we took a nice walk through the town taking time to pick some fresh raspberries and visit a Totem Center display.
Then it was on to Victoria, one of the most beautiful cities you’ll ever see. Everywhere you look there are beautiful flower arrangements and many artisans displaying their handywork or showing off their talents.
After several hours in Victoria, we got back on to the ship for the last leg of our trip down to Seattle. After debarking in Seattle, we drove to Vancouver where we stayed the night with a friend. Below is an assortment of some of the photos we took along the way.
Vancouver is also a very picturesque city with so much to do. Ken really enjoyed taking a 10 mile run this morning from Kitsilano Park along the waterway. We had a lovely time with our most gracious guest, and then it was off to Kamloops. Tomorrow we drive to Jasper where we are looking forward to even more glorious mountain scenery. Below are some photos taken along the way from Ketchikan to Kamloops.
Aloha,
Ken and Monique
Ken and Monique at Sabbatini’sKen and Monique at Sabbatini’s
Posted in Uncategorized, Ken & Monique's Travel Blog (August 2007) | 1 Comment »
- Aug
- 13
Tracy’s Arm
Wow, Tracy’s Arm which is a fjord carved out by the Sawyer Glacier was everything and more than what we expected. Finally, the sun came out and even though it was still very cold especially with the wind chill factor, we were both truly awe struck by the beauty and grandeur of this magnificent fjord and glacier.
We took dozens of photos only a few of which are displayed to give you an idea of what we experienced. It really needs to be seen in person though, so if you ever get a chance to visit Tracy’s Arm, we highly recommend that you take advantage of the opportunity.
Aloha,
Ken and Monique
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- Aug
- 07
Skagway
This morning when we woke up, we found ourselves in the port city of Skagway, a small town of 800 full time residents which explodes to 2100 during the busy Summer Season. Tourism is the mainstay of their economy. During mid-week, there are usually 4 large ships in port with 8000 tourists.
In the afternoon, we took a bus tour up to the Summit of the above where glacial streams feed in to the Skagway River. Unfortunately, we were not blessed with clear weather so we couldn’t see the glaciers themselves, but the scenery was spectacular nonetheless.
It was also very interesting to learn about the history of the gold rush. At the peak of the gold rush in 1898, there were as many as 20,000 people living here. Actually, the gold was not here, but it was a starting point from which they had to climb over a pass on steep trails, build rafts to float upstream to the area where gold was found….a distance of about 400 miles.
We have uploaded a few of the photos from today’s tour. Hopefully, we will have better weather tomorrow when we travel up to Tracy’s Arm in Glacier Bay which is supposed to be the highlight of the cruise.
Aloha,
Ken and Monique
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- Aug
- 07
Travel to Juneau
After travelling 900 miles from Seattle, we arrived at Juneau, our first port of debarkation. We had planned to take a helicopter tour of 4 different glaciers; however the weather did not cooperate.
Instead, we took a bus tour to the Mendenhall Glacier which was truly impressive despite the somewhat socked in conditions. Our tour guide is a full blooded Klinkit native who gave us a great deal of background not only on present day Juneau but also of the history of the Klinkit tribe.
Last night was formal night, so we dressed up and had a spectacular dinner at Sabatini’s, one of the premium restaurants on board. What a meal!
It is really great to unwind and not have to think about work. Maybe we should go away more often because Greg and Jeremy have been slammed with offers and showings ever since I left. Certainly hope that this is not a fluke and that indeed the Maui real estate market has turned the corner. Considering how slow things were before I left, any upturn is greatly appreciated.
Aloha,
Ken and Monique
Monique with Seattle Skyline in Background
Posted in Ken & Monique's Travel Blog (August 2007) | 1 Comment »
- Aug
- 04
Days 3 and 4
Days 3 and 4 were mostly about going grandparent things. Taking Ruby and Zella to Laurelhurst Park where we played on the swings, slide, see-saw, and watched the migrating ducks that are current residents in the pond.
We also had the opportunity to catch up with a few clients/friends for lunch. Another highlight was riding the new tram up to OHSU (Oregon Health Science University) where we were able to visit with Rachel who works in the obstetrics department.
It was a clear afternoon and one could easily see Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and the Portland skyline. Tomorrow we off to Seattle where we will start our cruise to Alaska. One slight change is that we will need to rent a car to drive up there as the Amtrak trains were cancelled.
Aloha,
Ken and Monique
Ruby Loving Her Little Sister Zella
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- Aug
- 02
First Two Days in Portland
It is wonderful to see our Daughter, Rachel, son-in law, Henry and our two adorable granddaughters, Ruby (22 months) and Zella (10 months).
Portland is such a beautiful city and so very family oriented with many things for both young and old to enjoy. On our first day, Ken went to Oak’s Bottom Amusement Park which is open from 9:30 A.M. to 10:30 A.M. for the really young children. Besides that, we took them to a park right around the corner from where they live.
Today (Day 2), the temperature warmed up in to the mid 80’s, so we went down to the Pearl District in Downtown Portland where we had a great time playing in a plaza where water fills up to a few feet and then drains in continuous cycles every five minutes or so. We all had a great time.
Below are links to some photos (we took lots more) to give you a flavor of our first couple of days on vacation.
Aloha,
Ken and Monique
P.S. Greg and Jeremy are doing a great job helping out all of our clients. Of course, as usually happens when one of the team members goes away, it has gotten quite busy. Thank goodness because vacations certainly aren’t cheap.
Rachel, Auntie Sahn, and Ruby in the Fountain
Zella - Just too Cute for Words
Posted in Ken & Monique's Travel Blog (August 2007) | No Comments »
- Jul
- 29
Getting Ready for Our Trip
We are one day away from taking off on vacation, so we thought that we would give you a heads up on our Itinerary, so that you might follow along on our adventure.
July 30th - Fly from Maui to Portland (Looking forward to seeing our grandchildren, daughter, son-in-law, and friends).
August 4 - 11 Cruise to Alaska
August 11 - Drive to Vancouver, BC
August 12 - Kamloops, BC
August 13 - 14 Jasper National Park, AL
August 15 - 16 Lake Louise Area, AL
August 17 - Spokane, WA
August 18 - 20 Back in Portland with Family
August 20 - 25 Orcas Island, WA
August 27 - Return to Maui
We are planning on taking photos and uploading them to the BLOG, so if you’d like to travel along with us in spirit, please check in from time to time.
Aloha,
Ken and Monique
Posted in Ken & Monique's Travel Blog (August 2007) | No Comments »
- Jul
- 24
Magical Olinda Estate
Mahalo,
Ken,Greg, and Jeremy
The Smith Team
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