Airing some Hawaii travel industry dirty laundry. How Greedflation is impacting your Hawaii vacation.
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112 thoughts on “Greedflation Smacks Hawaii Worst Among Destinations”
Airing some Hawaii travel industry dirty laundry. How Greedflation is impacting your Hawaii vacation.
Just say “No”, Stay home.
Have fun the people of Hawaii.
You’re being played.
As I read this article on sky high prices for stays in Hawaii, I cannot help wondering if this is a way for the Islands to reduce the high numbers of folks visiting and overcrowding the areas where visitors do not respect the rules of the road or private property or sacred sites.
A friend of mind visited Maui last summer and the crowds at different areas were noisy and ruse, ie parents not present with over noisy and reckless young children at the condo swimming pool or groups of people going over keep out areas and the like.
Not sure how others feel about this view.
I greatly appreciate your articles its a very useful information for traveling to the Islands.
Thank you,
Catherine F
Hi Cathy.
Thank you!
Aloha.
Yes, the popularity of Hawai’i is also its curse. There are two distinct problems: disrespectful tourists and price-gouging.
Let’s remember one of the main points of the article: Marriott reported a 70% increase in profits. How do those big profits tame poorly-behaving tourists or deal with overcrowding? They don’t: those big increases are paid out in dividends to stockholders, as incentive compensation for executives, and toward investments in new, non-Hawai’i properties.
Every tourist-dependent business in Hawai’i pushes for more customers. I suggest raising prices helps multinational hospitality chains while downsizing capacity will control tourism. Fewer available attractions = fewer tourists.
Marriott has thousands of hotels and resorts, so their profit in Hawaii is minimal. Too bad they merged with the Westin & other resorts. Have not stayed at a Marriott since then.
If you think it’s expensive to visit, try living here. We’ve been hit hard by inflation. As you may know practically everything you consume here has been shipped 2500 miles from the mainland. I’m surprised Beat of Hawaii would choose to characterize businesses covering their higher expenses as greedy. Maybe greedy in the sense they’re struggling to stay profitable?
If theybhad good margins before covid but now have unprecedented profits that shows they are not only covering increased costs but increasing their margins. Capitalism yes but also opportunistic greed.
I’m heading to Maui with my family next week and if it’s up to me, this will be our last trip to Hawaii. We lived on Maui in the early 1990’s and while we do enjoy going back to see friends, hang out on the beach and go whale watching and snorkeling, prices have gotten absurdly high. The only reason we’re going is because I got an amazing deal at a vacation destination (time share) resort. We’ve traveled to Mexico many times over the years and every time we go to Hawaii or Mexico, I ask myself why we ever go to Hawaii. We can stay at a nice place, eat amazing food and do a lot of fun activities for a fraction of what we would pay in Hawaii. When profits go up while occupancy rates go down, that’s gouging.
I’m a frequent reader, but I only occasionally delurk. Could I gently point something out?
It’s interesting to consider the discussion of greedflation in light of some of the other content that we’ve seen here:
* “Hawaii Visitor $50 “Green” Fees: How, When, Where?”
* “Hawaii Vacation Rental Tax Total Of 33% Proposed ”
* “Bribes To Ensure Good Service: Hawaii Tipping Goes Insane”
* “Hawaii “Annual Passport” Visitor Fees Exposed”
* “Only visitors will be required to pay at South Maui’s Kamaole Beach Parks and Ulua Beach beginning early next year…”
* “Honolulu Latest to Hike New Accommodation Tax: Highest in US”
I could go on. I love y’all. I love the islands. But from where I sit, the private sector isn’t alone in jacking up prices.
I wonder if this model actually works better for the quality of life of people who actually live in Hawai’i? Reduced volume of visitors subsidized by state infrastructure. It’s easy to
see the hotel operators as villains, but without pricing in other negative impacts of “affordable” tourism it’s kind of hard to assess what a healthy level of tourism is.
It’s simple…the hotels are making up for the 3 years HI shut them down. To make them it to be the bad guys is really not fair. The HI state’s Covid policies were draconian, even by blue state standards. The state of HI created this beast but it will be the first in line to condemn the very best it created. This is the way governments always operate.
I think you nailed it “Greedflation”. We reside in Florida and had been considering a month long vacation in Hawaii until we saw the cost associated with it. Probably double or triple the cost of staying somewhere here on the coast of Florida. We were excited to try Hawaii but the prices put it out of reach and we are not poor. Maybe if we win the lottery.
St. Augustine seems nice. Idk how much New Smyrna Beach to the south has recovered from Ian in Sept. but that’s a great day trip(or more) from there. And def cheaper I’m thinking, last stayed in St. Augustine in June.
Sure, but it’s all flat …
I go back home every January. The price of the trip has gotten out of control. 350.00 per night isn’t bad but all the fees and taxes bumps it to close to 1,000 per night. Simply put my 15 k per year are going elsewhere. I’m from Hawaii living in Texas now. Gonna miss the folks and the food but to expensive now. Mahalo.