fivestar

It seems that most of the hotels have jumped their prices by as much as $100 per night in all categories. We were just their last March and they hadn't jumped then, so these increases have recently occured.

Will this deter you from going there? We are going again next March. We wanted to stay at the Kea Lani as we always have, but they have hugely increased their prices with the re-furb they have done. We may be staying at the Maui Prince instead. We stayed at the Grand Wailea too but they have gone way up also. We go over for three weeks at a time. $10,000 is a lot just for the hotel bill. I may have to change my screen name here to FOUR STAR if prices keep jumping this way. We are going to watch Luxury Link for good Kea Lani deals. Right now it looks like we are at the Halekulani, the Hapuna Price (big island) and the Maui Prince, which we know nothing about.

Softato1

How about a condo? Am sure there are very upscale complexes in the Wailea area. We visited friends at Ekahi recently and it is very nice. It is near the Shops at Wailea, fine dining, etc.

eileen

The Maui Prince is on an absolutely wonderful beach (we visited to snorkel) and it is set by itself so it's a different feel than Kaanapali or Wailea where you have all these resorts right next to each other. Nice and relaxing. It seemed very nice, however, the pool is very, very small (it's just a plain, round pool) so if a pool is important to you, you may want to reconsider. I couldn't believe that was actually the pool for that large a hotel. But the beach makes up for it. One of the nicest we saw.

beachgirl86

The prices for Maui's hotels DO seem very expensive for next summer...DH and I are planning our second trip to Maui for August, and are hoping to stay in Wailea this time around. (Last time we stayed at the Hyatt in Kaanapali). The cheapest rooms at Four Seasons, Kea Lani, and Grand Wailea are all between $400-$500/night!

Softato1

Hit them where they live and don't stay there. Check out vrbo.com and search #28298. Looks wonderful. $100 per night in March. It's on the same beach as Grand Wailea

Stay there the first part of the trip and move to a hotel for the last part.

I don't think there is a hotel room in the universe worth $400 per night.

DawnCt

As soon as I booked my air, I shopped for condos. Right now we have our Ka'anapali Alii condo for a price that I can live with. (OV, 1 bedroom, 2 baths a a den) It will comfortably sleep all five of us for $341 plus tax. I don't need OF but I do want to be able to sit on the Lanai and get a good glimpse of "blue". Same with Kauai. We will be on Oahu for 3 nights and we are staying at the Hale Koa; which only raises prices as much as it needs to. I also locked in my car rental prices. I will watch them and if they go down, I will take advantage of that, but I can live with the current rates. On our last trip I booked early and prices only went up from there for both cars and hotels.

fivestar

Those rooms for $400-$500 are the bottom of the barrel rooms. They overlook a parking lot or the dumpster area. I have stayed at these hotels and seen the area's where these rooms are. I remember one time we wanted so badly we wanted to stay at the Four Seasons in Wailea for our first time. They were sold out, but we kept checking each day. Finally they had one opening for a mountain view room. We figured it couldn't be that bad at the Four Seasons. It was terrible! We were over an employee parking lot and and the area where they grind up all their glass for recycling. All we heard was glass breaking and emloyees coming and going all the time. We finally got our room moved after a couple of days explaining to the manager that the mountain view room was all we could get at the time we booked. That was the last time we ever booked a lower catagory in a luxury hotel. I am a bit nervous about staying at the Maui Prince after reading that the rooms are quite shabby. At least we are in a premium ocean view.

Softato1

This is a joke. Right?

fivestar

Believe me, it is no joke. Just look on these hotels websites and they will tell you what category you get for these amounts and where these rooms are located. Sometimes you can get a deal where you can get a fifth night free or breakfast included, but only at certain times of the year. I have been to Hawaii 12 times since 2000 and have seen rack prices jump at least 150%. Now, if we can get a room for under $400.00 we feel we are getting a bargain. We are quite foo-foo about where we stay because we know that you get what you pay for in Hawaii. Some people don't mind lesser hotels and that fine for them, but if I am paying big $$$ I want what I pay for.

It truly is supply and demand, but I hope these hotels don't scare tourism away with these massive jumps. It's getting just as bad as gas prices.

Voyager2006

It certainly is supply and demand and demand is not as high every month of the year and the price of the supply varies accordingly. That same room on that same beach gets cheaper in parts of the Summer , for example.

DawnCt....hope you enjoy the Hale Koa as much as we do and I agree it is nice they only raise their rates once a year and at approx $200/night for a deluxe OF room and NO taxes..hey, we are definitely at the right hotel!

Tandoori_Girl

Perhaps Maui is suffering the same predicament as Florida's hotels. Our tax base has gone through the roof because of real estate flipping and buying. So taxes have doubled. This is the same for commercial properties including hotels.

That might not explain every penny but for us it has meant an additional $300/month tacked onto our mortgage payment at our beach house. And we will have to pass that on to our tenants if the market will bear it as we're already subsidizing a quarter of the cost of the house as it is.

OO

It's more a matter of supply and demand, demand, demand! The slump is gone and demand is high. My DH ran a 95% occupancy for the month of July in San Antonio. He says he has never used the words 95% and room occupancy in the same sentence in his entire career. Room rates are up, Priceline is locked out more often than not, and where it's not, their allowed rate has tripled.

LordBalfor

Yeah, prices for property in general have really been climbing - boosted in part by mainland folks buying up condos for use as vacation rentals (sometimes multiple units at once). Really noticed the "Free Hawaii" movement - no doubt helped along by the fact that so many locals are finding themselves priced out of the housing market. Can't say as I blame them in all honesty.

Ken

mcdonjo1

We were in Maui in June, and were suprised at the cost of rooms at the Sheaton, especially for what you got. In Oahu we rented a very nice beachfront property on the south shore for $3,500 for the week. Usually you can negotiate a reduced rate for extended stays. We're going to Kauai next June and have decided to return to a vacation property. You might investigate rental homes if you're going to stay for an extended period of time. I've found that www.hawaiisbestrentals.com is a very nice website.

chepar

There was an article in this past Sunday's paper about the rising costs of housing in Maui.

They stated that the average cost of a condo on Maui (island wide) was over $400,000, I believe. The average cost of a condo in the Wailea area is over $1M. Crazy.

Honolulu is a bit more reasonable, with the average cost of a condo at about $265,000.

LordBalfor, you're correct - many locals are finding themselves being priced out of the market. It's very common to find multi-generational families living in a house together because the adult children just can't afford to buy on their own.