Those who follow the Hawaii hotel market closely have likely noticed the growing number of luxury properties that have either opened recently across the state or are scheduled to soon welcome their first guests.
A few high-end brands have arrived on Maui in recent years, including the Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort; last summer’s official opening of the Montage Kapalua Bay; and the rebranding of the state’s first Relais & Chateau property at the Hotel Wailea this January, which followed a renovation at the 72-suite resort totaling more than $15 million.
Meanwhile, two major luxury players will enter the Oahu market for the first time in 2016 as the Ritz-Carlton Residences Waikiki will open the first of the condo-hotel’s two 37-floor towers in the spring. And in February, the Four Seasons Resort Oahu at Ko Olina plans to welcome its first guests to its $500 million renovation and rebranding effort now underway at the site of the former JW Marriott Ihilani on the island’s west coast.
However, officials at the Hilton Garden Inn believe there’s plenty of domestic and international demand in Hawaii for new midlevel product in the Islands, as well. The company will debut not only a property in Waikiki next year but also a beachfront resort on Kauai’s east coast in 2016.
“It’s just the ultimate travel destination,” said Adrian Kurre, the global head of Hilton Garden Inn. “I think everybody, at some point in their life, longs to go to Hawaii, [because] it’s such an incredible travel experience, and we wanted to be a part of that.”
Kurre said that Hilton Garden Inn now runs 630 hotels in 22 countries, but he conceded that it had been a long struggle to finally secure the company’s first two properties in Hawaii.
“In this market segment where we play, in the midscale range, it was difficult to find anything new, [so] these two opportunities came after a decade of work,” he said.
Both the Waikiki property and Kauai resort will be substantially renovated versions of existing hotel offerings, and while mentioning the recent increase in high-end luxury resort projects around the Aloha State, Kurre said he thinks Hilton Garden Inn can help attract a different type of traveler to the destination.
“We want to be able to deliver the midprice and midscale brand, [and] deliver our amenities and attributes in a way that will allow even more people to enjoy that marketplace,” he explained.
“We have a fitness center in our hotels, but it’s not to the scope and scale of what you would see in a luxury hotel,” he added. “We’ve got food and beverage in our hotels, but it’s not to the scope and scale of what you would see in a full-service hotel, so it’s a little bit more affordable, a little bit more targeted to that midprice traveler. And we think that will just encourage more people to make that trip and to experience the wonderful state of Hawaii.”
Hilton Garden Inn hopes to strike a good balance between both domestic travelers and international travelers at its Hawaii properties, according to Kurre, and he sees China, where the company has opened two hotels in the last 18 months, as a valid market for the company’s new Aloha State product.
“How many of those more than 300 million middle-class travelers in China can we capture?” he said. “We just launched a Mandarin-speaking website, so that is a part of what we’re trying to do with this market. I couldn’t tell you what the mix is going to be [because] until we open, we won’t know for sure. But we’re certainly going to make announcements in our now-open hotels in China, [saying] that we are open in Hawaii and push it in every way, shape and form that we can in order to help drive that mix.”
The 623-room Hilton Garden Inn Waikiki Beach will be the company’s largest hotel and is currently under renovation at the site of the former Ohana Waikiki West, about two blocks from the ocean. The 216-room Hilton Garden Inn Kauai/Wailua Bay, just a few minutes south of the small east coast town of Kapaa, will be one of only a few beachfront properties in the company’s portfolio, according to Kurre, and was formerly the Aston Aloha Beach Hotel.
Asked about whether Hilton Garden Inn is looking to add to its Hawaii portfolio beyond the Waikiki and Kauai properties, Kurre implied that more properties would be nice, but it doesn’t sound as though any new announcements are imminent.
“We certainly welcome additional growth in the Hawaii market,” he explained. “But at this point, our plans are more opportunistic since land and assets are such a hot commodity throughout Hawaii.”