Aloha !

Welcome to the latest edition of the Hawaiʻi Hotel Hui Insider.

This month's issue covers everything from the changing economics of hotel brands to why some of the best leaders in Hawaiʻi are the ones who leave... and come home. We've also got a closer look at the future of the Hawaiʻi Convention Center, a Maui startup making waves on the global stage, and the latest leadership moves across the islands.

Before we dive in, a big mahalo to this month's sponsor, Lighthouse. Trusted by more than 80,000 hotels worldwide, Lighthouse helps hospitality teams make smarter commercial decisions. Their latest tool, Connect AI, helps hotels understand how they're appearing in AI search, an area that's becoming increasingly important every day.

It is that time of the month again, and the HHH monthly report is locked and loaded. Published on the first Tuesday of each month, it summarizes key hotel data with actionable context. Click below to sound like a pro in your next meeting 😉

Know someone in Hawaiʻi hospitality and tourism who should be reading this? Forward it their way. Sharing helps us grow the Hui!

Tired of reading this three days late through your boss's inbox? Join the Hui directly and get the signal sent straight to your own.

Mahalo for reading, and as always, thank you for being part of the Hui.

Let’s dive in.

Mahalo,

Dan Wacksman
Hawaiʻi Hotel Hui Insider Editor-in-Chief 😄

How to Lose Convention Business Without Even Trying

The good news? The Hawaiʻi Convention Center's long-running roof issues are finally being addressed.

The bad news? While lawmakers approved using $21 million from the Convention Center's own enterprise fund to fix major leaks, they declined an additional $55 million request for broader modernization. As a result, roughly 19 improvement projects, including new carpet, digital signage, meeting space upgrades, food and beverage enhancements, and IT improvements, have been pushed into a future six-year capital plan. Sound familiar?

Hotels don't view renovations as optional. They're simply the cost of staying competitive. Every seven to ten years, owners reinvest in their properties to meet guest expectations, protect market share, and justify higher rates. Convention centers operate the same way.

Right now, we're treating the Hawaiʻi Convention Center as an expense to maintain rather than an asset to grow. While destinations across the country are investing heavily in modern, technology-enabled convention facilities, Hawaiʻi will reopen in 2028 with its most critical leaks repaired, but many of the upgrades that improve the attendee experience are still waiting for funding.

The Convention Center is more than another state building. It's an economic engine that fills hotel rooms, restaurants, and attractions across Oʻahu. Fixing the roof is necessary. But repairing deferred maintenance isn't the same as investing in competitiveness.

Waiting for things to become outdated enough to be trendy isn't much of a strategy. Now, excuse me while I prepare my overhead projector transparencies for my next meeting.

Read More

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before...

If you've been in Hawaiʻi long enough, you've probably read this headline before: Coco Palms is moving forward.

This time, the developers have secured $431 million in financing, a major milestone that should finally allow construction to begin on the long-awaited restoration of the iconic Kauaʻi resort. That's significant, and unlike many previous announcements, money is now on the table.

Over the three decades since Hurricane Iniki (1992) destroyed Coco Palms, the property has seen multiple owners, lawsuits, protests, permit battles, shifting timelines, and more promised reopening dates than anyone can count. The latest target is now 2028.

We genuinely hope this one succeeds. Coco Palms deserves better than another decade of sitting behind a chain-link fence. But after years of announcements followed by delays, we'll save the celebration until we see cranes in the air, hotel walls going up, and eventually, guests checking in.

What We Think We Know

• Owner / Developer: Reef Capital Partners, a Utah-based developer

• Brand: Kimpton, part of IHG

• Manager: Highgate

• Announced Financing: $431 million

Read More

Travelers Ask AI Where to Stay. Does Your Hotel Show Up?

-Sponsored-

Every day, travelers ask ChatGPT and Gemini where to stay in Hawaiʻi and receive specific hotel recommendations. Most hoteliers have no idea if their property is showing up in those answers. Connect AI by Lighthouse gives you that visibility.

Track your mention rate across AI platforms, see how you benchmark against your compset, and find out whether AI is directing travelers to your direct site or to an OTA.

It's the same data intelligence Lighthouse brings to rate shopping and demand forecasting, now applied to the fastest-growing discovery channel in travel. Your hotel is either in those answers or it isn’t. Now you can know exactly where you stand.

Honu Make Great Executives

Congratulations to Travis Watanabe on being named HVCB's first Chief Brand and Narrative Officer. Not quite as cool as those mid-2000s titles like Brand Ninja, but definitely a departure and clearly an attempt to go beyond the traditional CMO role, with a focus on how Hawaiʻi's story is told.

Travis grew up in Hawaiʻi, and since we knew you would ask, he is an ʻIolani grad. He also brings serious brand experience from Red Bull, where he worked on marketing, partnerships, storytelling, and audience engagement across some of the world's most recognizable sports and cultural platforms.

The hire itself reminded me of a key lesson I learned after years of hiring hotel leaders in Hawaiʻi: some of the best hires are local returnees. When I lived in China, there was a term for this: hǎiguī (海归), which means "overseas returnee." It is a play on hǎiguī (海龟), meaning "sea turtle," someone who crossed the ocean and came back. It's an especially fitting metaphor here in Hawaiʻi, where the honu is a respected symbol of home, endurance, and returning to familiar shores.

In my experience, that profile often brings the best of both worlds. Great local leaders are frequently happy in their current roles and difficult to recruit. Hires from the continent can be excellent, but many spend a few years learning Hawaiʻi's unique culture and business environment before deciding they miss home. Local returnees arrive with fresh ideas and outside experience, but they also understand the relationships, nuances, and sense of place that make doing business here different.

And he is not the only leadership move that fits the theme. Vicki Nakata was recently named CEO of Roberts Hawaii as longtime leader Roy Pfund retires. Nakata may not have grown up here full-time, but Hawaiʻi has always been part of her story, including summers on Oʻahu with family and her tenure at Hawaiian Airlines, where many of us first got to know her and appreciate her sharp thinking, steady leadership, and industry instincts. We'll gladly count her among the hǎiguī (海归).

Read More: Travis Appointment, Vicki Appointment 

Sheraton Shuffle

Kaleo Kenui has been named General Manager of the Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa, succeeding Tetsuji Yamazaki, who recently moved to the Sheraton Waikīkī Beach Resort. Kenui most recently served as Dual General Manager of the Residence Inn and AC Hotel Maui Wailea, where he spent nearly a decade leading both properties.

Waikīkī’s Biggest Resort Gets a Leadership Refresh

We recently reported that Thomas Foti was taking the reins as Managing Director of Hilton Hawaiian Village. On the heels of that move, several other leadership changes have now been announced. Kyle Anger has been promoted to General Manager after helping oversee the recently completed $83 million Rainbow Tower renovation. Cary Berner was appointed as Director of Human Resources and Rodahl Leong-Lyons as Executive Director of Sales and Commercial Services.

Good luck to everyone in their new roles!

Hotel Performance

Quick Summary (So You Sound Smart in Meetings): Statewide RevPAR is up ~5.3%, driven heavily by the strong performance of the neighbor islands. Oʻahu is flat (RevPAR up just ~0.1%), Maui continues to dominate as the clear rate leader at $493+ with RevPAR surging ~12.0%, and the Big Island and Kauaʻi hold strong with RevPAR up ~7.0% and ~9.2%.

HTA and DBEDT publish a lot of great data. We curated the metrics that actually matter to hotel operators, added context, and packaged it into a monthly report.

Click here to sound REALLY smart in your next meeting, download the HHH Market Performance Report.

*Hotel performance data will be published in the first issue of each month.

Owners Waving A White Flag?

One thing I've noticed after writing this newsletter is that themes surface slowly, then all at once. A conversation starts in conference hallways, pops up over coffee, and then suddenly it's everywhere. Lately, that conversation has been about the economics of the owner-brand relationship.

First, it was growing frustration over ever-larger PIPs. Then came questions about rising franchise fees. Now Marriott owners are publicly asking for a larger share of the profits generated by Bonvoy's co-branded credit cards, arguing that while they help fund the loyalty program, the economics have become increasingly one-sided.

There is also brand proliferation. Owners used to worry about another hotel flying the same flag nearby. Now they worry about the brand family launching a cousin, sibling, or “totally different” concept down the street. Technically not the same brand. Practically, still another competitor in the same loyalty ecosystem. Cute trick.

To be clear, this isn't an anti-brand story. Brands still provide tremendous value through loyalty, distribution, financing credibility, technology, and consumer trust. But owners are looking more closely at the math.

Imagine selling a $100 room. Roughly $15 may immediately go toward franchise-related fees. If that booking came through an OTA, another $18 could disappear in commission. Add a few dollars for credit card processing, and before the owner has paid a housekeeper, turned on the lights, covered insurance, property taxes, debt service, or started saving for the next PIP, that $100 room is already closer to a $65 room.

That's why this conversation matters. Hotel owners don't pay their bills with RevPAR. They pay them with profit.

Sloan Dean recently pointed out a stat that pretty much sums up the tension: since Hilton spun off its owned hotel real estate into Park Hotels & Resorts, a lodging REIT, in 2017, Hilton's stock is up nearly fivefold while Park is down roughly 22%. One is an asset-light brand and fee machine. The other owns actual hotels; which means actual roofs, actual payroll, and actual capital needs. Wall Street seems to have decided which side of that trade it prefers.

According to CBRE, franchise-related fees grew faster than hotel revenues last year, with loyalty and reservation fees seeing the biggest increases. That's exactly why this conversation is gaining momentum. Skift has also reported that many brand agreements signed 20 or 30 years ago are coming up for renewal, prompting more owners to reconsider the relationship.

Going independent isn't a silver bullet either. Owners can lose loyalty demand, face more challenging financing, and often see lenders place a lower value on independent hotels. The grass isn't always greener.

HHH Explainer: Hotel Brand Economics 101

Stretched Teams. Messy Systems. Stalled Projects. We Fix That.
-Sponsored-

Hotel teams know what needs to get done, but limited resources, disconnected systems, and competing priorities can slow down even the most important projects.

Sassato helps hotel and travel companies move critical projects forward, from PMS, CRS, CMS, and booking engine decisions to RFPs, vendor selection, system health checks, contract support, training, and project management.

We step in when teams are stretched, technology feels messy, timelines are slipping, or big decisions need outside perspective.

With decades of experience across hotel operations, marketing, revenue, technology, and finance, we help teams cut through complexity, make smarter decisions, and get the right work across the finish line.

The People's Choice Was Built on Maui

One of the biggest wins at HITEC didn’t come from one of the industry’s technology giants. It came from Maui.

Abra Hospitality, founded by Josh Ellis, Dana Ellis, and Paul Dumais, took home the People’s Choice Award at the E20X Startup Pitch Competition, beating a field of hospitality technology startups from around the world.

Abra is tackling one of hospitality’s hardest problems: turning scattered guest data and the day-to-day knowledge of frontline teams into coordinated, anticipatory service. It's a challenge the industry has wrestled with for years, and one that, until now, has lacked a truly compelling solution. I think of it as “last-mile CRM”: giving staff the information they need to deliver an extraordinary experience when the guest is actually on property.

Full disclosure: I’ve spent time with the Abra team over the past year or so as something of an unofficial sounding board. Watching them refine their vision and then seeing the industry validate it on one of hospitality’s biggest stages gave me a real sense of pride.

Congratulations to Josh, Dana, Paul, and the team for putting Hawai’i’s growing hospitality tech community firmly in the spotlight.

If a Maui-built company is solving a guest personalization problem the whole industry keeps talking about, Hawaiʻi hotels should probably be paying attention. Check them out at abrahospitality.com.

Industry Events

• The Aloha Experience: Gather. Connect. Collaborate. - July 16th 2026 (Honolulu)

  • “Creating Memorable Guest Experiences Through Traditional Hawaiian Hospitality,” Guest Speaker Kainoa Daines. (Sponsors: MPI, HSMAI, NACE, RUSH Wahine)

• Maui WaiWise Stewardship Summit - Nov 9-10, 2026 (Maui)

  • Free educational forum hosted by Maui County DWS focused on hotel water conservation, sustainability, and operational efficiency

Full list of 2026 Hawaiʻi Events 

*If you have industry events to share, please email me at [email protected].

Spotlight on Hawai‘i Hospitality Opportunities

• Area Director of Sales - Asia - Hilton (Honolulu)

• Managing Director - Makeready (Honolulu)

• Vice President Sales, The Americas - OUTRIGGER Hospitality Group (Honolulu)

• Hotel Director of Sales & Marketing - Grand Naniloa Hotel Hilo - DoubleTree by Hilton (Hilo)

*If you happen to have any job openings, let us know. We will be glad to include them in the newsletter, space permitting; send the job link to [email protected].

Think of this section less like a standard corporate editorial and more like the back-of-house bulletin board where everyone pins their honest takes when management isn't looking. Now and then, I think of skipping this section entirely, but the Hui continues to blow up my notifications with real-time course corrections, digital high-fives, and strategic policy debates.

Let’s see what's on your minds this week.

The Praise Pipeline

• "I don't usually send feedback or commentary, but I wanted to reach out and let you know how much I enjoy your newsletters. I’ve been following your work for a few months now and find your writing highly informative, cleverly entertaining, and easy to read. I truly appreciate the insights you share. Keep up the great work!"

• "Mahalo for the information and update…"

Daydreaming of Ownership

• "Maybe the Hawaii Hotel Hui can raise a round to purchase one of the hotels? Now that would be interesting."

  • HHH Note: Now we’re talking!

Tech DNA & The Pivot
In response to our breakdown of Airbnb’s highly fragmented, test-heavy rollout of its new hotel loyalty and search mechanics:

• "The program will look very different in a year. Tech company’s DNA about launching, testing, and pivoting. It probably sucks today. I hope it won’t in a year. Loyalty programs are awesome when done properly. The 1st Party data is gold."

De-Coding the Hiring Machine
A reader recently hit a brick wall trying to bypass automated applicant tracking systems. A seasoned local employer chimed in with an island-specific reality check and some stellar advice on making an impression:

• Is an 808 phone number important when applying for jobs in Hawaiʻi?

  • Not really for me when hiring.

• What advice would you give someone trying to break into Hawaiʻi’s hotel industry today?

  • Go to industry events, participate, and get involved with industry peeps. Relationships rule the world (even more so in Hawaii).

• And for those hiring: how can someone who may not have the perfect algorithmic match still get to an interview?

  • In a non-corporate environment, it helps to email, call, use LinkedIn, and get in front of the decision-maker any way possible (in a non-creepy way). Our best hires came by attending local industry networking events or through word-of-mouth introductions.

    • HHH Note: "In a non-creepy way" is the operational phrase of the month. Please don't ambush managers at the Foodland checkout line. But the core advice is pure gold: in an island economy, a warm handshake will outpace a cold email every single time.

Maui Condo Legislation

• "So many incentives not aligned. I'll be following this."

Got a hot take of your own? Think my tech summaries are totally off base, or want to drop a piece of industry lore anonymously? Fire back at [email protected] or [email protected], and you might just find your words in our next session of inbox therapy.

About Us

Hawaiʻi Hotel Hui was started by hotel industry veteran Dan Wacksman, CEO of Sassato, a Hawaiʻi-based consultancy that combines deep local expertise with a global perspective.

Our team brings decades of experience across operations, marketing, revenue, tech, and finance, all aimed at helping hotels and travel companies make smarter decisions and move faster. Whether you need additional expertise, extra horsepower, or just someone who thinks like you and moves things forward, we’ve got you. From local independents to global brands, we show up with a no-nonsense, results-focused mindset. To be blunt: we get sh*t done.

Recent projects include brand transitions, system selection (PMS, CRS, CMS — all the acronym soup), implementations, project management, feasibility studies, training, audits, and everything in between.

A lot of organizations deal with stretched teams, siloed processes, and messy tech stacks that quietly stall important work. We fix that. Happy to chat if this hits close to home.