For those in the hotel space, RIMPAC is always on the radar. Held every two years in Hawaiʻi, it’s the world’s largest international maritime military exercise, bringing 25,000+ personnel from 20+ countries… and a whole lot of hotel demand.
There’s no clean number of room nights produced, but anyone in Waikīkī knows the impact. Thousands of rooms get absorbed, driving compression and pushing rates across the market.
Lately, I have been hearing from hotels that demand is a bit softer than usual for RIMPAC, and many feel that this year’s exercise could be scaled back, or worse, canceled, given rising global tensions and frayed alliances.
If that happens, we could see some “decompression” (yes, we’re calling it that), and with higher airfares already pressuring leisure demand, losing that block of reliable room nights is not ideal heading into summer.
For what it’s worth, the official line still points to full steam ahead, with plans for the “largest RIMPAC ever” moving forward as scheduled.
