Saturday Briefing

By Ruthann Yamanaka (Dr. Richard Kelley is traveling.  His column will return on August 1.) The ongoing tough economy is a demanding test for most American companies. There is a full-court press to do more, better, faster — and with less. Every company is tightening its belt and rethinking its strategies so it can emerge a winner and get through the challenges of these times, which are unprecedented for practically everyone in the workforce today. Read the rest of this entry

By Una Murray   The Outrigger on the Lagoon – Fiji (FOR) launched their 2009 Health Awareness program last month. Part of the program was to get employees to understand the benefits of eating healthy and losing weight. General Manager Darren Shaw took great pleasure in announcing that the staff collectively lost over 50 KG (114.2 lbs) — and in just only three weeks! Read the rest of this entry

By Kathy Hansberry  Two free kama‘aina concerts, Nā Mele No Nā Pua and the weekly Sunday Showcase, continue to entertain and attract music lovers to Waikiki Beach Walk.
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By Dean Nakasone  It’s Perry on the left and Price on the right!” After many years at John Dominis, KSSK’s top-rated Saturday morning show has returned to Waikiki — to their new home at the brand new Jimmy Buffett’s at the Beachcomber located in the OHANA Waikiki Beachcomber (OBC) hotel. Read the rest of this entry

David Carey

By David Carey   This is the last in a series of eight articles written by Outrigger’s executives in support of our Value of the Week program. Every other week one of our company’s executives introduced the value of the week and shared what that value meant to them. This week’s author is David Carey, Outrigger’s President and CEO, and this week’s Value of the Week is: Aloha—We treat each other as we want to be treated—with love, compassion and dignity. – Ka‘ipo Ho

We are fortunate to have been left with the legacy of Hawaiian values, which have been so admirably enhanced by the multiplicity of cultures that comprise our ‘ohana. Aloha has been one of the core values since the beginning of Outrigger’s journey. As the final value in our statement of values, it is, in many respects, the most important. In our values statement Aloha means:

. . . we treat each other as we want to be treated,
with love, compassion and dignity.

Perhaps more than any other value, Aloha has the most influence on our lives at Outrigger. Even though our values statement is relatively simple on its surface, the word “aloha” is much used and holds many meanings for many people in many different contexts.

It is used as a greeting — a simple greeting to a guest in the hallway, or at the Front Desk, or on the phone. It is used as a way to say goodbye whether with a smile, a hug or just a warm look in the eyes. It is used to describe how someone behaves. We often say that he or she really acted with Aloha. Our guest comments are full of wonderful stories of how members of our Outrigger ‘ohana acted with Aloha. It is used to describe the feeling you get when you are with a crowd or a group where one might say there was a real feeling of Aloha in the room or at an event. Our employee recognition events and ceremonies are a good example, as they are filled with real feelings of aloha.

To me, the value of Aloha describes a way of life and a way of being. For example, one of my favorite bumper stickers is the one that says “Live Aloha.” How we live our lives starts out with values. They are our guides to building relationships with our coworkers, our guests, our business partners, our owners, our communities — and even our own families. We forge those relationships by treating each other with Aloha — love, compassion and dignity.

One of our Ho‘okipa orientation concepts is “Aloha Begins with Me.” We cannot expect others to be loving, compassionate or respectful to us if we are not first demonstrating those behaviors ourselves. It is my belief that if we live our Aloha value every day, our lives become richer and more fulfilling and I know our guests, coworkers, families, friends and members of our communities will be enriched as well.

Aloha!

By Dr. Chuck Kelley

(Dr. Richard Kelley is traveling this week. His column will return on July 24, 2009.)

It’s no secret that the economy is down and everybody is struggling. We read every day about companies failing, workers being laid off, and crisis-level budget shortfalls. Local newspapers publish tourism-related numbers, and they aren’t pretty. Hotel owners are crying the blues, and some are even considering closures.

Why is it then, that Waikiki still looks so full of people? Over the last two weekends, there wasn’t a parking place for miles, and the beach was wall-to-wall bodies. Driving down Kalakaua Avenue last Saturday night, one might have been astonished to see all those people packed on the sidewalks, spilling onto the street, and standing in line to get into restaurants.

How can this be? Is tourism down, or isn’t it?

It is down – no doubt about that. The reason for the healthy-looking crowds lies largely in the fact that hotel rates and other prices – in shops and restaurants, for example – are set by the dynamic of free-market supply and demand. When demand is strong, as it was a couple of years ago, room prices move up rapidly, hotels are more profitable, more people are working, and more tax revenue is generated for state government.

When demand is weak, as it is now, hotel rates drop astonishingly fast. Shops put more things on sale. Restaurants offer more specials. This appeals not only to visitors, but to kama‘aina as well, so there may be more local folks in Waikiki, especially on weekends.

In the face of low demand, hotel owners and managers strive to keep occupancy as high as possible, even if they need to offer “bargain basement” prices. They work to keep the lobbies full of people, hotel employees on the job, and hotel concessions in business.

Estelle Kelley at her desk which was located at the Edgewater Hotel

Today there are many highly-sophisticated computer systems that predict future hotel demand and adjust room prices to try to maintain occupancy. It wasn’t always like this. Many of you have heard that back in the 1950s and 60s, my grandmother, Estelle Kelley, personally handled all the reservations. She stuck each reservation request on a spindle right on her desk. The more reservation requests that came in, the higher the stack of papers on her spindle. She was able to judge the demand for rooms by the height of that pile and the amount of mail she was receiving. She’d discuss these trends with my grandfather, Roy Kelley, and together they knew how to set room prices.

A few years later, but still before computers were common, Dr. Richard Kelley taught me another way to judge the demand for Waikiki hotel rooms. He’d go out for a walk with me on Kalakaua Avenue in the evening and ask me to count the rooms with lights on in our hotels, and then compare that with the number of lit-up rooms in other hotels. Since only occupied rooms are lit, counting lighted windows was an accurate way to compare our hotel occupancy with our competition’s. If I found that we had significantly fewer lights on than the competition, he knew it was time to reassess our rates. If we had a lot more lights on than the competition, he smiled!

Dr. Richard Kelley in the Outrigger Waikiki Hotel Reservations Office, 1975

Of course, things have changed greatly over the years. We now have computer systems that constantly track price points for all categories of travelers. And we have very capable, highly-trained revenue managers who use their expertise to interpret what the computers tell them. Our systems, along with those of the competition and our suppliers, create a very responsive free market for hotel rooms. Prices rise and fall quickly with supply and demand. Right now they are down – way down – because people are not inclined to travel in the face of all the bad economic news. To entice them to travel, we need to offer a very, very good deal.

Right now those very good deals are out there because hotel operators are willing to drop prices to rock bottom in order to maintain critical hotel occupancy. If occupancy is too low, not only do hotel owners lose money, but employees will be out of work, hotel concessions will suffer greatly, and the many businesses and people who provide goods and services to hotels, concessionaires, and guests will also suffer – taxi drivers, lei sellers, musicians, hula dancers, tour guides, tour boats – even local fruit and vegetable growers. With occupancy somewhat stabilized, even at the cost of much lower revenues, hotels may not be profitable, but at least the workers have jobs, the concessions can survive, and taxes keep flowing to the government to support needed services to the community.

It should be noted, however, that those visitors who are attracted by these extraordinarily low rates have different spending patterns than those who paid top dollar in better times. They spend less overall during their visit and spend it in different places. Some Waikiki business may see an increase in business, while many others see a decrease, and overall tax revenue to the state is down.

It certainly has not been an easy year. But when you travel down Kalakaua and see the crowds on the street, don’t be tempted to think that we are “out of the woods.” Things are still very tough and will likely remain so for quite some time. Fortunately, the modern yield management systems in place can rapidly adjust prices and attract enough visitors to keep hotel occupancy from dropping too far, thus keeping people at work and helping support our community. Conservative, responsible companies, like Outrigger, will ride out this downturn until someday higher demand and profitability return.

By Nancy Daniels

Back row: Gregg Enright, Charles Bartlett, Steven Kaplan, Zola Nyanburu, Cynthia Calvert, Dale Verkaaik, and Tiffany Love; Middle row: Melissa Malahoff-Kamei, Marael Johnson, Lori Knowles, and Leo Petaccia; Front row: Emele Freiberg, Olivia Calvert, Nancy Daniels, Donna King, and Sherry Oyamot

Last week, the Outrigger Kiahuna Plantation hosted a group of travel writers for two nights as part of a Kauai Visitors Bureau press trip. Themed “More Kauai For Less,” the goal of the trip was to position Kauai as a travel destination with great value—from accommodations, to activities, to eateries. Writers also enjoyed many of the island’s cultural activities, outdoor adventures, and aloha spirit. Read the rest of this entry

By Kathy Oyadomari

On behalf of Outrigger Hotels & Resorts, we salute our 2009 First and Second Quarter Years of Service Honorees for their dedication and hard work. Read the rest of this entry

By Luana Maitland

One of the best ways to share the many cultures of Hawaii with our visiting guests is to immerse them in the food and crafts of our islands at the Annual Flavors of the Reef Celebration. On Friday, July 10, members of our ‘ohana spent the morning sharing various cultural crafts, local food, and great entertainment.

The food sampling was a big hit with our guests, especially the ones who were willing to try anything once, like dry opelu and even opihi! Some favorites include the Kani Ka Pila Grille’s “Crispy Pork” and the unusual and unique banana/spam lumpia.

As usual, great entertainment added to the success of the Flavors of the Reef. One of the highlights of the day was when General Manager Bill Comstock joined Mandy Cruz, Mon Lacuata, and Wanna Guzman in the Tinikling dance, the national dance of the Philippines.

Mahalo to everyone who participated in this great event; we look forward to next year!

By Pila Hanson

Back row: KCC Instructor Shirley Tsukano, KCC Instructor Palakiko Yagodich, Windy Seguancia, Jason Fujimoto, Sean Ling, Ronnie Cabo, Meali’i Richardson, Amante Castro, and Reyn Nakamasu; Middle row: KCC Instructor Aloha McGuffie, Sandy Lee, Marsha Kapu, Jo Ader, Ofelia Valdez, Joselyn Valenzuela, Edna Salvador, and Jo-Ann Yonamine; Seated: Nenita Nerveza, Denise Torres, Taryn Wong, Carnita Encomienda, Mercy Valdez, and Primie Marzan

This past week marked an important milestone for our new Outrigger University. The very first class to complete the new Outrigger Management Fundamentals training program graduated after a lot of hard work and intense studying. Read the rest of this entry