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Maui hotel occupancy rates plunged to 56.8 percent in December, capping a sickening plunge that consultant Joseph Toy called the most dramatic in 25 years of observing.

Statewide occupancy rates have not been as low since December 2001. They were 60.9 percent, down from 70.4 percent in December 2007.

As expected from visitor counts, the erosion was worse on the Neighbor Islands.

In a normal year, December is a split month on Maui. The first days are typically slow, the tail end of a generally soft period that begins with September. Then, toward the end of the month, rooms are scarce as the high season gears up.

Not this past December. While occupancy had been 71.2 percent in 2007, it was 14.4 percentage points lower in 2008.

Only Kauai fell faster, by 15.3 percentage points to 52.5 percent. Kauai, with relatively more time-share rooms than any other county, is supposed to be somewhat insulated from downswings in tourism.

Apparently not.

The Big Island, always the least robust tourist destination, sold fewer than half its rooms in December. The 48.2 percent occupancy rate was proportionately not quite as bad as Kauai's or Maui's, but only because it started from an anemic 60.7 percent in December 2007.

The slide in occupancy accelerated a little on Maui compared with November, although Maui's occupancy numbers have been tumbling for months now.

In November, there was the beginnings of an indication that Maui hoteliers were turning to discounting to try to fill rooms. Many swore after the downturn in the early '90s that they would not do that again, because it proved so hard to get rack rates back up even when business picked up.

However, in November the Smith Travel Flash Report found an unusual $10 drop in Maui rack rates.

If that was a sign of discounting, December's survey showed that Maui managers are still trying to hold the line when they can. The average daily rate was $303, up from $293 in December 2007.

The smaller decline in occupancy on Oahu in December, from 73.3 percent to 68.2 percent, was in line with the smaller declines in total visits as reported by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

In this business climate, Oahu has two advantages over the Neighbor Islands. It lost a smaller proportion of air seats when Aloha Airlines and ATA failed. And it has more cheap rooms, which perhaps are more attractive to vacationers trying to trim expenses.

Smith Travel divides the market into five price categories, which multiplied by four islands gives 20 segments. Only one segment showed a gain in occupancy in December - Oahu budget rooms, up 3.1 percent.

The numbers are compiled from voluntary returns to a survey conducted by Smith Travel Research for Hospitality Advisors in Honolulu.

Hospitality's president is Toy, a longtime consultant and observer of the island lodging business.