Hotel Occupancy Rates Up

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Hotel Occupancy Rates Up
4/09/10
Raymond Rivera
ABC News 4

Charleston, SC - Interested in staying in a local hotel? Finding a room may not be so easy, just ask Dan Desmond who along with his wife made the trip from Cape cod to the Holy City.

"We just came out of luck," he said.

With flowers in bloom and spring swinging in local hotels are seeing rooms fill up.
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A new report by the College of Charleston shows hotel occupancy numbers countywide were at nearly 74 percent in march, up 4 percent compared to 2009. Its the first such increase in more than a couple years.

"A lot of that was leisure business people coming in from North Carolina, Georgia and south Carolina coming in to enjoy Charleston and the great weather we had," said Tripp Hays, Marketing Director at the Mills House.

The Mills House downtown reported nearly a hundred percent occupancy rate last month and currently their 214 rooms are sold out through next week. Experts remain hopeful the numbers reflect signs of economic gain.

"We have our wait staff working, bed staff housekeepers everybody's working the money is coming in good for everyone in the business and that money flows to everyone in the economy," said Hays.

He credits the increase to advertising and packaged deals that have been aimed at attracting tourists, and apparently it's worked as some like Desmond have been left on the outside looking in, but at least he's taking it in stride.

"I think it's a great sign for the economy," he said.