Long Island hotels 'still struggling'

It's gotten easier to get a room on Long Island. Hotel occupancy rates slid in March, posting a year-over-year loss for the third month in a row, according to Smith Travel Research.

While occupancy last month increased by 6 percentage points compared to February -- to 60.3 percent -- it was still down 4.6 percent from March 2010.

Though the data show that Long Island lodgings generally have performed better than the national average, the decline runs counter to the national trend of rising monthly occupancy rates -- year over year -- that began in February 2010.

"We are still struggling with the challenge of corporate and group business coming back from the recession," said Moke McGowan, president of the Long Island Convention & Visitors Bureau and Sports Commission. "Long Island was basically one of the last areas or destinations to go into the recession . . . and will be one of the last to come out of it."

Business travel spillover from New York City has helped Nassau County hotels, which have fared better than Suffolk County hotels, McGowan said.

Occupancy rates have seesawed since 2007: After declining in 2008 and 2009, they began to recover last year.

"Everybody was very optimistic that it would be a V-shaped recession," said Pearl Kamer, chief economist of the Long Island Association. "We have not had a robust recovery, but we have had rising gasoline prices and people are traveling less, and that has an impact on hotel occupancy."

Bad weather during the winter and spring also depressed travel, Kamer said.

The average cost of staying a night on Long Island, which is higher in the summer tourist season, increased slightly last month to $113.01, 88 cents more than in March 2010, according to Smith Travel.

Average daily room rates in the hotel sector are expected to rise this year, according to a Moody's Investors Service report earlier this month.

"The decline in the industry during this last recession was deeper than in the prior recession, and it's likely to take longer for the industry to rebound," the report said.